Marine Life Shark bite at Grand Bahama

[jonhall]

Last week an acquaintance I met diving on Grand Bahama was bitten by a shark. She had removed her fins and was standing on the ladder when a shark attacked and bit her lower leg. The quick actions of the dive shop owner and his wife are credited with saving her life, but she did have to have her lower leg amputated. She was treated in a hospital on the island and then airlifted to a Miami hospital where she is having a fourth surgery tomorrow, but she is in good spirits. She frequents Grand Bahama often and had completed her 500th dive at the end of May.

The dive site they were at/near was Shark Junction. The article I linked is pretty generic about the incident, but alludes to chumming causing erratic behavior of the sharks. I dove the site several times (twice just over a year ago) and sharks are pretty much trained to come see what's going on when divers first enter the water, but then lose interest when they realize it's not a "shark dive" where they're getting fed.

You can easily find the initial reports online (not much detail - the reason I didn't link those) as well as info for a GoFundMe page (which has good info about the victim.)

Just thought I'd share as a case of freaky and unexpected things that can happen.

Local divers believe chumming led to recent shark attack

Some Grand Bahama commercial divers said that chumming to attract sharks for tourist viewing is leading to alarming behavioral changes in the aquatic animals. During the past week, a 73-year-old

thenassauguardian.com

 

[gopbroek]

shark feeding / baiting occurs is not the best practice.

 

[Brodydog]

Unfortunately they will probably never stop bait feeding. They’re making way too much money. Greed over lives and injuries.

 

[rmorgan]

It’s been quite a couple of weeks. If people familiar with these waters are nervous and a diver’s leg gets bitten off on the ladder, perhaps it’s time for operators to keep a staff member underwater until everyone is on board. Chumming sharks, in my view, should be abandoned or prohibited.

 

[DandyDon]

Chumming sharks, in my view, should be abandoned or prohibited.

Many of us agree, but not going to happen.

Unfortunately they will probably never stop bait feeding. They’re making way too much money. Greed over lives and injuries.

perhaps it’s time for operators to keep a staff member underwater until everyone is on board.

That sounds like a good idea. A tourist in the water can keep watching around for attacking sharks, maintained eye contact which sharks don't like, and maybe even sacrifice a camera to an open mouth, but exiting the water does leave one more vulnerable.

There was some chumming at the site before her dive so they waited until it stopped, then did the dives, she exited the first time, removed her suit, went back in - perhaps a pee break, and got hit on the second exit...

Marshalltown woman after shark bite: ‘I was dying’

“There was blood everywhere,” she said. “I was dying. I was going to bleed to death. I was afraid I was going to die and was in severe pain.”

www.thegazette.com

 

[rmorgan]

There was some chumming at the site before her dive so they waited until it stopped, then did the dives, she exited the first time, removed her suit, went back in - perhaps a pee break, and got hit on the second exit...

Whoa. Best argument ever for peeing at depth. She notes that tourists in another boat had been hand-feeding the animals . . .

 

[DandyDon]

Best argument ever for peeing at depth.

Yeah, I remember 22 years ago on my first Discover dive, exiting the water, removing the borrowed wetsuit, and hurrying back into the water to pee. The captain said that most just pee in the suits, but it wasn't my suit so I just couldn't. Then I bought several suits of my own. My home dive bud said he understood that peeing is one of the reasons for the safety stop.

 

[drrich2]

The link DandyDon posted has some key info. I'd figured it was the standard 'chumming' I'm used to thinking about, whether a chum sickle for Caribbean reef sharks or a shark feeder handing out fish pieces to tiger sharks, either involving offering food at depth with observers at a bit of distance. No. From the article:

"Upon arrival, the divers noticed a glass-bottomed boat of tourists hand-feeding sharks at the surface so they could get a closer look. That compelled the divers to extend their “surface interval” between dives, allowing the “feeding frenzy” to subside. Once it did, the divers resumed their plans — which went off without a hitch as they mingled with the animals and snapped pictures of the reef.

Once they came up, Ernst took off her dive suit and jumped back in for a quick dip. But when she starting climbing the ladder to return to the boat, a shark got a hold of her leg, shaking its head side to side."

I would imagine the Caribbean reef sharks compete for the handouts at the surface beside tour boats. Awhile afterward, this unfortunate woman basically put a piece of meat (her leg) in the water at the surface.

Horrible thing to happen. Wonder how practical it would be to designate separate sites for shark feeding vs. regular diving, or making having a 'rear guard' of staff present and tell people no going in the water without that supervision?

 

[hammet]

pics in linked article:

US tourist, 73, loses leg in Bahamas shark attack while climbing onto boat

The attack happened as the expert scuba diver — who had just completed her 500th dive in May — was standing on a ladder to get back onto the boat.

nypost.com

 

[jonhall]

@DandyDon Thanks for posting the article. I saw it came out. Hesitated linking any articles in original post as they referred to the group snorkeling which wasn’t the case and I didn’t want to put her name out there until she was ready.

Wonder how practical it would be to designate separate sites for shark feeding vs. regular diving,

Wonder how many years it would take to break the habits/expectations the sharks have picked up over the past 20-30 years?!!!

Diving in Grand Bahama is unique. Sites are known by the experienced dive operators - there are no moorings for dive boats as they have been either destroyed by weather or vandalized. The dive op generally just puts you right above the best sites.