Death in Cocos from shark attack

[Texasguy]

The liveaboard should have stayed and dove at the same spot just to show the tragedy was not repeatable but random in its own course.

 

[flyboy08]

The liveaboard should have stayed and dove at the same spot just to show the tragedy was not repeatable but random in its own course.

And if the shark got a taste once again? Easy to say, extremely difficult to do under the circumstances.

 

[scubadada]

Living long has all to do with managing your risk. Not all sharks are bad, as not all dogs are bad, but there are certain species of sharks and certain species of dogs that increase your risks. I will put my face right up to my dogs and nuzzle him at the right times because I know him and can read him, I would not want a child to ever try it even though he has never bitten anyone, even though he has a mild loving temperament, because he's a dog and dogs bite, it happens, so you respect them.

I will dive with certain sharks and don't want anything to do with others, I have no desire to be in open water and find myself with a great white, bull shark, oceanic or a tiger shark, these species are dangerous and just because a thousand people have dived tiger beach in the bahamas without incident doesn't negate the fact that others have died there. Tigers are one of the sharks that is a roll of the dice, you have very little ability to alter the outcome of an encounter with one, you're at the mercy of that animal. When people go on and on about how rare attacks of sharks are it doesn't disappear the fact that people do get bit and people do die from them all the time. This nasty incident was just another roll of the dice that the diver came out on the bad end of it, nobody had any power to change how that outcome was going to go down, it was the day that tiger decided to put it's mouth on them. And that's the reality of shark encounters, with certain ones you have zero ability to do anything, caught in open water your dives outcome and the rest of your life is 100% up to that animal that day. That's the reality of the statements behind 'sharks rarely bite people'.

One problem with this is that there are the sharks you see and the sharks you don't see. I do not participate in shark baiting/feeding dives. Often times, when I see sharks on a dive, I consider myself to have been lucky that day. I'm pretty sure that they are also around the days that I do not see them. There are a couple of sites in Boynton Beach where we more than occasionally see Bull Sharks, they're likely around most of the time. I dive Deep Ledge in Jupiter reasonably often, sometimes we see many sharks, often, predominantly Bulls, sometimes we see no sharks. This year I saw my first Tiger Shark in Jupiter, it leisurely swam below us in the opposite direction while we had started our ascent on the Loggerhead site. About a year and a half ago, I spent 2 weeks on the Red Sea. I saw many sharks, but no Oceanic Whitetips, overall, they're often seen.

You can probably lower your risk of encountering @mmmbelows more dangerous quartet by carefully choosing where you dive, but just because you don't see them, does not mean that they are not there.

 

[mmmbelows]

I've been in the water with tigers, bulls, oceanics, silver tip, gray reef, and great hammerheads among others. I've been on shark feeding dives, and dives where no bait was used. I've been to Cocos Island 3 times, where they use no bait at all. Wondering if sharks being fed are more chill because they are getting fed, and if maybe turtles are scarce at Cocos and the tigers wanted to take what they could get?

With all your shark experience I'm surprised you would say :

Wondering if sharks being fed are more chill because they are getting fed

Sharks that are fed suck. They are highly aggressive, they associate things with being fed such as hearing boat propellers show up, and divers in the water...

Explore Florida spear fishing to understand sharks and free food, and those sharks aren't even being fed, they take the speared fish from divers. Last time I was diving in Jupiter Florida it was a mixed boat with spear fishermen, they drop them separately for safety reasons for the rest of the divers (they attract sharks), toward the end of the dive somehow we ended up close to a spearo, I heard his gun go off and I tensed up because I knew what was coming, within 30-40 seconds two super aggressive large reef sharks came in like rocket propelled torpedoes from no-where, like rabid dogs they flew into each recreational diver and basically sniffed our crotches in super high speed before going to the next diver and the next, they did that all in about 20 seconds then they turned instantly and zoomed toward the spear diver, I can only surmise they got a whiff suddenly of his fish. Having a 6 foot reef shark at super high speed sniff your crotch and then turn to be 2 inches from your mask all in the space of about 1/2 second gives you a real good understanding of how defenseless you are in the water with these guys, the waters their element and they are built for speed, no defense against any shark moving like that.

