Shark kills French diver in Marsa Alam

[openmindOW]

According to the news we have here : she jumped off the boat because she saw a big fish passing by. The shark attacked her and bit her leg.

Thank you. While I wish I could speak French, I do not. Is it accurate to say that the "diver" was bitten while she was on the surface?

 

[deco_martini]

who has seen a great white, a tiger, a mako, a blue without baiting?

I am pretty sure that nobody aside from a true documentarian or marine biologist needs to see a white, tiger, or mako up close. And no, the shutter bugs at wetpixel don't count as documentarians.

For everyone else, there is discovery channel.

 

[kilo_fox]

Thank you. While I wish I could speak French, I do not. Is it accurate to say that the "diver" was bitten while she was on the surface?

Yup, that's correct.
According to the article, the woman was aboard a dive board when she noticed a fish of big size close by and jumped into the water in order to get closer.

 

[kilo_fox]

Yup, that's correct.
According to the article, the woman was aboard a dive board when she noticed a fish of big size close by and jumped into the water in order to get closer.

I guess it's a bad idea to log on to Scubaboard right after waking up....

Should be "dive boat", of course..

 

[Doubler]

Was the species identified? I am thinking Oceanic Whitetip.

 

[diver 85]

If the above is true and the "victim" was trying to feed the shark, when will they ever learn??

I hate to say it but sometimes when you play with fire, you get---------

Sorry for the accident though, maybe others will learn from her mistakes......

 

[vladimir]

amazing how people jump to conclusions based on nothing just to get into another shark feed rant. nowhere does it state that this was a supervised sharkfeed. all it says is that the woman had visible bite marks. and then you get a statement from an egyptian saying that this is so very rare and that it SEEMS that she aggravated or tried to feed the shark. the kind of statement one might make when being concerned about tourists being scared away. blame it on the diver and everybody feels safe. it lt all sounds to me like no one really knows what happened.

You are correct, no one really knows what happened. However, I don't think it is amazing that somebody "jumped to the conclusion" that the shark was being fed, based on the statement, "It seems that the victim aggravated the shark or presented it with food, which caused a change in the shark's behaviour." Again, you are correct that Amr Ali probably doesn't know what happened either, and probably has motives other than revealing the true nature of the incident.

What do you suggest? That we restrict discussion in this forum to facts presented by eyewitnesses and coroners? Great--we can close the forum today, because that rarely happens. Or we can discuss the information that we have, hopefully with the realization that it is always suspect to varying degrees, and hopefully we glean some useful discussion out of it. No reasonable reader expects the Scubaboard accidents forum to reach a defintive conclusion on the actual cause or circumstances of an accident.

 

[samaka]

I may be wrong but I was under the impression that this was one of those supervised shark feeds.

Nope it was not. There is a law in Egypt against feeding and still there are some “Macho Dive Guides” that can’t stop with this idiocy. I think that every single person that has at one point or another been involved in feeding the Longimanus in the Red Sea should now feel that they have part in the cause of this tragedy.

replace "are" with "used to be". I venture to guess that most divers have never seen one (I am not counting nurse sharks). outside of the bahamas you are lucky diver if you see a shark in the carribbean. it happens but it is very rare in most places. to get a good look or even a picture is even rarer. and if you are looking for specific kinds of sharks you can basically forget it. who has seen a great white, a tiger, a mako, a blue without baiting?

This was Longimanus. We dive with them all the time and they get really close and anyone with a under water camera has a good chance to get a great shot. They are never aggressive towards divers. To get up close and ersonal with a Longimanus is not rare at all…

Egypt's Chamber of Diving and Water Sports (CDWS) can confirm that a woman died followed an attack from a shark which occurred on the morning of Monday 1 June at St Johns Reef in the southern Red Sea.

This is the press release from CDWS:

The French woman had been on a diving safari holiday on board the boat Lanotel when the incident took place. A number of boats were moored at a reef. A group of about 20 snorkellers was observing what is thought to be an oceanic white tip shark approximately 2.5 - 3m long The woman is reported to have moved away from the group and some distance from the reef then ducked dive down towards the shark. On surfacing she was bitten on the leg and was still in contact with the shark as she was pulled onto the boat. Once on the boat, the casualty lost consciousness and died soon after.

