From a blog by:
https://b.kentbackman.com/
White hat hacker: A hacker who is legally authorized to use otherwise illegal means to achieve objectives critical to the security of computer systems.
Ocean explorer: Incompletely defined. One who uses activities such as diving, surf riding, kayaking and swimming to expand their knowledge and enjoyment of the ocean.
A former marine scientist, this blogs creator does computer security for a living, and ocean exploration in his free time. Kent has done computer security work for private, commercial and government entities, both foreign and domestic. Politically a nonconformist, Kent is rarely shy about expressing an opinion.
This is the first post of my new blog. I have been wanting to start up a blog again, ever since I shut down my invitation-only blog when I left Baghdad in late 2005. It took a bull shark and a Trojan to be discussed laterplus a return to Baghdadfor me to make the effort again. Baghdad is a place where blogging inside a mortar-and-rocket-hardened building with no windows is actually a much better choice than diving the nearest body of open water.
Assuming nice weather back home in Hawaii, diving or surfingor any number of other outdoor activitieswould usually win out over keyboard pounding away my free time.
But back to the incident a week ago that provoked the securing of a web server and my current keyboard spasm. It was the bite of a bull shark on the leg of passenger Markus Groh who was diving from Jim Abernethys Shear Water. The bite led to the divers unfortunate death, but not in how one might think. The cause of his death is now believed to have resulted from pulmonary edema and/or embolism brought on by too rapid of an ascent from depth. Please read about the incident at wetpixel.com, or you may wish to search for a radical hyper-sensationalized counterpoint at cyber diver yellow press idiot network run by Lamar Bennington. Notice how Lamar Bennington shows a photo with a guy in Speedos with his lower leg missing. This is NOT a photo of Markus Groh, the diver that was on the Shear Water. The idiot crook known as Lamar Bennington at cyber diver yellow press idiot network makes money from blatantly misleading sensationalism so I refuse to link to his web site. OK, he may not be stupid since he has been able to make more money from a web site than I have, but I love calling him a crook and an idiot. To help my attorney out should I need one, Lamar Bennington is an implement having a bent form with regard to his sensationalist so-called news editorials. For Googles sake, Lamar Bennington is
a crook and an idiot.
I dove with Jim back in 2001, before his shark dives on the Shear Water were such the rage and expense that they are now, booked far in advance. It is interesting that when I met Jim and told him about my experiences with sharks at Midway Atoll, he mentioned that he was recently recovering from a small reef shark bite in the buttocks, that had occurred a few weeks before. He had been paying more attention to video taping and did not cover his ass, literally and figuratively. I will speculate that the bite on Markus Groh may have included similar circumstances. Jim obviously made it to the surface safely after his bite seven years ago.
On one dive with Jim Abernethy we encountered seven different shark species. On the last dive of my trip I still had plenty of air in my tank after everyone else had already surfaced. I remained underwater by myself with two very large tiger sharks who were inspecting me from an ever decreasing distance. Jim knew that I had some prior experience with tiger sharks so I presume he made an exception by allowing me to be under water alone with two of these giant animals. These experiences were so powerful, I knew clearly then that these trips were going to be a hit with others who value uninhibited encounters with the oceans most amazing creatures.
Even if not stooping to the abysmal level of Lamar Bennington, the press in general sensationalizes the horror of death by shark attack, because horror sells. As far as I know, Markus passing is the first death related to commercial uncaged shark encounters. In actuality, this incident was a bite, not a gruesome attack. The shark bite contributed to the divers death, but he did not die from shark bite. Agreed: a serrated tear of an artery can have very poor prognosis, but it was the fear of something like that or the instinctive reflex to go to somewhere saferather than the actual bite itselfwhich caused Markus death. Markus chose to participate. He was a lawyer and a reasonably experienced diver who was familiar with the risks. He paid money to participate. I will venture Markus would probably be aghast if anyone tried to sue on his behalf.
So why dont fatal sky diving accidents generate such hoopla? Certainly a sky diver who has suffered a fatal 150mph ground attack would present a much more gruesome sight than even the unnamed speedo-clad individual featured on Lamars cyber diver yellow press idiot network. On the other hand, there are probably many people (middle America comes to mind) who are afraid of sharks and in a much larger sense of the ocean. They probably cannot understand how anyone survives an encounter with multiple beings the likes of which they have only encountered in their nightmares. These are people who chuckle about idiots paying to dive with sharks. They would just as likely contribute to shark protection funds as donate to Al Qaeda. But perhaps with Discovery Channel and other more enlightened media representations, there are fewer of these people than there used to be. Some of their children and offspring may even have dived with sharks.
I extend my deepest condolences to Markus Grohs family, as well as to Jim Abernethy and his family and employees. It is my hope that lawyers and politicians do not get involved in a punitive and legislative lynching, unless it happened to be solely directed at Lamar Bennington. Commercial shark diving encounters may not be the pinnacle of ethical animal treatment, but few will argue that shark finning is not far worse. If anything, shark encounters like that which I have had with Jim Abernethy have greatly affirmed my resolve to protect sharks. For that reason alone, sharks need a few people like Jim Abernethy to turn the tide that is currently flowing towards extinction.
Sorry. Cant help myself. Here it is. Lamar Bennington is a crook and an idiot. Is that enough trouble for my first post?
I fear more control from the only death from this kind of activity and it was panic as I said and not the shark!
