Death in Cocos from shark attack

[Dan]

This video shows a different kind of Tiger shark demeanor where the Argo’s DM actually herded the Tiger shark down to where the divers were for photo opportunities.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

From the link posted by @HalcyonDaze:
“According to a press release from the Turtle Island Restoration Network (TIRN), the scientist identified the shark through its unique scars and its aggressive behavior toward divers.

“It was showing no fear of the divers and was slowly and continuously circling us, closing its eyes, which is often a sign of a possible imminent attack,” Alfred Barroso, an underwater cameraman who was part of the expedition, said in the press release.”

A diver in August 2018 trip with Argo had a closed encounter of similar Tiger shark, as shown, below. It was ready to attack by rolling its eyes up.

I can see the same scar on its upper right jaw, below the right nostril.

View attachment 506848

The photo you posted and the one at the start of the clip look like they were taken in rapid sequence; however I'm not sure that's the same shark shown in the video footage. The shark in the stills has a pretty ragged-looking dorsal fin; I'm not sure the one in the video has the same damage.

Again, while I'm sure the "Bahama Mamas" at Tiger Beach are older and possibly better-fed, the 14/15-ft examples I saw there looked a lot bigger than the purported 14-ft example in the video:

 

[nldunn]

The tiger shark in that clip isn't what I would consider aggressive - certainly curious, but not aggressive. The problem with sharks is that "curiosity" sometimes involves tooth marks, and a jaw built to crack sea turtles can do a lot of damage to a human even with a glancing blow. A couple years ago I picked up a fresh tiger shark tooth on a dive; at the bar later I was running my fingers along my prize when some lime juice hit the pad of my thumb and I painfully realized it was covered with cuts almost deep enough to bleed.

However, the fact that it's at night would make what's left of my hair stand up; tigers are ambush predators and the closer they get without being tracked the more likely it is they might try something cute. For reference, here's an encounter I had off Jupiter, FL with a ~10 ft female in reduced viz; she wasn't aggressive but "Sassy Cassie" lived up to her moniker:


I would be interested to know what the extent of the wounds were; the most recent article describes the woman as receiving "deep lacerations to both of her legs" and the divemaster suffered "a serious wound to one of his legs." I have seen tigers come up at us from below; typically we spot them coming and they break off. I can see how the shark might have attacked the woman first and then the divemaster caught an open-mouthed blow to the leg while driving it off.

I did talk to a couple of researchers about this incident, including one based in Costa Rica - that's actually one of his BRUV (Baited Remote Underwater Video) images from Cocos in the most recent article. Another researcher who was formerly on the International Shark Attack Files staff said he was aware of only one other fatal attack by a tiger shark on a diver in a group, although the details were questionable.

Was she biting at someone at 6:24????

 

[tarponchik]

Was she biting at someone at 6:24????

I wouldn't stretch my hand to her the way divers did in your video.

 

[FinnMom]

There used to be a guy in Alaska that spent lots of time with grizzlies in Alaska (or maybe it was brown bears). Anyway he would take folks in for bear encounters and spend time near them. Did this for several years and then one day he and a customer were found dead from a bear attack. Same for any apex predator. You can have lots of encounters and one day the predator wakes up with a headache, hungry, feeling territorial, just ticked off, or whatever, and the encounter does not go well. I have seen cats, dogs, and some other animals take a nip, swat, kick, just because for some reason they got annoyed on a particular day by human presence.

Timothy Treadwell. Got himself & his girlfriend killed. Another example of normalization of deviance, or "breaking the rules is perfectly safe; until it isn´t".