The boat returned to the Port of Hamata, where other members of the group were interviewed by police and statements were taken.

Initial investigations revealed last week that two safari boats had been involved in feeding sharks in this area. Investigations by both the National Park and CDWS are already underway and if the allegations are found to be true, the boat operators will face severe penalties that may involve suspension from operating and heavy fines. Shark feeding is a serious violation of Red Sea rules, and an act that can severely disturb the sensitive marine eco-system and behaviour of marine animals.

My heart goes out to the family of the victim.

…….a…….

 

[Knuspar]

replace "are" with "used to be". I venture to guess that most divers have never seen one (I am not counting nurse sharks). outside of the bahamas you are lucky diver if you see a shark in the carribbean. it happens but it is very rare in most places. to get a good look or even a picture is even rarer. and if you are looking for specific kinds of sharks you can basically forget it. who has seen a great white, a tiger, a mako, a blue without baiting?

In short, theres a huge decline in numbers of sharks .. ( personally I blame the japaneese for paying so well for the fins ! )

I am pretty sure that nobody aside from a true documentarian or marine biologist needs to see a white, tiger, or mako up close. And no, the shutter bugs at wetpixel don't count as documentarians.

For everyone else, there is discovery channel.

Youre somewhat right, there are "thrill seekers" in the water as well as in the air. Personally, I would love to experience it, but i most likely wont. I just went to Roatan, Honduras despite the shark dive, im presuming you cant really see any sharks there, but i refuse to take part in baiting of the creatures, so i dident go.

Was the species identified? I am thinking Oceanic Whitetip.

Most likely, so the below post says =)

Nope it was not. There is a law in Egypt against feeding and still there are some Å®acho Dive Guides that canÃÕ stop with this idiocy. I think that every single person that has at one point or another been involved in feeding the Longimanus in the Red Sea should now feel that they have part in the cause of this tragedy.

This was Longimanus. We dive with them all the time and they get really close and anyone with a under water camera has a good chance to get a great shot. They are never aggressive towards divers. To get up close and ersonal with a Longimanus is not rare at all

Egypt's Chamber of Diving and Water Sports (CDWS) can confirm that a woman died followed an attack from a shark which occurred on the morning of Monday 1 June at St Johns Reef in the southern Red Sea.

This is the press release from CDWS:

The French woman had been on a diving safari holiday on board the boat Lanotel when the incident took place. A number of boats were moored at a reef. A group of about 20 snorkellers was observing what is thought to be an oceanic white tip shark approximately 2.5 - 3m long The woman is reported to have moved away from the group and some distance from the reef then ducked dive down towards the shark. On surfacing she was bitten on the leg and was still in contact with the shark as she was pulled onto the boat. Once on the boat, the casualty lost consciousness and died soon after.

The boat returned to the Port of Hamata, where other members of the group were interviewed by police and statements were taken.

Initial investigations revealed last week that two safari boats had been involved in feeding sharks in this area. Investigations by both the National Park and CDWS are already underway and if the allegations are found to be true, the boat operators will face severe penalties that may involve suspension from operating and heavy fines. Shark feeding is a serious violation of Red Sea rules, and an act that can severely disturb the sensitive marine eco-system and behaviour of marine animals.

My heart goes out to the family of the victim.

©å.a©å.

Thank you for the update

 

[Air One]

Initial investigations revealed last week that two safari boats had been involved in feeding sharks in this area. Investigations by both the National Park and CDWS are already underway and if the allegations are found to be true, the boat operators will face severe penalties that may involve suspension from operating and heavy fines. Shark feeding is a serious violation of Red Sea rules, and an act that can severely disturb the sensitive marine eco-system and behaviour of marine animals.

Thanks for the update.
Shark feeding is forbidden in Egypt, that's a fact.
Another fact is that during years and years, the diving boat's crew were feeding the longimanus. I've seen myself these guys throwing chickens or bins out into the sea trying to attract the sharks, I saw it in 2 places : the Brothers Islands and Elfinstone, it was 5 years ago.
Would you say that they don't do it anymore, I mean that the 2 boats you're talking about are exceptions ?