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The medical examiner says Thadeus Kubinski bled to death from his wounds, which an expert attributes to a bull shark.
By LEANORA MINAI and AMY WIMMER
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 1, 2000
ST. PETE BEACH -- Thadeus Kubinski jumped off the dock into Boca Ciega Bay. His wife climbed down the ladder. That, authorities say, made all the difference.
The splash from Kubinski's leap attracted a bull shark feeding in the shallow water.
Considered among the most dangerous sharks, the estimated 400-pound, 9-foot shark bit down at least twice on Kubinski's right side, in front of his horrified wife, Anna.
"It was in there looking to find a meal, going about its normal existence," said marine biologist George H. Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida. "Quite frankly, the victim did not have a chance. The severity of the injury resulted in a very quick death."
Kubinski, 69, bled to death from the shark bites, which crushed his rib cage and tore his liver, the Pinellas County medical examiner ruled. He was attacked immediately after landing in the water behind his house at 4321 Holland Drive.
A day after the Tampa Bay area's first fatal shark attack since 1981, experts theorized about what provoked the shark, the Kubinski family tried to cope with the unbelievable, and St. Pete Beach prepared for the Labor Day weekend.
The beach will remain open for the holiday, said St. Pete Beach officials, who were besieged with inquiries from the public and the media, including morning television host Bryant Gumbel.
"We're a small community. It's like losing a family member when we lose one of our citizens," said Fred Golliner, St. Pete Beach fire chief. "Now we have to . . . suffer through the loss along with the family."
In reconstructing Wednesday's events, officials said the Kubinskis noticed a commotion in the water moments before they went for a swim about 4 p.m.
They thought nothing of it. Not being a strong swimmer, Mrs. Kubinski climbed down the ladder at the end of the dock. Her husband hopped off the dock into the 7-foot-deep water.
The couple apparently never saw the bull shark, known to eat fish, sea turtles and rays.
"That commotion very likely was the result of a shark chasing after, or actually feeding upon something, and that splash of the victim triggered a predatory attack from the shark," said Burgess, the marine biologist at the University of Florida who traveled from Gainesville to study the attack.
When the shark bit, Mrs. Kubinski locked eyes with her husband, said one of the couple's five sons, Richard Kubinski, 44. Unable to dispel that image, she has been too distraught to talk publicly about the loss of her husband.
"Why didn't the shark take us both?" Mrs. Kubinski asked her son.
After the attack, she scrambled out of the water and ran inside and dialed 911. Hysterical and screaming, she begged for help.
"Please hurry," she told the emergency dispatcher.
The dispatcher asked what was wrong.
"My husband was attacked," Mrs. Kubinski said. ". . . by a shark over here."
Paramedics from St. Pete Beach and Sunstar ambulance responded to the house, as did St. Pete Beach police Officer Kevin Podraza. Podraza and St. Pete Beach paramedics Greg Fletcher and Keith Beattie pulled Kubinski out of the water and onto the dock.
Kubinski was already dead.
The shark bite, in the shape of a crescent moon, ran from his right armpit to his hip, about 15 inches, authorities said.
"In all the years I've been doing this, I've never in my career, my life, seen anything like this," said Sunstar paramedic Rocky Nasso, 39, who has been on the job 21 years.
Said Nasso's paramedic partner, 66-year-old Frank Contesso: "It seemed like it just bit and let it go."
The crescent shape of the wound and the triangular impressions left by the half-inch-long teeth are characteristic of the bull shark, said Burgess, the marine biologist.
The shark probably was in shallow water in search of food, he said.
"That shark or ones like it probably have been swimming around Boca Ciega Bay for centuries," Burgess said. "People who go swimming in that area have come within feet of animals of similar size fairly regularly."
But shark fatalities are rare.
Worldwide, shark bites account for 10 to 12 annual fatalities.
"He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," Dr. Marie Hansen of the Pinellas County Medical Examiner's Office said of Kubinski.
Nevertheless, Burgess cautioned, swimmers should avoid splashing or going in the water alone. And do not swim at dawn or dusk, when sharks feed, he said.
Kubinski's family spent Thursday answering the doorbell and numerous telephone calls. Flowers arrived and streams of visitors stopped by to wish the family well.
"People have called me crying," said Richard Kubinski, one of the couple's sons. "Everyone has just been so nice."
Known as "Ted," Kubinski was a Catholic who was so proud to be Polish that he occasionally hung the flag of Poland outside his Belle Vista home. He loved music and had a hand in several businesses throughout his life, including a Tarpon Springs motel and a Pass-a-Grille convenience store.
He and his wife had five sons and three grandchildren, including two grandsons who lived in Florida. Kubinski taught his grandsons to swim from the dock behind the house.
Mrs. Kubinski, 67, spent Thursday with a son in Clearwater. She called the St. Pete Beach home to check in with another son and broke down when she heard her husband's voice on the answering machine.
Her sons say they might have to sell the house the couple has shared for 11 years.
"If she looks at that water," said Richard Kubinski, their son, "she thinks he's going to come out."
- Times editorial assistant Rita Farlow and researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report.