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On Bonaire recently, two kids went in the water near where fisherman had tossed their leavings. they both sustained serious moray bites on their legs, one quite deep. And I know a seasoned dive professional who opened a bag of guts on the bottom and a moray sped in and bit her in the jugular. Her colleague was close enough to react and get her to the surface, but it otherwise would almost surely have been fatal. Same place, sharks follow divers around because they know lion fish will be speared and left for them.
On a dive in Roatan two morays got too friendly - the DM said because people feed them regularly. Made for great video as they seemed particularly interested in one member of our group. He got the best video!
I know this is a controversial subject but I don't want to be anywhere near where they feed sharks or morays. I also don't want to be on a dive with lionfish spearos. I know sharks and morays have been known to challenge divers for their catch. I'm too much of a scaredy cat.
Rs daughter and family lived on Kwaj (South Pacific - Marshall Islands) for a few years. The island people would feed the sharks on the side of the island that was too rough for swimmers, to train them to stay on that side. The way she described it it sounded very rough - so maybe a good idea.
All we ever see are nurse sharks these days and that's a-ok with me.
There were many Lemons at Tiger Beach.Tarponchik, I’ve never seen a lemon shark on the half dozen feeds or so I’ve watched in Nassau and Bimini. That doesn’t mean they aren’t there, I’ve just never seen them.
Kimela, I’ve been on a couple of Lion Fish spearing dives (observing, not spearing) and the most aggressive consumers of the speared Lion Fish were Nassau Groupers. Sharks do seem to love them too. I haven’t seen any Morays around when lion fish were being speared.
What are the usual means of diversion that you are referring to? Aren't scuba divers taught, in emergency situations, to make sure there are not two victims and make sure they are protecting themselves from injury FIRST? Can you provide a little more detail as to how you envision this to work from a practical standpoint?
Hope she heals quickly. That has to be very challenging! Let her know she has support and love!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-oldthenassauguardian.com
