Shark attack, Egypt, Brothers islands

[HalcyonDaze]

Relevant to the discussion: Red Sea boat crew fined, suspended for feeding fish - Egypt Independent

 

[Steelyeyes]

The 1st encounter happened at Hookena, of all places. The 2nd was at Honokohau, shore diving of Crescent a.k.a. Dog Beach. You can watch my video from Honokohau here.

Previously, I've seen her couple of times from far away.

Great video!

 

[InTheDrink]

Relevant to the discussion: Red Sea boat crew fined, suspended for feeding fish - Egypt Independent

Thanks for the link and indeed very relevant to the discussion. I do wonder whether the boat sanctioned is the same boat(s) I think we’re complicit. I suspect they were not alone

 

[tarponchik]

Great video!

Thank you.

 

[scubaozy]

I watched the incident video several times and to me it seems that the owt is targeting the dangling camera attached to the wrist of the diver in both passes on the diver with shorty. Imho this is the behavior aggravated the situation before the attack on the other diver.

 

[InTheDrink]

I watched the incident video several times and to me it seems that the owt is targeting the dangling camera attached to the wrist of the diver in both passes on the diver with shorty. Imho this is the behavior aggravated the situation before the attack on the other diver.

I think that’s over complicating the scenario bit you may be right.

My take: erratic behaviour by diver in shortie. If he behaved calmly then I don’t think dangling camera would have make any difference.

Secondly and altho I have zero evidence on this particular dive as I wasn’t there, food or particles of food in the water probably combined to make this shark that excited.

YMMD

 

[HalcyonDaze]

I'm more inclined to think it's a response to diver behavior. If it were a matter of food in the water, Cat Island (where they do chum for OWs while divers are in the water) would be a no-go zone. OWs may be more prone to follow their nose given the environment they live in, but I doubt a few pieces of chicken are going to work them up into a frenzy.

As discussed earlier, there have been a couple of tiger shark incidents at the Cocos Islands where there isn't feeding, but there seems to be a consistent pattern of tiger sharks approaching or attacking divers separated from the main group and/or displaying signs of vulnerability.

 

[JackD342]

Starting to sound like advice for back country hiking and mountain lions. Stay together, and don’t anyone straggle behind or start limping as you do.

 

[johndiver999]

Starting to sound like advice for back country hiking and mountain lions. Stay together, and don’t anyone straggle behind or start limping as you do.

Very much so. Being alone with several sharks is very different than 2 or more divers grouped up tightly so that no avenue of approach is unobserved.

 

[scubaozy]

I do agree that erratic behaviour also exacerbate the situation but owt had targeted the dangling camera right away in the second pass. In this range, prominent sense is vision, not the lateral line. Have a look at , again owt is heading straight at the dsmb.
Unfortunately you cannot always choose who you are with in the water. This is a very unfortunate accident, victim and the disorganized divers are not even belonging to the same group/boat if I understood correctly.
I hear fewer to none incidents in provoked/baited dives around the world, mostly because operators have to take safety more seriously as their business rely on a clean record.
Red Sea shark diving has become too accessible to the masses and too casual. In one hand this is positive for the future of the sharks and the reefs on the other hand it is about time to do some changes by the operators. Diving with owt, silkies, bulls and tigers is never going to be 100% safe and there is no protocol that will guarantee an incident free encounter.
I am hoping that the dive guides will show this or similar videos to their customers in the future to demonstrate the consequences of casualness.