Diver missing near Mandurah Australia

[Foxfish]

My sincere sympathy to the family and friends of this diver.

I dove the Murray Reefs, Warnbro Sound and Five Fathom Bank for five days just north of this area the previous week. The swell and weather were reasonably settled and the water conditions were the best I've seen in this region for a while.

Brian Guest was killed by a white pointer while snorkelling for crabs in 2008 in Warnbro Sound. This is a bay adjacent to where this diver went missing. There have been two fatal attacks on scuba divers in recent years in the South West of Western Australian.

There has been a drastic increase in the number of fatal shark attacks in the south west of Western Australia since the white pointer was protected in 1997. Most of the attacks have been by white pointers. The evidence indicates this matches a drastic increase in the number of white pointers in the region during that time.

In recent months the Western Australian government has set a number of drum lines close to popular beaches. They are a proven method for significantly reducing the risk of a shark attack in the areas in which they are deployed. It is not clear if drum lines were set in the area in which this diver went missing.

 

[Wingy]

Shark shock over diver s death - The West Australian

Absolutely tragic and so very very sad his sister was with him.

 

[gee13]

If a shark.was involved in this latest death it will demonstrate the ineffectiveness and futility of this cull program.

If a shark wasnt involved in this death and was post mortem the data below will still highlight further the ineffectiveness of this program as evidenced in this Fisheries report of sharks taken or killed by drum lines recently.

Note the majority species of Tiger/Mako..even Blacktip. One would have to go back to 1967, nearly 50 years ago to find an incident involving a Tiger shark death in.WA. Notice no GWS caught on this list?

Shark drum line deployment

The other reality check is that despite claims from pro kill proponents that recent spate of events warrant shark culling to protect the public- fact would have it that prior to the last known fatality of surfer Chris Boyd in November 2013 at Margs the last isolated fatality was 16 months prior with another surfer Ben Linden at Wedge on July 2012 in a location more than 500km away.

Condolences to all the friends and relatives of the decreased. Lets just hope for their sake there were not baited drum lines deployed near their chosen divesite that weekend. (Theres a curious? reason that the State Govt ordered a removal of baited drumlines on the day in the area where the mass Perth to Rottnest channel swim took place...)

 

[SubMatt]

My condolences to the family. Losing someone close to you is a difficult thing. It's still unclear if it was a shark. There were bite marks but that could have been post-mortem. It doesn’t matter whether it was a shark or not. They have taken 35 undersized sharks on their drum-lines to get 3 four meter sharks. It’s completely unacceptable.

 

[Foxfish]

Initial reporting on the incident stated the diver may have been bitten by a shark, suggesting the diver had received a single bite mark on the body. Then it was reported that the diver may have received multiple shark bites. Finally it was reported that 'human remains' were found.

Several alternatives come to mind in considering the state of the corpse in the light of these reports.

1. It was largely intact with bite marks.
2. It was largely intact but with limbs missing.
3. It was torn apart and only fragments of the body were recovered.

Initial reporting strongly suggested that the diver's corpse was largely intact and that there were bite marks on the divers body. Descriptions 1 and 2 seemed to best fit the description.

When later reports indicated human remains were found, description 3 became a possibility. The deceased diver's scuba gear was not recovered with the corpse. This and bite marks on the corpse indicate that the diver suffered a violent shark attack.

Note how the severity of the attack increased in subsequent media reports. I view this as more media bias and or government censorship in attempting to play down the likelihood that this was yet another fatal shark attack on a diver.

The coyness shown by police and the media to attributing the bite marks to a shark is bordering on the ridiculous. Apart from sharks there is no other animal in this region known to inflict a significant bite injury on humans. When a corpse is retrieved with multiple bite marks why do we have to have a Coronial enquiry to decide that it was the result of a shark attack?

If you were on a boat in ten metres of water and a buddy failed to return to the boat, what would you do? I'd be back in the water quick smart looking for the lost buddy. With reasonable visibility you should be able to see the bottom. I'd expect that was what the friends on the boat did, unless of course they'd seen a big shark in the area. The alarm was also raised and a team of divers began to search the area soon after the diver went missing. It would be unlikely that the deceased drowned and was subsequently attacked by a shark without anyone witnessing the attack.

It beggars belief that a substantially intact corpse found close to the original dive location was not found very quickly. There are several possible explanations. Starting with the most unlikely:

1. The corpse drifted or was carried away from the original dive location and then drifted back.

2. The team of divers searching the area failed to locate the human corpse even though it was right under their nose. ie. they were incompetent.

3. The search team had found the diver's corpse soon after the search began but there was a significant delay in reporting the findings of the corpse and the time when the corpse was found was falsified.