Those are not even fed sharks, fed sharks are much worse. In Belize I had two other sharks do the same thing to me, but they were much bigger and much more agressive, they were beaten off by my camera rig. Everyone around was in denial or refused to admit that anybody was feeding sharks in that area... truth came out later that a boat was doing it to attract sharks for their trips out there. Sharks aren't stupid, they are predators and they can make basic associations in their little brains, and fed sharks suck.

 

[ChrisM]

Sorry, if another guest on a liveaboard was killed, and a DM injured, I certainly wouldn't be getting back in the water. Not because I believe that a shark "acquires a taste" for humans (although I guess possible). I would certainly not continue on with my vacation

 

[Texasguy]

And if the shark got a taste once again? Easy to say, extremely difficult to do under the circumstances.

Well, if the shark was hungry before, it was not after the tragedy. Thus, the changes of being attacked again are not cumulative, same as with betting black again in a roulette after black wins. Same croupier but different chances with each roll.

 

[mmmbelows]

The liveaboard should have stayed and dove at the same spot just to show the tragedy was not repeatable but random in its own course.

Who would they have gotten to go in?

Well, if the shark was hungry before, it was not after the tragedy. Thus, the changes of being attacked again are not cumulative, same as with betting black again in a roulette after black wins. Same croupier but different chances with each roll.

What exactly did the shark eat? I've rarely heard of any shark attack ending in it actually eating anything, it's typically biting

I've never seen any research about sharks having any eating habits attached to hunger either, Tiger sharks are indiscriminate eaters they seem to 'eat' all the time, don't think there is any hunger attached to them, they are nicknamed 'trash cans of the oceans' in their stomachs they have found tires, other sharks, a porcupine, a bag of money, rocks, license plates, cameras...

 

[Altamira]

The liveaboard should have stayed and dove at the same spot just to show the tragedy was not repeatable but random in its own course.

Your posts are usually logical and exhibit good common sense. This was not one of those posts.

 

[ChrisM]

Who would they have gotten to go in?


What exactly did the shark eat? I've rarely heard of any shark attack ending in it actually eating anything, it's typically biting

I've never seen any research about sharks having any eating habits attached to hunger either, Tiger sharks are indiscriminate eaters they seem to 'eat' all the time, don't think there is any hunger attached to them, they are nicknamed 'trash cans of the oceans' in their stomachs they have found tires, other sharks, a porcupine, a bag of money, rocks, license plates, cameras...

Seriously, arguing that this was a food/hunger issue. Probably the dumbest thing I'll read today, and I am including FB (I know you are not arguing that mmmbellows...)

 

[outofofficebrb]

The liveaboard should have stayed and dove at the same spot just to show the tragedy was not repeatable but random in its own course.

I would like to think that if that were my friend or family member who was killed or the injured DM/instructor on that boat, their priority would not be to stay and dive to show the world it is a random and not repeatable incident because that is not what is most important in that moment. I would hope that it would be to get the injured to medical attention as soon as possible and to take the deceased back to shore. You could argue that someone could come and pick them up but that would take even longer than them leaving directly. Best case scenario, due to how isolated Cocos is, a helicopter could come out and meet them but even then, the helicopter has a maximum range and Cocos is beyond its reach for a return trip.

If they wanted to address that this tragedy is random, that can be managed through press and marketing strategically.

Turning around and going back so that others can continue to dive is another matter if the other passengers are up for it emotionally or physically. I can't say that I wouldn't be affected by something like this if it happened on a liveaboard I was on. I don't know that I would be able to dive immediately, especially because I have heard that a on a lot of the dives there you can see tigers. FWIW, I've dived with tigers before in the Bahamas but that was a much more controlled environment than Cocos and much closer to medical help. The deceased may have still had family or friends with her on board and we shouldn't forget that she has spent some time with her fellow divers and gotten to know them. I don't think going back to diving right away is necessarily as easy as it sounds.