How many of us here would be afraid to do a shark dive? My guess is very few because we know that we have a very low probability of being injured or and an astronomically low probability of being killed by sharks even in a situation in which chum, blood, or other attractants are present in the water. One of the reasons that we know this is because people have been working with these animals for many years doing shark dives, shark feeds, shark observation, etc. The commercial operations that bring divers into close encounters with sharks are often the same operations that bring the world's scientists and filmmakers into the same encounters. The diving professionals who work with these animals on a daily basis continually learn aspects of shark behavior we would never know if not for the ability to encounter them day after day week after week and month after month. Scientists are often clued into studying shark behavior in a systematic way by the dive guides who begin to notice various behavioral patterns and filmmakers record the behavior to be viewed by both scientists and the general public. All of this increases our awareness of what sharks are capable of learning through interactions with humans. We've come a long way since Jaws and regarding these creatures as mindless eating machines. Thanks to commercial shark diving operations the revenue from sport divers to experience seeing and interacting with sharks allows dive industry professionals the time in the water to learn and observe and inform icthyologists and marine biologists about information that would otherwise be lost. It's also easier for scientists to find and study these animals because there are locations where sharks frequent thanks to shark feeding and shark diving. It's possible to observe sharks with learned behavior interacting with humans as well as finding the same species in remote areas and comparing behaviors. With so much ocean in the world, it would be a great loss to shut down such activities when the overall impact on the world's shark population is not even really affected by the few places in which behavior may be modified. Becoming ignorant of new knowledge, facts and understanding would be far more tragic than the very rare times when a person will be injured or killed in the history of the activity.
Since EPCOT was mentioned, I did The Living Seas dive thanks to NAUI at DEMA. NAUI provided my boss at Lehigh Valley Dive Center with tickets for the experience. While in the tank, I was mostly stressed out by having to dive in split fins. We had several shark species swimming with us, but guess what animal divers have to be protected from in the experience - dolphins! If you ask those instructors and industry pros who work with both sharks and dolphins, the dolphins are more problematic and cause more injury when interacting with humans. I've also done shark dives with the guides in chainmail with a large group and in a private charter in which professional filming was done. There is a lot more to doing shark feeds than the average customer realizes. The pros also know a lot more about shark behavior in general and about shark behavior on a given day than people know. There are times when the sharks really do not want to take the food and other times when the feeder is getting constantly bumped while trying to feed. Many of the bites that happen to the dive pros may be considered deserved because they do something that they know they shouldn't do such as a non-chainmailed safety diver handling bait prior to the dive. The scent might be on the diver and a shark may explore the possibility that a hand or arm is a fish. Minor injuries are part of thye job for the dive pros just as dog bites are part of being in veternary medicine or pet grooming.
If the shark bite wasn't the cause of death in this case and DCI/AGE was to blame due to a rapid ascent, it also doesn't sit well to crucify someone for being fatally injured while trying to escape such a situation. Looking back on every accident I've ever had around the house or in a car, hindsight is always 20/20. Accidents happen underwater and due to the nature of water, pressure and the fact that we can't breathe it will exacerbate any emergency situation. A frightened person trying to flee from a grizzly isn't met with the pressure changes that a diver fleeing a shark bite must face.
Monday morning quarterbacking, speculation, accident analysis, etc., won't change the fact that an accident such as this is extremely unlikely, and even if another happened tomorrow, 20 years could pass before another happened again. Unfortunately, grieving families, naysayers, people with professional jealousies, journalists, opportunists, and others with political agendas may want to see an end to the activity of shark diving where the pros may far outweigh the cons and what people have gained in their personal lives by seeing these amazing creatures may far outweigh the losses. A couple years ago, I lost a skeg, the FCS box and had punch-like hole in my board while surfing that cost a couple hundred dollars to repair. I felt something strike hard at the bottom of my board. We never saw what did it. It could have been a shark or some other creature. But, had I been bitten or killed I would hate to think that others would be deprived of surfing or having the chance to dive with sharks as I have because of the enrichment given to my life as a result. When I enter the water, whether to cave dive, to surf, or with sharks I know that a very slight risk exists and I give the environment the same respect I give power tools, ladders, and electricity.
