Shark attack, Egypt, Brothers islands

[InTheDrink]

Listen I think we’re essentially agreeing.

You have made very valid points. Especially about the median level of diver experience and number of boats.

I think we both agree that the risk level currently has increased significantly and I don’t think anyone can say why for sure. I was pretty sure about my theories but am no longer so sure. Something is going on beyond boat activity and diver experience. What, I don’t know. But never before have I felt anxious for divers with these sharks. At the moment I do. Very concerned.

 

[InTheDrink]

Pelagic shark’s longest range sensor is hearing followed by smell. In the open ocean, they will follow whatever they sense and investigate and stay with it until they get more signal from something else. They probably have also seasonal moves to compensate temperatures and breeding and all the other things that they do that no one knows yet.
Feeding is not common practice, there are some black sheep like in any other business. But foodrests will be released when the dishes are being washed, so make sure you finish what is in your plate or better to polish it with a piece of bread.
In my personal view and experience, owt behavior has not changed that much over the years. They were already very aggressive towards the divers as the literature also suggest. We have become overly complacent with low incident rate and too many unprepared divers are going into the water because they are told “it will be fine” by the others.
I am always wary of diving with owt and every single dive I did with them, I observed a moment that could go wrong, even they were not extremely agitated.

I agree with a lot of what you said. I’ve only been on one trip there this year. But behaviour has changed. They have got a lot more aggressive. I had theories but I’m not sure I’m right now. But they are significantly more confident even the small ones.

 

[Christian]

Too many rumors flying around.
Just to be clear, shark feeding or baiting for sharks is forbidden in Egypt. I have not seen it practiced in the past 15 years in the marine parks. With that said, I’m sure it happens sometimes with less serious operators. But it is rare. Not at all like in Bahamas or SA where baiting and feeding is the norm.
My experience is that OWT always have been bold towards divers. There has been incidents every now and then. Not always reported. Real problems occur when you combine OWT:s with people with little or no experience. Like the 2010 Sharm incidents. It was normal OWT behaviour on a tourist beach. Unusual (allthough not unlikely) areas for open ocean sharks to venture, very deep waters close to shore. My thoughts at that moment were ”this is what happens when you combine longimanus with normal tourists, nothing altered or wrong with the shark behavior. The outcome would be the same if those tourists were dropped at Brothers or Elphinstone, where thousands of encounters happens every year”.
Some sharks behave different than others. In my experience some times they are collectively more aggressive, what the reason is I don’t know. Mating perhaps? Or as suggested a boat dumped food scraps in the water 30 minutes ago.
The marine parks (Brothers/Deadalus/Rocky island) have been closed for diving before, during the mid 90’s for 3-4 years (96-99). I dived Brother Islands in 1999 for the first time on one of the first trips after they reopened as Marine Parks. It was summer so only a few stray OWT:s, but they behaved like I have seen them behave after that in the Red Sea. (we had silkies around the boat at night that the crew performed the chicken on a string routine on, very aggressive - I would n o t have entered the water with them). Sometimes you just should get out. Most of the time they just circle you keeping a few metres distance.
Perhaps closing the parks for a short period of time again and enforce more strict demands and control on operators. Not allowing 20+ boats at the same time on Brothers or the other parks (include E-stone inmo).

 

[HalcyonDaze]

But never before have I felt anxious for divers with these sharks.

With all due respect, that outlook concerns me. I have yet to dive with OWs, but based on my experience with bulls and tigers I am always anxious for divers with them. They are wild animals that can do a lot of damage in a hurry, and it behooves one to respect that. I very rarely take friends on the shark dives I do and only if I'm confident in their skills; even then I'm watching out for them. The "sharks are not dangerous" slide can be pushed too far to the end of the scale; my favorite example being the "researcher" who decided to do an on-camera interview to that effect in hip-deep water with about a dozen big bull sharks and lost his calf. He was treating them like koi in a pond instead of opportunistic predators.

My experience is that OWT always have been bold towards divers. There has been incidents every now and then. Not always reported. Real problems occur when you combine OWT:s with people with little or no experience. Like the 2010 Sharm incidents. It was normal OWT behaviour on a tourist beach. Unusual (allthough not unlikely) areas for open ocean sharks to venture, very deep waters close to shore. My thoughts at that moment were ”this is what happens when you combine longimanus with normal tourists, nothing altered or wrong with the shark behavior. The outcome would be the same if those tourists were dropped at Brothers or Elphinstone, where thousands of encounters happens every year”.

