Shark Attacks in Cozumel

[lovedivingalways]

Haley,
Do you have questions for anyone on this forum? Some people have been here a very long time.

 

[haleygarcia]

Not that I can think of at the moment, thanks for asking though.

 

[lovedivingalways]

Thank you! I truly believe everything happens for a reason, the good and the bad. With God, my brothers and I have been able to get through it. I was in Cozumel with my mom 2 years prior to her death. I was 9 when I went to Cozumel with her so I was too young to dive then but I did some snorkling and I don't dive now. My mom was an avid diver and loved everything about it. As a matter of fact she would always tell us that when she did die, she wanted to be creamated and she wanted her ashes scattered in the ocean in Cozemul. Kind of ironic thats where she ended up dying. I'm glad I found this website to be able to read everyone's posts, I think it helps. However, some I do not aggree with, which I think is normal.

Feel free to comment on posts that you do not agree with!!

 

[transliterart]

Every year we visit Cozumel, and I have been diving annually in Cozumel for the past 5 years. Though we don´t stay on the island and opt to stay in a Playa del Carmen all inclusive resort we have probably logged about 100 dives in and around the area. I have never even seen a shark there apart from nurse sharks, if you want to see bull sharks you have to stay in Playa from December to February. In general in is rare to encounter sharks in Cozumel unless you are diving Barracuda or other hard-to-get-to sites with strong currents.

 

[Les Clements]

I was there on Cozumel when Mary was killed. Later I spoke with Burgess when the locals tried to claim she drowned. Burgess said ‘yes, she drowned alright, right after the shark bit her almost in half’
Diver saw her light quickly being dragged over the shelf.
Years later at a school function a group was chatting about diving, I mentioned this incident and one lady in the group said ‘I was Mary’s roommate on that trip’ !!!
Lbclements@aol.com
Picture: Aya Gruber, Bimini, attorney at law
Her father Dr Sonny Gruber told me to not worry ‘she’s a lawyer and is used to swimming with sharks’

Not to alarm anyone but in honor of shark week, my "shark week" addicted husband was researching shark attacks and found 3 recorded fatal attacks on divers in Cozumel. One was on June 11, 1993 when a 42 year old Dallas female was killed on Santa Rosa Shallows. The other 2 were on the same day, August 15, 1997 when a 33 year old and a 28 year old male diver, both from North Carolina, were both killed while diving Santa Rosa. All 3 incidents were reported to be Tiger Shark attacks. The 2 men killed on Santa Rosa were reported as an attack by a 17' Tiger. Source of information for these attacks is How to search GSAF data.

My question is does anyone have any "better" information on these documented attacks? We have been diving Cozumel since 1981 and other than Nurse Sharks, I saw a couple of Blacktips while diving but did not get a photo. On shark week the other night they interviewed the Canadian woman who was attacked in Cancun a while back. The attack was though to be by a Bull Shark yet the lady said she thought it was a Tiger.

With the millions of divers in Cozumel over the years, ones chances of winning the lotto is better than a shark attack. I just thought this was interesting and besides, I'll bet the title got everyone's attention.

I'm guessing the thought is there are very few tiger sharks in the area. If they find a tiger in the area then it is the likely culprit since there aren't many tiger sharks. I think that's a bit of a reach, though.

---------- Post added August 10th, 2013 at 10:13 AM ----------



When you dive to 500 feet on "air" then anything could have happen and probably did. Breathing toxic oxygen and having narcosis at the same time. He could have blacked out and drowned and the "shark attack" could have come after his death. They said they never recovered the other guy.

The lady from Dallas could have gotten lost or who knows what could have happened on a night dive while she was by herself. Again, she could have drowned by running out of air. Imagine if her dive light and gone out and she got disoriented and panicked. Again, no one knows, but a shark could have then scavanged on her. I don't think there's proof that a shark has still ever attacked a live human in Cozumel. However, I will say, I didn't know there were any tigers in the area. I only thought there were bull sharks near playa/cancun area and I know they migrate there and rumored to only be there in the winter. Then again, the tigers may just hang out primarily in the channel and be there rarely, too.

Not to alarm anyone but in honor of shark week, my "shark week" addicted husband was researching shark attacks and found 3 recorded fatal attacks on divers in Cozumel. One was on June 11, 1993 when a 42 year old Dallas female was killed on Santa Rosa Shallows. The other 2 were on the same day, August 15, 1997 when a 33 year old and a 28 year old male diver, both from North Carolina, were both killed while diving Santa Rosa. All 3 incidents were reported to be Tiger Shark attacks. The 2 men killed on Santa Rosa were reported as an attack by a 17' Tiger. Source of information for these attacks is How to search GSAF data.

My question is does anyone have any "better" information on these documented attacks? We have been diving Cozumel since 1981 and other than Nurse Sharks, I saw a couple of Blacktips while diving but did not get a photo. On shark week the other night they interviewed the Canadian woman who was attacked in Cancun a while back. The attack was though to be by a Bull Shark yet the lady said she thought it was a Tiger.

With the millions of divers in Cozumel over the years, ones chances of winning the lotto is better than a shark attack. I just thought this was interesting and besides, I'll bet the title got everyone's attention.

 

[ggunn]

Why are we talking about this? The number of dangerous sharks in the waters around Cozumel is either zero or a very small number. The risk of being attacked by one is a very small fraction of that - either zero or a very small fraction of a very small number.

I'm not worried.

 

[Les Clements]

I'm guessing the thought is there are very few tiger sharks in the area. If they find a tiger in the area then it is the likely culprit since there aren't many tiger sharks. I think that's a bit of a reach, though.

---------- Post added August 10th, 2013 at 10:13 AM ----------



When you dive to 500 feet on "air" then anything could have happen and probably did. Breathing toxic oxygen and having narcosis at the same time. He could have blacked out and drowned and the "shark attack" could have come after his death. They said they never recovered the other guy.

The lady from Dallas could have gotten lost or who knows what could have happened on a night dive while she was by herself. Again, she could have drowned by running out of air. Imagine if her dive light and gone out and she got disoriented and panicked. Again, no one knows, but a shark could have then scavanged on her. I don't think there's proof that a shark has still ever attacked a live human in Cozumel. However, I will say, I didn't know there were any tigers in the area. I only thought there were bull sharks near playa/cancun area and I know they migrate there and rumored to only be there in the winter. Then again, the tigers may just hang out primarily in the channel and be there rarely, too.

There’s proof of at least 3 fatal attacks. Any effort to shift the cause of Marys death is....uninformed.

 

[ggunn]

There’s proof of at least 3 fatal attacks. Any effort to shift the cause of Marys death is....uninformed.

I would say that there may be proof of three occurrences where divers were bitten by sharks and those divers died, but whether all the bites occurred before or after the divers died isn't solidly established. At any rate, three such events compared to all the Cozumel dives which have taken place over the same time period is minuscule. I'm not worried.

 

[mediumone]

And when a 4 1/2 year old thread is revived, I'm always a bit puzzled, (and skeptical).

 

[Soloist]

We saw a large hammerhead at Palancar Reef in February of 2018. We were finishing up an afternoon dive at 30 feet. Definitely got our attention. Here’s a picture. Fast forward to the 1:57 mark to see video.