Diver killed by a blue shark - Egypt

[InTheDrink]

Blue sharks off Marsa seems very strange to me. Don’t buy it. Longimanus would be a lot more plausible. Will dig a little.

 

[Snoweman]

Actually they do, although they are not a major factor in fatal attacks. Check out the International Shark Attack File stats at Species Implicated in Attacks

Although other species like great whites and tigers are way up there in the stats, blue shark attacks exceeded those by oceanic white tips.

Cool link. Thanks for sharing it.

 

[mcohen1021]

Oceanic white tips are not to be taken lightly. You can see even I was a bit panicked by an 8 footer coming at me with an open mouth full of teeth

 

[scubadada]

Thanks @drbill,

Whites, Tigers, and Bulls, oh my!

 

[InTheDrink]

Still waiting to hear details if indeed I do but yes longimanus are super fun but to be respected. Blue shark doesn’t add up.

 

[Snoweman]

Still waiting to hear details if indeed I do but yes longimanus are super fun but to be respected. Blue shark doesn’t add up.

Oh wait... my bad. They're reporting two separate events in the same article. The blue shark chased some tourists out of the water in Mallorca. The type of shark that killed the diver in Egypt isn't mentioned.

R..

The OP said the blue shark came from a different story, not related to the death.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Agree in general, but in days past (say 50 years ago) blue sharks were quite common in our coastal waters here and we'd see dozens of them cruising the coast and even while diving. Today it is very rare to see a blue at all. We had to stop shark dives several years ago because it was getting rare to see them.

Yeah, but the San Pedro Channel is pretty deep water - I used to go out on class trawls there and we could hit 600 meters between San Pedro and Catalina. Not really a place where swimmers and surfers are going to be splashing around. Nowadays it seems you're far more likely to run across a white shark in that area than a blue.

 

[drbill]

Yeah, but the San Pedro Channel is pretty deep water - I used to go out on class trawls there and we could hit 600 meters between San Pedro and Catalina. Not really a place where swimmers and surfers are going to be splashing around. Nowadays it seems you're far more likely to run across a white shark in that area than a blue.

True. More sightings of great whites in our coastal waters than blues over the last decade or so. The San Pedro Channel gets as deep as 3,500' and is deeper than the English Channel.

I do remember there was some debate over the species of shark that killed the sailors on the USS Indianapolis. Some thought they were blues, others thought oceanic white tips and tigers. I'm just glad I wasn't there myself!

 

[FinnMom]

In all the social media videos and photos I've seen posted from the Red Sea, I've seen lots of silvers and reef sharks, oceanics, sometimes hammerheads or a zebra shark, more rarely tigers and whale sharks. Never a single blue. Anyone else think that a blue in marsa alam sounds off?

 

[HalcyonDaze]

In all the social media videos and photos I've seen posted from the Red Sea, I've seen lots of silvers and reef sharks, oceanics, sometimes hammerheads or a zebra shark, more rarely tigers and whale sharks. Never a single blue. Anyone else think that a blue in marsa alam sounds off?

If you read through the thread, you'll find that the OP confused two separate incidents - one with a blue shark in Mallorca (which did not involve a diver, or any attack on humans) and one apparently fatal attack (unconfirmed if it was observed or if the man disappeared and later remains were found) of Marsa Alam, which does not appear to have involved a diver either.

The thread title really needs to be changed.