...

Perhaps closing the parks for a short period of time again and enforce more strict demands and control on operators. Not allowing 20+ boats at the same time on Brothers or the other parks (include E-stone inmo).

I agree with this seeming like what happens when you combine boatloads of complacent or unskilled divers with pushy sharks. As you mentioned, there are other locations in the world where they bait for OWs and this doesn't happen, so I doubt people scraping their plates over the side is the trigger. The difference is that those other locations have MUCH less diver traffic and they're there specifically to see the sharks, which means they get a more thorough briefing and stricter supervision from the DMs. For the bull and tiger shark dives I do, we're given explicit instructions to stay in a group behind the DM and at the same depth, and if someone gets out of formation they get honked at and rounded up pretty quick.

As stated, the first critique I have of the clip shown is that none of the divers seem to be treating an agitated shark with the warranted level of caution. The diver closest to it at the start (the one whose bubbles seem to startle the shark at the 0:03 mark) has her back turned to it - HUGE no-no; every single diver should have had their full attention on it from the start. Once the shark starts trying to have a go at the shorty diver, which should have been the "back off and call the dive" point, the group actually closes around the shark and the victim essentially blunders right into it.

 

[InTheDrink]

Yeah agree mostly. I’m quite conflicted. Normally interactions with these sharks is safe. Right now I don’t feel so.

I’ll defer to experts and particularly Elke but in my own humble opinion I think they need to close Brothers for a while. Just don’t want to see anyone else hurt.

 

[InTheDrink]

With all due respect, that outlook concerns me. I have yet to dive with OWs, but based on my experience with bulls and tigers I am always anxious for divers with them. They are wild animals that can do a lot of damage in a hurry, and it behooves one to respect that. I very rarely take friends on the shark dives I do and only if I'm confident in their skills; even then I'm watching out for them. The "sharks are not dangerous" slide can be pushed too far to the end of the scale; my favorite example being the "researcher" who decided to do an on-camera interview to that effect in hip-deep water with about a dozen big bull sharks and lost his calf. He was treating them like koi in a pond instead of opportunistic predators.



I agree with this seeming like what happens when you combine boatloads of complacent or unskilled divers with pushy sharks. As you mentioned, there are other locations in the world where they bait for OWs and this doesn't happen, so I doubt people scraping their plates over the side is the trigger. The difference is that those other locations have MUCH less diver traffic and they're there specifically to see the sharks, which means they get a more thorough briefing and stricter supervision from the DMs. For the bull and tiger shark dives I do, we're given explicit instructions to stay in a group behind the DM and at the same depth, and if someone gets out of formation they get honked at and rounded up pretty quick.

As stated, the first critique I have of the clip shown is that none of the divers seem to be treating an agitated shark with the warranted level of caution. The diver closest to it at the start (the one whose bubbles seem to startle the shark at the 0:03 mark) has her back turned to it - HUGE no-no; every single diver should have had their full attention on it from the start. Once the shark starts trying to have a go at the shorty diver, which should have been the "back off and call the dive" point, the group actually closes around the shark and the victim essentially blunders right into it.

Yeah you’re right. I’m not cautious and may be wrong but yeah too many blunders. Eye contact is pretty basic but essential

 

[dmaziuk]

@dmaziuk , I disagree. You cannot compare two countries in this context.

So why did you?

 

[Steph75]

Info: Any diving at Brother Islands is prohibited from Dec. 7 to Dec. 31, 2018 (acc. to CDWS = Chamber of Diving & Water Sports). It is said that they want to study the behaviour of the sharks.

 

[scubadada]

Info: Any diving at Brother Islands is prohibited from Dec. 7 to Dec. 31, 2018 (acc. to CDWS = Chamber of Diving & Water Sports). It is said that they want to study the behaviour of the sharks.

I could not find this announcement on their website, do you have a source for the information? I have sent the CDWS an inquiry.

 

[Steph75]

I got this information from a German scuba board and it is also discussed on fb. Please search for cd
ws on fb and you will find it as the first post. It's in Arabic, but with some imagination you can understand the translation (at least from Arabic to German, perhaps the English translation is "better").