Shark attack in Egypt

[drrich2]

You mentioned a number of things worth unpacking.

There's also the matter of, for lack of a better term, personality. The photo with the tiger going at a washing machine drum was from French Polynesia; after coming across four or five different tigers in two days there I came away feeling like the ones at Tiger Beach must be gulping down marijuana bales on a regular basis.

Thanks for the info. Regional differences in temperment/behavior are good to know of. I've read elsewhere that while in the U.S. we regard sand tiger sharks are pretty benign, in some parts of the world, they don't.

I know people who freedive with tigers, bulls, makos, oceanic whitetips

Of those, the oceanic white tips are the ones that seem a particularly odd choice for free-diving. I've heard of them coming at divers, the importance of maintaining eye contact, the intensity of diving with them at times...

With oceanic whitetips we were explicitly told not to dive down on them as even the little ~5 footer had a "bring it" reaction

Big issue there - at what size does a given shark species become a concern (if you're not handling food)? That oceanic white tip that took out that guy's calf didn't look over 6 feet to me, if that. I get the impression their 'danger size' is smaller than for some species?

 

[Dan]

Check this out! They like test biting diver’s shoulder apparently.

 

[Dan]

These ones were showing the attack mode (lowering pectoral fins).

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Check this out! They like test biting diver’s shoulder apparently.

That was exactly the experience we had in the channel between Tahiti and Moorea, minus the pilot whales and the bite. We had stopped at a FAD (Fish Aggregation Device) buoy anchored in 10,000 ft of water halfway between the two islands hoping to see an OW, billfish, or other pelagic species. I was slow in getting ready and the other four snorkelers had already gone in and swam over to the buoy; they were about to call it quits and go back to the boat when they saw me slide in and decided to wait for me. The OW turned up just as I got to the group and likewise would come in from a direction, wave off, swim off into the distance, and then come back from another direction a few minutes later. She was definitely trying to get the drop on us, even if she wasn't coming in as hot as the one in the Hawaii video.

There's a short clip of one of those passes at 0:59 here, as well as some footage of us freediving with gray reef and tiger sharks before that:


I wasn't on the 2018 trip, but I knew four of the people in the water for the bit at 0:47 where Lex holds up five fingers and then three - they had eight OWs at once and things got a bit more hectic than shown in the video.


I would say the only other times I've had that vibe from a shark were once from DJenny the tiger in bad viz off Jupiter (and even then there was a certain laziness to it; she certainly could have put teeth on a few divers and didn't) and once from a mako off Cabo that was definitely moving in on my six when I had to turn and swim back towards the boat and took tail feathers off some of the birds floating on the water. The OW stands out though because the tiger had a definite size and power advantage over us and while I was as big or bigger than the mako, she held all the cards on speed and agility. We had that little OW outnumbered 5-1 and all of us were bigger than her; she still wanted to test us.

 

[Dan]

Someday I’ll be in French Polynesia to check out those OW. I was supposed to be there in last May on French Polynesia Master until the pandemic messed up my plan. Then it ran aground. Rescheduled the trip to last October. Then they cancelled the trip as the boat is moving to Galápagos as Galápagos Master 2. As compensation, I’ll be on that boat in Galápagos in November 2021.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Someday I’ll be in French Polynesia to check out those OW. I was supposed to be there in last May on French Polynesia Master until the pandemic messed up my plan. Then it ran aground. Rescheduled the trip to last October. Then they cancelled the trip as the boat is moving to Galápagos as Galápagos Master 2. As compensation, I’ll be on that boat in Galápagos in November 2021.

OWs seem to be hit or miss out in FP; as stated the year before I went they got swarmed by eight of them and then we just saw one. Buuuuuut the group the previous year never saw any tigers and we got four or five. If I wanted to do a dedicated trip for OWs I'm thinking Cat Island in the Bahamas has to be on my list.

I'd definitely go back to Moorea, but I think I'd prioritize the Tuamotus for my next FP trip. Kori is still trying to get logistics for a shark trip out there set up:

Watch SharkFest 2020 Season 1 Episode 1 World's Biggest Tiger Shark? Online

 

[JustSurfaceInterval]

Now, we are really far away from Egypt... But at least it's still about sharks...

 

[Dan]

Welcome to SB!

 

[Dan]

Back to Red Sea and this is a really good footage of Longimanus attack & the follow up surgery of another unfortunate German diver.

 

[drrich2]

That video, and other accounts, brings up a line of thinking I hadn't considered much. Years ago, I read of great whites striking large elephant seals on the rear, effectively crippling them so they drown, without sticking around to 'fight it out' - so a lower risk tactic for the shark.

When I've read or seen video of oceanic white-tips, a pelagic opportunist, biting then backing off, I thought maybe it was due to agitation from perceived provocation leading to an aggressive outburst, or maybe an exploratory bite leading to breaking off the attack when the human in gear didn't 'taste right.' And the diver who lost a calf in the Red Sea attack seemed all the odder because the shark was 'outnumbered' by the group.

But from the shark's viewpoint, most creatures that school don't team up and fight predators far as I know (some animals do - sperm whales under orca attack, water buffalo, elephants).

Any thoughts on whether these 'bite and release' tactics might be intended to give time for blood lose to maybe kill the diver? Also, in their habitat, potential prey items wouldn't normally crawl out of the water (onto a boat, etc...)...maybe if the shark's willing to play a waiting game, infection may play a role? Or with a larger prey item like a human, perhaps blood might draw other sharks to assist in the kill (which would happen if our blood were like fish blood?)?

Basically, I'm asking if the oceanic white-tip sharks are instinctively employing a more complex kill strategy than some may be giving them credit for?