4. The human remains were in fact a small, previously undetected fragment of the diver's corpse and that initial police and/or media reporting on the issue was highly misleading.
This probably sounds cynical. But that is hardly surprising given past reports on shark attacks and the recent reporting on the demise of Troy Buswell, our state treasurer.

And those who claim that we should now stop deploying drum lines because they failed to prevent the attack, I presume you’d also demand that we stop wasting money on aerial surveillance because that failed to detect the shark responsible for the attack.

 

[Wingy]

Coyness? dont be ridiculous...NOTHING will be released until the coroners report is completed. That is the correct legal procedure.

 

[Centrals]

2. The team of divers searching the area failed to locate the human corpse even though it was right under their nose. ie. they were incompetent..........

Have you got anything to substantiate your statement?

 

[Wingy]

Lets not forget there are other western australians here who post, dive in the area, watch the news, watch the search and rescue boats and choppers going out and can substantiate a few FACTS.

It was the first day of rain in months. The police air wing was hampered by rain and s/rescue and police boats were hampered by sea conditions. The Police divers were pulled out of the water when it became unsafe for them to continue the search on the saturday and the sunday. The police divers went down on monday and recovered the remains.

You best get down to WAPOLs water police section and demand they employ you Fauxfish if you are calling their divers incompetent. Send your written conclusive evidence that their divers are incompetant to Karl O Callahan and Liz Harvey...don't worry, your letter will be read. Let us all know when they employ you so we can all feel safe in the water again.

You can try and put your spin on things to a internet audience who weren't watching.......but Im not the only western Australian who spends time on those waters watching the s/r and police boats go out....if you are going to throw around wild hypothesis based on nothing but your own personal fears and hysteria then I will provide anyone interested in the facts. Further FACTS will be released when due process has been followed and the coroners report is released.

 

[bada3003]

Your long diatribe is filled with opinions not supported by facts (yet) and misplaced. Speculative discussion has its place but the facts seem to be too few to lead to productive dissemination.

Initial reporting on the incident stated the diver may have been bitten by a shark, suggesting the diver had received a single bite mark on the body. Then it was reported that the diver may have received multiple shark bites. Finally it was reported that 'human remains' were found.

Several alternatives come to mind in considering the state of the corpse in the light of these reports.

1. It was largely intact with bite marks.
2. It was largely intact but with limbs missing.
3. It was torn apart and only fragments of the body were recovered.

Initial reporting strongly suggested that the diver's corpse was largely intact and that there were bite marks on the divers body. Descriptions 1 and 2 seemed to best fit the description.

When later reports indicated human remains were found, description 3 became a possibility. The deceased diver's scuba gear was not recovered with the corpse. This and bite marks on the corpse indicate that the diver suffered a violent shark attack.

Note how the severity of the attack increased in subsequent media reports. I view this as more media bias and or government censorship in attempting to play down the likelihood that this was yet another fatal shark attack on a diver.

The coyness shown by police and the media to attributing the bite marks to a shark is bordering on the ridiculous. Apart from sharks there is no other animal in this region known to inflict a significant bite injury on humans. When a corpse is retrieved with multiple bite marks why do we have to have a Coronial enquiry to decide that it was the result of a shark attack?

If you were on a boat in ten metres of water and a buddy failed to return to the boat, what would you do? I'd be back in the water quick smart looking for the lost buddy. With reasonable visibility you should be able to see the bottom. I'd expect that was what the friends on the boat did, unless of course they'd seen a big shark in the area. The alarm was also raised and a team of divers began to search the area soon after the diver went missing. It would be unlikely that the deceased drowned and was subsequently attacked by a shark without anyone witnessing the attack.

It beggars belief that a substantially intact corpse found close to the original dive location was not found very quickly. There are several possible explanations. Starting with the most unlikely:

1. The corpse drifted or was carried away from the original dive location and then drifted back.

2. The team of divers searching the area failed to locate the human corpse even though it was right under their nose. ie. they were incompetent.

3. The search team had found the diver's corpse soon after the search began but there was a significant delay in reporting the findings of the corpse and the time when the corpse was found was falsified.

4. The human remains were in fact a small, previously undetected fragment of the diver's corpse and that initial police and/or media reporting on the issue was highly misleading.
This probably sounds cynical. But that is hardly surprising given past reports on shark attacks and the recent reporting on the demise of Troy Buswell, our state treasurer.

And those who claim that we should now stop deploying drum lines because they failed to prevent the attack, I presume you’d also demand that we stop wasting money on aerial surveillance because that failed to detect the shark responsible for the attack.

 

[Wingy]

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/wa/a/22571579/fond-memories-of-diver-michael/

More news but still no conclusive cause of death regarding Michael.