Death in Cocos from shark attack

[CuzzA]

I think comparing today's ocean to ~25 years ago is not an accurate way to anecdotally assess sharks. With the past few decades of increased shark conservation their numbers are on the rise and just about everyone I've talked to about the subject says the same thing. In conservation areas, their number are increasing substantially. This coming from people who have been diving weekly for several decades.

In fact it was interesting to hear powerheads being added to in water recompression kits. This as a result from problematic encounters.

I was told when I first got certified I'd be lucky to see a shark. That may have been true 10 or 20 years ago and I think we can all agree that conservation of sharks is great, but at the same time the notion of shark encounters being rare is silly today. I've seen a lot of sharks and I anticipate hearing more stories like this one.

 

[John Bantin]

Not always true. It depends where you are. I used to get around 200 assorted sharks to a shark baited dive at Sha'ab Rumi in the Sudan in 1992 but the last time I was there, six was the most we saw.

 

[rongoodman]

3) In preparing to exit the water onto a Diveboat, make a submerged close approach to the boat step platform i.e. -try not to have a long surface swim or loiter on the surface if possible.

Since all the dives in the Cocos are from pangas, you're usually going to be hanging around on the surface for a few minutes unless it happens to be directly overhead when you come up. I wonder if the operators might modify this procedure somehow.

 

[CuzzA]

Not always true. It depends where you are. I used to get around 200 assorted sharks to a shark baited dive at Sha'ab Rumi in the Sudan in 1992 but the last time I was there, six was the most we saw.

My experience has been limited to Florida. Does Sudan practice shark conservation? Do they allow long line fishing?

 

[John Bantin]

The Yemeni fishermen took a vast number of sharks. Similarly, nowadays you don't get to see a lot of sharks once you get east of the Maldives.

 

[ScubaD1veDiv@]

We had cxo

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Not always true. It depends where you are. I used to get around 200 assorted sharks to a shark baited dive at Sha'ab Rumi in the Sudan in 1992 but the last time I was there, six was the most we saw.

Yes, it depends on the location and in some cases the species. I recall growing up in the 80s and seeing documentaries from Southern California waters where camera crews would go chumming off the coast, or dive the market squid spawning aggregations, and see hordes of blue sharks. In the 90s it seems like their numbers dropped way off and haven't come back; I think with one or two exceptions in the San Diego area the boats that used to go out looking for them all folded and the encounters you see now are only a handful of sharks. White sharks on the other hand are making a strong comeback in California, to the point where you may be more likely to see one of them than the once-common blue shark.

Even in Florida, it varies by location - it's been a while since I dove the Keys regularly, but I remember spearfishing all day off Key Largo and only encountering one small nurse shark; I've seen plenty of lemons and a subadult tiger while boating in Florida Bay but only one small Caribbean reef shark and some nurse sharks on the ocean side. The one baited charter in the Keys (Florida Shark Diving) packed up and moved to Jupiter about three or four years ago.

 

[mmmbelows]

So what do you mean by "if anything is done?" It's the ocean. There are sharks in it.

Use your imagination, if you can't come up with a dozen scenarios ranging from marine park regulation changes to changes in dive operators diving procedures, to some stupid tiger shark culling... well, come back and I'll help you fill in the blanks.

As I said, likely nothing at all will change or come of it. Just another "rare shark attack"

I don't know where you're getting your info about Hawaii, but that's home base for One Ocean Diving (Ocean Ramsey and Juan Oliphant's operation); their IG feed is full of pics of them freediving in the open with large tigers. Kona on the big island has a number of regular tigers that the dive charters know quite well.

One Ocean Diving (Ocean Ramsey and Juan Oliphant's operation) isn't the entire population of Hawaii that uses the Ocean.

 

[Kay Dee]

I was told when I first got certified I'd be lucky to see a shark. That may have been true 10 or 20 years ago and I think we can all agree that conservation of sharks is great, but at the same time the notion of shark encounters being rare is silly today. I've seen a lot of sharks and I anticipate hearing more stories like this one.

It depends on where you dive / swim / surf.

In ten years of very regularly doing liveaboard trips and extended expeditions diving the wrecks (that were once in the Java Sea and off Malaysia) starting in 2002 I never saw a single one, save for several Whale sharks that is.

Prior to 2002 in tens years off and on in the Solomons I noticed a steep decline in the sharks in the Guadalcanal / Tulagi area also.

In the above twenty years whilst diving in Oz though, whilst not in the Sols of SEA that is, there wasn't a lot of dives where one didn't see a shark of some sort in my neck of the woods. (As for Power Heads, if the Oz regulations had allowed one to buy one, I would have carried one on some dives, just as back up for the 'electronic shark protection' on deco that is. Can't be too safe they say.)

Not only that, in the past ten or so years in the general area (far north coast NSW) where I lived in Oz, there were / have been more shark attacks on surfboard riders than in the previous thirty years or so, I would have to say. And all, or almost all, in 'un-net protected' beaches IIRC.)

PS. And John B, re getting older (and having, if not seen it all, seen most), "ain't we all!", or at least some of us anyway. ;-)

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Use your imagination, if you can't come up with a dozen scenarios ranging from marine park regulation changes to changes in dive operators diving procedures, to some stupid tiger shark culling... well, come back and I'll help you fill in the blanks.

As I said, likely nothing at all will change or come of it. Just another "rare shark attack"

"Some stupid tiger shark culling" ... nice to see that you advocate wiping out marine life so you can dive without being bothered to look over your shoulder. Any other offending creatures you wish removed? Would you like us to repeal oceanography or physics so you don't have to worry about strong currents, the bends, oxygen toxicity, etc?

Scuba diving is entering a wilderness environment, and we are but visitors. Apex predators are as much a part of that environment as the water itself. The only way to counter them is to stay alert to your surroundings and have options for getting yourself out of that situation - just as you would for any other diving emergency.

A woman died in this incident, and that is a tragedy. So are the other deaths due to perils of the ocean reported in this forum. We mourn, we learn, we adapt, and we keep diving. We do not demand that the ocean be made perfectly safe for us by altering its very nature.