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By AMY WIMMER
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 7, 2000
ST. PETE BEACH -- Anna Kubinski always worried about sharks.
She talked about it with her husband, with family, with friends. All of them assured her she had nothing to fear in the waters behind her home on Boca Ciega Bay, the waters where she and her husband swam almost daily.
"People were almost positive there were sharks in open water, but not in the bay," Mrs. Kubinski said.
On Aug. 30, as Anna stepped gingerly down an aluminum ladder into Boca Ciega Bay, her worst fears were realized.
Below her feet she noticed a thick school of mullet -- "you could almost scoop them up," she said -- and a few feet away, a large splash. "It was like somebody threw a brick in the water," she said.
Her husband Thadeus stood on the dock behind their Belle Vista home, preparing to jump, as was his custom, into the bay. "There's something strong over there," his wife cautioned.
Knowing his wife's wariness of sea life in the murky bay, he brushed off the splash as maybe a dolphin, maybe a mullet.
He jumped in.
Authorities think Kubinski, thought to be the second victim of a fatal shark attack in Pinellas County in the last 100 years, jumped into the feeding frenzy of a 9-foot, 400-pound bull shark.
His wife and five adult sons are left looking for lessons in the tragedy that also holds a paradox for beachgoers and waterfront dwellers: The attack seems a fluke because experts say the chances of being killed by a shark are one in 300-million, more scarce than being killed by a lightning strike. Yet the attack occurred in the seemingly benign backyard waters of Boca Ciega Bay.
The evening of the shark attack, some frequent gulf swimmers took immediately to the waters, hoping to ward off fear before it had a chance to settle in. Others laid off for the night to appease a spouse or other loved one. Still others haven't returned to the water.
The Kubinski family hopes the death of Thadeus "Ted" Kubinski, who would have turned 70 today, will be a reminder for those too quick to dismiss the threat of sharks.
But in an interview Wednesday afternoon at her St. Pete Beach home, Mrs. Kubinski, 67, and her sons also said they hope the attack will educate people.
"My mother was looking at this horror in front of her that she thought shouldn't be happening because this isn't supposed to be happening here," her son Joseph Kubinski said.
She asked her sons not to share with her the details of her husband's wounds. He was bitten twice on his right side by the shark and suffered a crescent-shaped wound 15 inches long and 10 inches wide.
Family members say they would like to see public service announcements to remind people that they share the Gulf of Mexico, and Boca Ciega Bay, with nature.
Joseph Kubinski said the city of St. Pete Beach should have done more last week to educate residents and beachgoers about the dangers of swimming with wildlife. "There's no proactive stance," he said. "It's all been reactive."
As the community reacts to the tragedy, the Kubinski family plans no major changes in the near future.
Mrs. Kubinski will remain in the home she shared with her husband. Two of her sons live in Pinellas County, and the other three live in Connecticut, but Mrs. Kubinski said she feels an attachment to her church in Pinellas.
Her sons hope to eventually ease her back onto the dock she once enjoyed. When she is ready, they hope to have another memorial service for their father.
They will place flowers in the bay, where Mr. Kubinski swam almost daily and taught his two grandsons to swim. He also had three granddaughters, who live in Connecticut.
For now, the east side of the house is dark. The family closed the curtains in the Florida room, sheltering Mrs. Kubinski from the view of the dock. "She can't even look back there," Richard Kubinski said of his mother.
When she returned to the house after spending a few days away with another son in Clearwater, she broke down at a view of the bay from the kitchen window. Now those blinds are closed, too.
Joseph Kubinski said his father loved to "take advantage of living here," especially in the water. "It was like communing with his place here on the planet."
His wife remained more cautious.
The threat of sharks, she said, "came a million times to my mind."
- Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this story.