FairyBasset
Contributor
I haven’t dived in Galapagos. I meant the Galapagos sharks in Cocos. Sorry for any confusion.
Death in Cocos from shark attack
- Thread starter BDSC
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FairyBasset
Contributor
Two one meter sharks were following the large female tiger who was identifiable by her dorsal fin. We saw that twice in one day. I would think that if the rangers consider her to be pregnant that she probably was. But I’m not an expert and I didn’t attend the birth! Quite possibly they were just very small sharks. We all assumed they were baby tigers, but as I said we are not experts. One thing is for sure, that particular sharks is huge.
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drrich2
Contributor
Anybody get a pic of them? That’s be very interesting to see!
John Bantin
Contributor
diverdoug1
Contributor
It is unusual that you saw a Tiger Shark accompanied "twice with her two new babies". Tiger Shark pups avoid all large predators (including their mother) immediately after birth. Tiger Sharks have no maternal instincts, and will eat their pups if given a chance. New born pups are 20 to 30 inches long.
drrich2
Contributor
Looks like a good article; the attorney's input, with history of dive fatality litigation experience for perspective, was interesting.
Richard.
Cowfish Aesthetic
Contributor
Thank you for your take, John.
Given your experience and what you've been able to learn about this occurrence, do you think there is anything we (the diving community) should take away from it? Or to put it differently, if you were on a boat scheduled to dive at the same location tomorrow, is there anything you would do differently? Or do we just chalk this up to the terrible realization of a relatively low probability risk?
HalcyonDaze
Contributor
Interesting. If those two one-meter sharks were indeed tigers, that would probably make them very young - just a few months old. I did speak to a researcher who did a lot of work on tigers in Hawaii and the Bahamas and he said in his experience tigers do not seem to have dedicated nursery areas like lemon sharks - they kick the kids out the hatch wherever. He's caught small tigers in shallow grass flats and in 100 meters of water mixed in with adults. He did however stress that they've never been seen hanging out with the mother afterwards. If anyone got photos that would make for a worthwhile discussion.
Admittedly, my first reaction on recognizing some of this thread's discussions and even a direct quote was, "this is why we rarely get details posted in A&I." That said, it was a small part of the article. I'm more curious to know where the details on the circumstances of the attack came from and how solid those are - particularly how much advance warning they had, whether the woman was hit while ascending or at the surface, if she stayed with the group, and whether the tiger attempted to continue the attack past the first strike.
John Bantin
Contributor
I think we should be aware that sharks are unpredictable animals with a lot of teeth. They are not pussycats. They don't predate on humans but they investigate. I have been grabbed by a large tiger more than once and swum off with but I made damned sure to keep as still as possible so that those teeth didn't hurt me! Know that there is always a risk.
tarponchik
Contributor
In other words, we take deaths from shark attacks as acceptable losses.
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