Death in Cocos from shark attack

[Dogbowl]

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.

 

[matt215]

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



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

That has not been my experience at all. The great hammers and bulls at Bimini are some of the most laid back sharks I've been around, and they (at least the hammerheads) are being fed. The most worked up I've seen sharks at Cocos... the night dive at Manuelita coral garden. Yes, they are mainly white tips, but if you've been there when a silver tip or a scalloped hammer comes in, things get crazy and it's time to get out.

Also, you lost me at spear fishing. That is TOTALLY different. The movements of the speared fish gets them worked up. If you get in the water with someone that is spear fishing, you are pretty much asking for trouble. There's lots of videos of people spear fishing that run into problems with shark. Not many videos of people running into problems on a shark dive. Even in my experience with oceanics, I've never seen aggressive behavior (posture, bumping divers, etc) during a shark dive with bait.

If, as you claim, "sharks that are fed suck" and are "highly aggressive" I wonder why there are no more incidents. Again, I've just not seen aggressive behavior in the hundreds of times I've been in the water with sharks.

As far as whether it's ethical to feed sharks on a dive, well, that's another conversation all together...

 

[drrich2]

Those are not even fed sharks, fed sharks are much worse.

The 1st hand experiences you related are sobering and I can see where that would lead you to have serious concerns about shark feeding. Since this situation wasn't believed related to shark feeding, I'll answer briefly since the thread may inform others views on sharks more broadly.

I've participated in dives observing the hand-feeding of tiger, lemon and bull sharks, and observed lion fish feeding to reef sharks. Reef sharks can be fast and 'go for it' - a pair made life interesting for a guide with a lion fish on his spear in Belize. The only times I've had concerns about how a shark interacted with me were:

1.) Belize - a maybe 5 foot+ reef (?) shark wanted a dead lion fish on the bottom. I was higher & off to the side a bit, but probably looked like a rival; the shark turned & briefly moved toward me. No aggression, shark got the fish, anxiety provoking but no harm done.

2.) Jupiter,FL - a lemon shark swam toward me in a non-aggressive manner; as I'd been taught, I put a hand on its head & pushed down & away, the shark moved as directed, no harm done.

It was nowhere near the frantic, high-drama 'feeding frenzy' I would've expected reading about sharks many years ago. Those I encountered weren't 'highly aggressive,' but I understand your experience differed.

Addressing some other points:

1.) Tiger sharks have indeed been called garbage cans of the sea. But that doesn't mean they're constantly viciously attacking everything in sight.

2.) I see no reason aside from investigating a possible food source that the shark would bite the diver. Grabbing a sizable strange, unknown creature in your mouth carries risks. Instinct motivate risk-taking when there's potential reward. Whether the animal has a subjective experience of hunger pangs at the time is of dubious importance.

3.) Re: Below - No, with blood in the water, probably some thrashing, you could have other sharks coming in. That shark likely aborted the attack rather than feed much, if at all. We can't call odds on it having a go at someone else, or what another sharks arriving at the scene might do.

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.

 

[scubadada]

I have had many, many shark encounters, never with feeding or baiting. I have never touched a shark, even when they have passed close to me. They have always turned off prior to being too close. I would generally avoid extending an arm if the sharks are used to feeding

 

[drl]

Is there any word on the condition of the divemaster who was injured? We dove Cocos from the Sea Hunter last year; I wonder if the same divemasters still work there.
We saw tiger sharks on several dives but were not threatened. However, we were told that if one appears on a night dive everybody gets out of the water—they hunt the white tip sharks, which are similar in size to a human, and a diver could be bitten by mistake.
No info as to what happened in this case yet, of course. Hope the dive master recovers

 

[drrich2]

I would generally avoid extending an arm if the sharks are used to feeding

I usually would, too. I should've clarified that the lemon shark coming toward me appeared likely to bump right into me. I didn't think it would hurt me, but while not huge, they are not little. Wanted to keep the mouth a little further away...

Richard.

 

[dmaziuk]

I think that in many cases, the bear that is put down may or may not be the bear that ate the person. But we all feel better because the "terrible man-eating bear" was killed. Australia kills their man-eating sharks immediately, sometimes 4 or 5 of them, I guess just to teach the others a lesson.

In Australia they had about as many fatal shark attacks in the last couple of years as total recoded shark attacks in the preceding couple of centuries. The number of people buying the "poor little sharkies rarely biting by mistake" story is going down and the number of people buying "top predator is exploring a new food source" story is growing.

 

[Aviyes]

I do not discount the nurse shark anymore. In Ambergris, my buddy's sis in law was bit by one and it caused a shitload of damage...

In Ambergris, the DMs are feeding the nurses lionfish - obviously not a good practice.

DM on my Belize BA-IV trip was bit by Rambo the Nurse Shark on the Dos Chicas dusk dive. The shark was a royal pain in the ass to all the divers during that dive. At least half of us had to prod/kick him away at some point during the dive.

 

[DavBuc]

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.

Just when you think you've heard it all, there's something like this.

 

[mmmbelows]

Addressing some other points:

1.) Tiger sharks have indeed been called garbage cans of the sea. But that doesn't mean they're constantly viciously attacking everything in sight..

They don't attack everything in sight or everybody at tiger beach would be bitten. My comments were in regard to the shark being hungry and then after biting both divers was full... I don't believe tigers are ever hungry nor full, they are just on a constant search for food like most other sharks, I don't for an instant believe hunger had anything to do with this incident

2.) I see no reason aside from investigating a possible food source that the shark would bite the diver. Grabbing a sizable strange, unknown creature in your mouth carries risks. Instinct motivate risk-taking when there's potential reward. Whether the animal has a subjective experience of hunger pangs at the time is of dubious importance.

You still haven't experienced an aggressive shark yet based on how all your interpretations describe passive shark behaviors, you're under the notion that all shark attacks are based on just a confused shark with a bad case of mistaken identity.

Just my opinion, but if both divers were bitten this tiger was not 'investigating', the story will probably play out that it will be described as aggressive, one person 'tasted' is one thing, two people bitten and one dead is definitely something else altogether.