I've seen more divers tossed from their seats when a rogue wave hits the boat broadside than I've seen injured by sharks. Perhaps before we mandate protective wear for shark diving (can they make a version that will also protect a diver from jellyfish stings and deploy a USCG-approved PFD with EPIRB in case the dive boat becomes a dive attraction?), we should install lap-shoulder restraints (diver bungees) on all seats. We better ban cell phone, text messaging and radio use by the Captain too, to reduce the potential for incidents related to distracted boating.
Diving is intrinsically dangerous because water can be considered an IDLH (Immediately Dangerous to Life & Health) atmosphere. And that's BEFORE we factor all the dangerous aqua-beasties into the equation. Prudence suggests the leading causes of diver fatalities should be addressed and resolved before focusing on the causes that rarely occur, even though the latter makes us feel better. What? You say we're doing that? Then why do divers continue to die?
I don't think I've ever seen a diver that didn't carry an air gauge but divers still seem to experience low air emergencies. BCDs are equiped with dump valves but divers still experience uncontrolled ascents. Divers wear watches, dive computers and sometimes their dive tables but still go into deco. Is the dive community crying out for regulations to address these far more frequent safety concerns?
One case does not an epidemic make. Sometimes one can do everything right and still experience something unexpectedly bad. Knee-jerk, feel-good reactions won't change that. Additionally, if we pass a regulation after every time something bad happens, pretty soon we won't ever leave the house. Unless bad things start happening in houses and they pass another regulation.