Bahamas: Visitor bitten by shark while scuba diving

[pterantula]

Just in the last couple of years, we have 2 shark bites on Jim Abernathy's charters; 5 shark bites in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt; one in South Africa and this last one again in the Bahamas ALL associated with shark baiting or feeding. And those are just the one ones I can think of off the top of my head. I wonder if there is any correlation...

To this point (also made above), I would simply point out: compare the sheer number of baited dives done - rather safely, I must add - by Abernethy compared to the "incidents" that have occured.
Do you still drive a car? Knowing how many people are killed on a daily basis in and by cars?
Do you own or play with dogs? Knowing how many people are severely injured in domestic animal incidents each year?

People just love to blame reputable and exceptionally qualified and professional people as soon as something goes awry. To be sure, the glass-bottom boat operator noted here was hugely to blame for tossing food where there were already divers, which is inexcusable, but please do not correlate this with people that know what they're doing and have customers who knowingly and willingly pay for the privilege.
Just a thought.

 

[BKP]

To this point (also made above), I would simply point out: compare the sheer number of baited dives done - rather safely, I must add - by Abernethy compared to the "incidents" that have occured.
Do you still drive a car? Knowing how many people are killed on a daily basis in and by cars?
Do you own or play with dogs? Knowing how many people are severely injured in domestic animal incidents each year?

People just love to blame reputable and exceptionally qualified and professional people as soon as something goes awry. To be sure, the glass-bottom boat operator noted here was hugely to blame for tossing food where there were already divers, which is inexcusable, but please do not correlate this with people that know what they're doing and have customers who knowingly and willingly pay for the privilege.
Just a thought.

No one is personally blaming Abernathy, or Cove, etc... In fact we're well aware that individuals like Abernathy have a distinct love for sharks and marine life in general, as evidenced by his recent movie: This is Your Ocean: Sharks (you can understand where his head is at simply by watching him with Emma, the tiger)...

Additionally, no one blames Motorola, or Samsung, or Apple either, just because a rising percentage of automobile accidents can be directly attributable to texting while driving (even though we're acutely aware the vast majority of driving texters do *not* wreck)... However, since we now KNOW that texting and driving ups the danger ante, we've begun to make intelligent decisions to ban one when doing the other, because we've done the math...

All that's being said here, as far as the Bahamian incidents go, is do the math...

 

[Ayisha]

...the glass-bottom boat operator noted here was hugely to blame for tossing food where there were already divers, which is inexcusable, but please do not correlate this with people that know what they're doing and have customers who knowingly and willingly pay for the privilege.
Just a thought.

bold added

So you agree with the point that baiting or chumming increases the risk of a shark attack.

You also make a point further in the same sentence that while the divers near the glass bottom boat did not knowingly take on increased risk so it is "inexcusable", it is ok for those that pay for the "privilege" of what, increasing their chances of getting bitten? How many of the divers who go on shark dives have full disclosure or do any research into a correlation of baiting and shark attacks or any other effects on the environment? How many divers actually weigh the risks for themselves, their families or the environment before "knowingly" and willingly participating?

I did participate in 2 shark dives in the past and I can tell you that like many people, I did not really expect anything to happen to me. We often sign waivers signing our lives away without appreciating the full consequences.

 

[drrich2]

You also make a point further in the same sentence that while the divers near the glass bottom boat did not knowingly take on increased risk so it is "inexcusable", it is ok for those that pay for the "privilege" of what, increasing their chances of getting bitten?

I think so. That's what those waivers you mention are for. When you get off the couch & go scuba diving, you don't really expect 'anything' (majorly bad) to happen to you, but you know (and consent to) there's an added risk vs. staying home. Similarly, when you go on a professionally conducted shark dive, while you expect a competent professional effort to minimize the risks involved, 'minimize' doesn't = 'eliminate.' You get in the water with sharks and chum, and take on some measure of increased risk.

I am concerned about to what extent, if any, shark feeding additionally endangers humans who don't sign those waivers and choose to participate. While I hope nothing awful happens to those who do, at least they did consent to the risks, and had preparation and supervision to minimize the risk.

This poor guy who got hurt in the incident that started this thread didn't consent to go on a shark dive. He wasn't educated about how to conduct himself or professionally supervised in a managed shark encounter.

It would be like if I knew where a dive boat was going to drop some divers in a couple of hours, and I went out & poured a 5 gallon bucket of fish blood in the water first, and didn't tell anybody. It wouldn't be a legitimate comparator to shark feeding dives.

Richard.