Shark bites liveaboard guest

[Shark Diver Girl 1]

Dave,
You said it better than I ever could.....................
My sincere prayers to the victim, his family, and to Jim and his boat crew.

 

[johnspierce]

Mr. Ebersole:

Excellent post.

 

[The Chairman]

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

This thread is closed until we get a chance to review it and clean it up a bit.

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[Teamcasa]

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

OK, Is back from the wash, wax and detail.

Please keep your posts confined to the topic.

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[Gombessa]

Just please don't tell those of us who enjoy these animals and are knowlegeable of and willing to accept the inherent risks involved that we can't continue this activity.

I agree with this statement, with the proviso that "chummed" or feeding dives potentially affect everyone in the vicinity, over an extended period of time, and as such they're not merely a matter of "live and let live."

 

[peterbj7]

If you do not want to dive with sharks or only want to dive with them from cages, I have no problem with that. Just please don't tell those of us who enjoy these animals and are knowlegeable of and willing to accept the inherent risks involved that we can't continue this activity -- especially when your opinion is based on one extremely tragic and unfortunate death despite many many years of shark diving around the world

But as has been acknowledged by many people, feeding sharks in this way causes them to associate food with man and changes their behaviour forever. Just as voluntary or involuntary feeding of bears is frowned on everywhere and illegal in many places, so I think shark feeding should at the very least be tightly controlled. I also have dived in many places around the world and I have witnessed shark feeding in a number of places, and I dive with sharks almost every day of my life. I still regard this activity as dangerous in the short term and undesirable in the long term.

 

[jcclink]

Why don't we just ban every activity where someone has been killed in the past 25 yrs. Not a world that I would choose to live in. If you haven't been diving with Jim Abernethy & gained a much greater appreciation for sharks of all types, then you're missing a lifetime experience.

 

[mempilot]

Anyone looking to dive with sharks without a cage either already understands the danger or they are an idiot. Sorry to be so matter of fact, but it's the truth. Walk up to 100 people on the street and ask them if they would get in the water with a large shark and they would say NO FREAKING WAY! So, you find the small percentage of the population that would say yes, and either they understand the risk, or they are stupid. I'm sure Jim's waiver has the words injury and death on it. Stop coddling people.

Interesting. I quoted this post to apologize for using the word idiot and the MOD deleted it??????

So, I'll post it again.

I don't think people that dive with large sharks outside of cages are idiots. I think the caveat is that they understand the risks; otherwise, they are uninformed.

To be informed, understand the risks, and then make the decision based on this educated position is the key. To go in dumb is to tempt fate.

I can't remember everthing I said in the original post that got deleted, but basically, sorry for using the word idiot.

 

[GatorKev]

My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of our fallen diver...


Now as I saw in one post, asking 100 people off the street about getting into water with a shark isn't fair... Most of those people probably don't like the water anyways or would say the same for jellyfish... It would be the same as asking someone if they would want to be a police officer, firefighter or even in the military. Most don't do it because of the risks but there are plenty of each around the world even though there are risks. If you choose to dive with sharks that is your option (not that I choose to). I think almost everyone knows that sharks can be dangerous, they show the dangers on TV and in the news all the time. How about putting this statement on top every dive certification:

"WARNING, DIVING WITH SHARKS CAN BE DANGEROUS AND/OR FATAL.
ENTER AT OWN RISK"

 

[sharkattacksurvivors]

In Mid 2007 we at Shark Attack Survivors learned of shark bites taking place at Aliwal Shoal in South Africa on shark viewing/feeding dives. We began to ask questions about the bites.

At first we learned that there was an unknown operator that had 2 people bitten in 2007, but paid the persons bitten to keep quiet.

Then we contacted others involved shark feeding operations at Aliwal Shoal via shark discussion boards to try and learn more about the bites.

NOTE: These are comments made by South Africa shark viewing/feeding operators. These were comments made in mid 2007 which is prior to the Bahamas incident. The comments and problems are those in South Africa shark viewing/feeding dives not the Bahamas.



First answer from Patrick Douglas at Great White Shark Diving - Shark Diver - Absolute Adventures about bites and problems at Aliwal Shoal South Africa.

Second answer from Mark Addison BLUEWILDERNESS shark diving experts UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY shark filming

Sorry but the responses and comments exceeded the character limit so here’s a link to the Aliwal Shoal, South Africa shark feeding/viewing problems PDF.

http://www.sharkattacksurvivors.com/index_files/shark_feeding.pdf


If shark viewing/feeding in the Bahamas has problems similar to those in South Africa let us all learn how to better the industry, protect our fellow humans and sharks.

Al Brenneka
Shark Attack Survivors Sites provide Shark Attack Information by Shark Attack Survivors