AN AMERICAN man was killed in a shark attack while diving off Rottnest Island, Perth

[MauiScubaSteve]

DD, I think what lamont was saying is that most any time a scuba diver is hit by a white pointer the scuba diver was hunting.

Both of the sentences speaking of "incident" or "attack" include "diver"; the first also included "scuba", and the Accidents and Incidents forum is part of "Scuba Diving Central" after all.

 

[Tricia]

So it looks like this man was solo diving and spearfishing at a location not far from where a swimmer was presumably killed just days earlier by a shark?

I'd call this Darwin's theory of SCUBA diving coming into play.

 

[jepuskar]

If he was spearfishing then what goes around comes around I suppose....kind of like bull fighters. Every now and then the bull wins; like the other week.

Regardless of the cause I don't think they should be hunting down this animal...reminds me of this shark movie from the mid 70's, I would name it, but it never really become popular.

J

 

[Ayisha]

"This time of the year on these grey, dark days, it seems to be the time that these attacks occur," Mr Barnett said.[/I]

I haven't studied shark behaviour, so maybe this is common knowledge, but I didn't realize that spring/grey days were a (more) common factor in shark/human contact.

I haven't seen that before either, but on some shows and articles, they say that if sharks bite, it tends to be at dusk or dawn. These times are when the shark naturally feeds and are lower light situations. Perhaps grey darker days provide similar conditions?

 

[lamont]

Last sentence should have ended "-- but all the shark attacks [on divers] i'm aware of have been on spearfishers..."

 

[diver257a]

I live in South Australia (SA) which is considered by some to be a pristine GWS habitat.

I would like to challenge the perception present by some in this thread that GWS only attack divers who spearfish.

From memory, there have been 4 fatal attacks in SA on divers since 1986 when the first scuba diver was taken. These occurred in the years 1986, 1991, 2005 and 2011. All of these people using scuba.

Having some degree of personal connection to 3 of the above attacks; i.e. 2 of the deceased were friends of friends while a third was a buddy of a friend when taken. I know that these 3 divers were not spearfishing.

The behaviour of the 4th fatality (i.e. 2011) who was working off an abalone boat has not been officially confirmed.

FYI, spearfishing is a minority activity which is frowned on by most in the SA diving community and can only be conducted legally in SA as a breath-hold activity.

My personal view is that GWS are opportunistic feeders who have learnt that divers are another food source.

 

[deepstops]

Jaws’ in Australia: frantic hunt is on for great white shark that killed Houston man


Wainwright after a deep sea fishing expedition.

Posted: Sunday, October 23, 2011 10:29 am | Updated: 12:16 pm, Sun Oct 23, 2011.

Officials along a popular stretch of beach near Perth, Australia are hunting a 10-foot great white shark which killed a Houston man Saturday as he was scuba diving with friends.

George Thomas Wainwright, 32, lived in the Town & Country/Memorial area and had been in Perth for about six months on a work visa. Sources said he was employed by a marine transport company serving the offshore oil industry.

Wainwright is the third person killed by a great white in two months, and there’s controversy over whether this is a “Jaws”-type series of attacks by a single, rogue shark or attacks by different sharks. Because of the similarities to the book and movie “Jaws” — deadly attacks along a beach frequented by tourists and the growing cry to hunt the shark or sharks, Wainwright’s death and the ensuing hunt has rapidly gained worldwide attention.

Friends remained in the boat while he was diving solo, they told authorities. They saw a flurry of bubbles, they said, and his body rose to the surface with what one investigator described as “horrific” injuries. That investigator said he was likely already dead when his friends pulled him into the boat.

His companions related a terrifying story of the shark aggressively bumping their small boat as they attempted to save Wainwright and flee.

For the first time, Australian officials have used an emergency measure to suspend protection of great whites as an endangered species in order to protect the public. They have set hooks baited with tuna around the area of the attacks — Rottnest Island, a popular tourist resort known for its white, sandy beaches, international-caliber surfing, cruises to spot whales and dolphins, and vineyards and wineries that produce shiraz wine.

“This is a unique set of circumstances, and I’m desperately ... praying this is not the beginning of a new trend ... and we’re going to have these on a regular basis,” Western Australia state Fisheries Minister Norman Moore said on Sunday, according to the Daily Mail.

Scientists are reportedly disputing the single-shark theory.

“What we’ve seen tragically is three cases of people by sheer bad luck being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” federal government marine biologist Barry Bruce, an expert in great white sharks and their movements, was quoted as saying.

An online poll and survey by the news organization PerthNow indicated a majority of respondents do not believe the shark should be killed.

 

[Diver71_au]

According to the Australian Shark Attack File over the past 50 years (to Oct 24 2011) sharks have killed 52 people in Australian waters (1.04 per year) . Figures range from zero to three in a year. So assuming that the swimmer that disappeared last week was actually taken by a shark it still is within the "normal" range. There is no proof that the swimmer was taken by a shark - his budgie smugglers were found and appeared to be shark ravaged but this could have been post mortum.

This diver was alone and spear fishing at the time of the attack.
The body-boarder attacked at Bunker Bay was close to a seal colony at the time of the attack.
Finally, in the suspected attack on a swimmer at Cottesloe beach, the victim was said to be swimming alone a few hundred metres away from the shore in the early hours of the morning.

All these are known risk factors for shark attacks.

 

[sydney-diver]

I haven't seen that before either, but on some shows and articles, they say that if sharks bite, it tends to be at dusk or dawn. These times are when the shark naturally feeds and are lower light situations. Perhaps grey darker days provide similar conditions?

We're regulalry (on the East Coast of Australia) advised not to swim in waters where there is a danger of shark attacks at dawn / dusk or on overcast days. I've never heard a reason why other than presumably stat's indicate most attacks on swimers have occured in similar conditions. Whether attacks on surface swimmers can be exprapolated to divers undwater

 

[jepuskar]

I haven't read anymore on if he was spearfishing or not. What concerns me more is some are blaming a 'rogue' shark for the recent incidents.


I think a rogue shark accounts for the 1%, but the other 99% just occupy waters and make a lot of noise with nothing really good to come out of it.