Shark Badly Bites Swimmer in Cancun Today

[jerryseinfeld]

Again I repeat, I do not, nor would I ever, blame a wild animal for doing what it does instinctively. I have now posted this three times.

What I am questioning is the wisdom of Divers encouraging the protection feeding and breeding of sharks in highly populated tourist areas literally minutes from shallow beaches with thousands of innocent humans.

I would also contend that claiming the sea is a sharks "house" is a simplistic and naive way of looking at the world, and somewhat biased toward wildlife and away from humans, an odd stance for a human.

All species share common spaces in the world, including beautiful humans. We are bleessed to have been given the gift of being able to teach ourselves to swim, SCUBA, boat, lounge, and even fly! This makes even the sky our domain, in limited amounts, and doesn't mean 80 people deserve to crash if an airplane's engine accidentally runs through a flying gaggle of geese.

What is important is that we enjoy nature responsibly, and this means not encouraging dangerous wild animal activity which undoubtebly will lead to tragic interaction as we saw with the shark attack in Cancun.

It is well known that Bull Sharks have frequented an area just off Playa Del Carmen for years to breed and feed. From time to time, fishermen havee rightfully caught these sharks as part of the natural ecosystem. When divers and dive shops interrupt this natural cycle by protecting a dangerous species, feeding them, attracting them, encouraging them to flourish and breed, it is an irresposible interruption of the balance of nature, and quite expected that eventually it will have consequences.

Contrary to your opinion, sharks do not have exculsive somain over the sea. We as humans have been given the gift of the ability to swim, which means taking a dip in waist high water is not an unnatural activity or an "invasion" of something's house, as you put it, but a natural enjoyment of the earth just like eating a banana. Again, not the sharks fault. But interestingly, when the shark felt "threatened", it struck out with violence to control the situation.

Why should humans be faulted for acting the same way? Obviously humans now feel threatened by the sharks, yet for some reason you would fault humans for acting to protect themselves by killing/tagging/controlling the shark population?

Again, an odd contradiction. And for the record, not everyone who politely expresses a different opinion from yours is a troll. This is an important issue as many Canadians love to go down to those beaches. It's a shame that excessive eco-ism from a few may spoil that for the many.

Which leads me to one last point: Shark attack statistics are law of large numbers kind off stuff. If SCUBA uber protection, feeding or lack of fishing is causing a bull shark population to swell off the coast of the yucatan, these statistics are meaningless. Obviously more shark attacks will occur where there are more sharks. Is this disputed? So in this case (I suppose time will tell), are we blaming humans for getting "ever closer" to sharks? Seems to me the only people doing that are divers. Dipping into waist high water in front of a hotel isn't "ever more daring" behavior by humans.

But disturbing the balance of the eco-system so you can have a thrilling dive just might be.

 

[lsorenson]

All species share common spaces in the world, including beautiful humans.

Human beings have every right, if not more, than animals, to enjoy the earth peacefully.

JS, I think you’re being just a little irrational about this…

Did you watch the evening news last night to see just what we "beautiful humans" are doing to each other??? It’s pretty sad what we "beautiful humans" have done... We destroy pretty much everything we come in contact with and then wonder why the earth is turning on us... Wars, pollution, famine, drugs, poverty, killings, overcrowding, just for starters…

Not sure how the “Dive Community” is responsible for the shark attacks… After all, it’s us “beautiful humans” doing the feeding… or are these "rights" just for some humans and not all humans?

Respectfully, lee

 

[lsorenson]

Which leads me to one last point: Shark attack statistics are law of large numbers kind off stuff. If SCUBA uber protection, feeding or lack of fishing is causing a bull shark population to swell off the coast of the yucatan, these statistics are meaningless. Obviously more shark attacks will occur where there are more sharks. Is this disputed? So in this case (I suppose time will tell), are we blaming humans for getting "ever closer" to sharks? Seems to me the only people doing that are divers. Dipping into waist high water in front of a hotel isn't "ever more daring" behavior by humans.

On second thought; Your right.... I'm sorry!!! I say, lets kill them all!!! Every fricken one of them... Then we can go after the Barracuda's... Them pesky Killer Whales... Heck, I had a crab clamp down on my toe once, can we go after them as well?

It was a tragic accident that happened... No more, no less... Somebody's mother, sister, wife, aunt was injured and that in itself is painful to the many directly effected. But no more tragic than the car hit by a drunk driver last night leaving 2 dead... At least the shark bite was a accident...!

 

[DandyDon]

If SCUBA uber protection, feeding or lack of fishing is causing a bull shark population to swell off the coast of the yucatan, these statistics are meaningless.

Nope, they're vanishing quickly. Feeding them by a small number of Operators is part of why they are.

As far as wildlife interactions with humans turning violent, it's going to happen - sorry, when we venture into their domains: woods, oceans, tundras, etc. We try to minimize our risks, but killing off all of the predators or even trying to fence them out just ruins the system we want to visit.

If you want to ensure safety, stick to greenhouses and swimming pools.

 

[markmantei]

An interesting perspective, however Sharks are generally mirauding creatures, and I would argue a shark has no claim more claim over a shallow bit of beachfront than a woman swimming in it does - they are simply two creatures temporarily visiting a piece of unclaimed real estate. To say otherwise would be to justify shooting a dog if happens to wander into your pond hockey game. No creature has claim that other is "invading" any piece of public space on god's green (or in this case blue) earth. All of that said, certainly a shark cannot be blamed for acting instinctively.

