Beqa Shark Attack

[chillyinCanada]

I'm reasonably confident that the tiger shark in question wouldn't have mouthed the observing diver, had it not been an orchestrated dive.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

I appreciate your view of this. Its interesting, that, with my upbringing and background in a family that spent their life in the woods and back country with these animals, I feel quite the opposite. I would rather deal with a predatory mammal way more than a 1200 lb shark that wants to taste me. More than likely, it is due to exposure and input over a lifetime of being in the environment of these creatures. Probably the same reason why you feel the way you do as well. To me, the similarity with both situations involve humans in the creatures habitat, baiting with food to bring them in, and watching while they feed. That mixture leaves the door open for injury to us, the weaker species, regardless of which creature it is that we are intruding on.

That's a large part of it. I've spent a lot of time in close proximity to sharks; compared to what I've heard about say, bears or big cats I feel a lot safer around them. I know that if I defend my personal space and maintain track of a shark, it's not likely to press the issue. I have no illusions that stiff-arming a grizzly in the nose is going to improve my chances.

I'm reasonably confident that the tiger shark in question wouldn't have mouthed the observing diver, had it not been an orchestrated dive.

I'm not so sure they would have seen a tiger if it hadn't been an orchestrated dive. I was tallying up the ratio of sharks I've seen in baited versus unbaited conditions and it's very heavily skewed towards baited. The only time I've just happened to run across a tiger was while boating in Florida Bay; in maybe four feet of water we crossed paths with an 8 or 9 foot tiger that passed right by the boat and I managed to duck the camera under for a quick shot. Against that I've probably seen 10-15 individual tiger sharks on baited dives, with at least six of them being sighted on multiple occasions.

In places where people do see tigers in unbaited conditions, like Cocos Island, the advice about staying on alert still applies. They are ambush predators and whether they've been spotted does a lot to determine how bold they get.

 

[Shasta_man]

That second video of the original incident shows that indeed those pokes at the shark are slightly uncomfortable to the shark but actually almost completely ineffective at stopping the shark if it decides it wants to bite. I don't think that's a revelation but confirms there's really nothing between you being bitten or not but the shark deciding it doesn't feel like dealing with a couple of prods, though luckily it seems to decide it's not worth it more often than not. I cant see real well but note the poles design is made to apply more surface area and not harm the shark but also means it's not very pokey if they need it to be though again even that would be incidental if the shark was determined.

Whether in the ocean or on land, it's only that the predator doesn't feel like dealing with the relatively slight damage we could inflict on them, short of using a gun type weapon, that prevents an attack and our demise or serious injury. I met someone yesterday who was showing pics of grizzlies eating salmon in Alaska with a selfie of the bear close behind the photog. I was thinking if the bear decided to be so inclined it would be 1_2_3 boom they would be on you and then could do as it wished.

As someone mentioned you can see the stress the "handlers" must feel because the first guy pushed it and it just turned and did what it wanted, then he had to swim over to try to effectively persuade it to stop. Having to try to go hands on with a massive shark, when everybody else would run the other direction, must be pretty mind boggling and you have to give it to these guys that do this job.

HalcyonDaze comment about the sharks feeling being influenced by whether it can come from an ambush position is also very interesting

 

[Dan]

In places where people do see tigers in unbaited conditions, like Cocos Island, the advice about staying on alert still applies. They are ambush predators and whether they've been spotted does a lot to determine how bold they get.

I think it depends on which tiger sharks. Just like people, there are bad people, good people, aggressive people, layback people. Here are examples of layback tiger shark in Cocos:
Also in Cocos, there are killer whales that would hunt on tiger sharks.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

That second video of the original incident shows that indeed those pokes at the shark are slightly uncomfortable to the shark but actually almost completely ineffective at stopping the shark if it decides it wants to bite. I don't think that's a revelation but confirms there's really nothing between you being bitten or not but the shark deciding it doesn't feel like dealing with a couple of prods, though luckily it seems to decide it's not worth it more often than not. I cant see real well but note the poles design is made to apply more surface area and not harm the shark but also means it's not very pokey if they need it to be though again even that would be incidental if the shark was determined.

Whether in the ocean or on land, it's only that the predator doesn't feel like dealing with the relatively slight damage we could inflict on them, short of using a gun type weapon, that prevents an attack and our demise or serious injury. I met someone yesterday who was showing pics of grizzlies eating salmon in Alaska with a selfie of the bear close behind the photog. I was thinking if the bear decided to be so inclined it would be 1_2_3 boom they would be on you and then could do as it wished.

As someone mentioned you can see the stress the "handlers" must feel because the first guy pushed it and it just turned and did what it wanted, then he had to swim over to try to effectively persuade it to stop. Having to try to go hands on with a massive shark, when everybody else would run the other direction, must be pretty mind boggling and you have to give it to these guys that do this job.

HalcyonDaze comment about the sharks feeling being influenced by whether it can come from an ambush position is also very interesting

Yeah, you actually have to be in a position to stop it; a six-foot pole that's barely contacting the shark is not enough leverage. The DM would pretty much have to physically block the shark's path and being braced on the bottom is a plus. I've pushed off or played chicken with a few, as seen here: German diver attacked by shark - Isla del Coco, Costa Rica

I think it depends on which tiger sharks. Just like people, there are bad people, good people, aggressive people, layback people. Here are examples of layback tiger shark in Cocos:
Also in Cocos, there are killer whales that would hunt on tiger sharks.

That first clip actually shows a few examples of a redirect; the DM is a little more proactive about getting on the tiger than I normally see, but given that this was presumably filmed after the fatal attack they had out there in 2017 I can't fault them for being careful. Not sure how much of a deterrent the poker is; I've always figured that even a big shark will typically see a ~200 lb human playing kamikaze and react much as I do to a hacked-off triggerfish.

I think there's a bit of personality variation in sharks, but I wouldn't bet much on it in terms of my safety. I'm not keen on describing any shark as "friendly" and if you want to compare them to humans, well, I've had some bad days when I was about to pick up the phone at work and curse out a corporate VP.

 

[Shasta_man]

Respectfully, I think there is more complex, if you will, behavior wrapped up in this than just friendly/unfriendly while there is certainly some that appear as usually less aggressive. It seems like there is a respect for size among creatures in the ocean, so that probably plays a part. There's them knowing their size and capability so they might feel more confident in their interaction with us. There`s how much interaction they`ve had with humans so they are familiar with this human creature being there. And perhaps someone being the aggressor toward them might make them switch to a more defensive posture because they realize their opponent is aware of them so they risk injury no matter how slight that injury might be in actuality. Anyway, as HalcyonDaze says, it's not something you should bank on unless u have to. Not saying you need flee at the first sight and I love to see such and amazing and powerful creature, but I'll default to a healthy, hopefully for me, respect for them.

 

[Churro]

The Beqa Shark dive belongs to the Beqa lagoon Resort however there is another dive operation allowed to use it from the mainland if the lagoon has no group going. Princess is a large tiger that frequents the feeding. The DM's at the resort use what looks like shepherds crooks to gently guide the sharks over divers or away if they come in too close. I have meet the shark expert there who keeps an eye on events. He does research on the sharks and is very interesting to chat with.

I heard that a diver was cut on his head by the shark and they weren't sure what had taken place. This event was while the other shop (not lagoon) was doing the feeding. A diver came into the shop last week and had just returned from Figi. He told me the shop he visited wanted to sell him the shark dive and he asked if anyone ever got bite. The DM told him about this event. He said he was there. These DM's carry small clubs or pipes and the shark came in a little close. The DM smacked her on the nose with the club. She swam away then came back and bit.