Killing sharks, hunting them down, or tagging them, has nothing to do with revenge or finding the "culpible" shark. It's about public safety.

You have to admit, while diving with wild sharks may be a unique thrill for some people, these people are in a small minority, and protecting an agressive species of predator at the risk of public safety (not to mention precarious mexican tourism economics!) strikes an odd balance.

I find it a unique position to take, suggesting that no action be taken to control shark attacks on public beaches, other than to say "hey - if you go in the water, you have it coming!". Sharks may be a beautiful beast in their own way, but they also happen to pose a menacing threat to innocent people.

Just because you happen to love africanized bees doesn't give you the right to encourage their breeding in the parkade of a shopping mall. If the bees become a problem and start killing people, you don't picket the mall for bee protection and blame people for shopping there. You do the right thing and bring in an exterminator.

Jerry, I hope you are open minded enough to learn from some of the members on this board, and some of your misconceptions about the dive community can be corrected. I think your assertion that divers by and large are selfish enough to risk public safety for their own thrills is just plain wrong. I feel that by and large the serious scuba community does not condone shark feeding as it alters share behavior, although we are well aware that it happens. The typical customers of these irresponsible dive ops are the tourists who do not know any better, tourists who just figured it would be fun to get a c-card one day, and the next day think it would be thrilling to go face to face with a killer. The serious divers wish to experience these magnificent animals in a safe and peaceful NATURAL environment, if we seek them out at all. I have never seen a bull shark under water in the PDC area, however it is one of my favorite places to dive.

Your assertion that we should be culling Sharks in the area is absolutly ridiculous. Vending machines kill 4 times as many people than sharks each year (omg-facts.com/view/Facts/525). I do not see anyone campaigning for the wholesale slaughter of vending machines. No one picketing outside the malls for their removal. This one woman was injured, and you propose killing many sharks. Which do you think was the over-reaction to perceived threat, the shark or your inclination to "cull" the shark population. One incident, that you agree is neither the swimmer or the sharks fault, should not result in the wholesale slaughter of sharks in the area no more than it should result in the closing of the hotels and beaches. It was an accident and accidents happen. If anything could have possibly prevented the incident, it might have been the temporary closing of the beach following reports of a shark in shallow water, although I have no idea what the time lag was following the initial sightings and the attack.

I hope that you can learn what a wondrous and peaceful world exists below the waves and how the life below enriches our life above the water. That includes all of the animals that call the ocean home, even the ones we sometimes should be rightfully cautious of.

 

[DandyDon]

I feel that by and large the serious scuba community does not condone shark feeding as it alters share behavior...

I think maybe "do not support"...?

Chummed shark dives are very popular with too many divers in Roatan, Bahamas, and other places. Not common tho.

 

[markmantei]

Chummed shark dives are very popular with too many divers in Roatan, Bahamas, and other places. Not common tho.

Didn't mean to imply that some of these dives are not popular, rather I was suggesting that the typical customer is more likely to be the thrill seeking vacation diver rather than a member of the "scuba community" that jerryseinfeld has tried to address here. I would suggest that generally speaking the diving community is often intensely opposed to the negative alteration of the native environment (artificial reefs notwithstanding). I am also not saying that all divers that engage in shark dives that involve feeding are irresponsible, but I certainly feel that the shops (that should know better) in PDC are being irresponsible with the baited dives. It is particularly the type of incident that we are discussing here that is one of the concerns of associating humans with food on baited shark dives, although it appears in this case to be a defensive reaction by the shark (so I am not implying that shark feeding had anything to do with this incident).

 

[firstdive2005]

JS-I am sad that not enough is done to teach the public about how eco systems work. All of them. I live close to the mountains and I see people jumping out of the cars to take pictures of the cute mountain sheep on the road. They have no idea.....
I respect your opinion only in that you feel the need to protect humans from harm, admirable. I dont respect your opinion of the solution to try and fix this potential harm by culling the sharks. This serves no purpose in my opinion other than to serve a blood lust for revenge and a 'sense' of protection.
Maybe a better solution to the issue of harm to the shore swimmers would be to place protective fencing at depths deeper than the swimmers go. Like the prison fence at the ray prison on Cozumel or the prison fence around the dolphin prison. This would actually work better than an attempted cull I believe as it would keep them out for sure. The beautiful sharks will always come back until extinction to this area as it is their instinct to breed there. Like the Eagle rays and Whale sharks they instinctively come come back every year to the area.
The issue is money! It is cheaper to try and kill them(a temporary solution at best) instead of placing the fences around the resorts.
JS why not try and start something with the larger crowd(divers are minimal in the area) and petition the resort owners to put up the fences. I believe this to be a viable solution and it wont upset the delicate eco balance we are ignorantly destroying.
just a thought. kevin

 

[jbtut]

Does not every resort along the beach have a pool?

Even easier than killing all the sharks, why not simply use the pool if the risk is too great for you to enter the water?

 

[DandyDon]

Actually protective fencing in South Africa does more harm than good, but that's another story. Check it out sometime.

As it is now is best. Millions go swimming at Cancun every year, and once a nice lady got hurt. Sad but accidents happen. Driving to the airport is more dangerous.