Snorkeler attacked and killed by Bull Shark at Seychelles while on honeymoon.

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Very sad to hear!!! :depressed:

Snorkelling have some drawbacks that could increase the likelihood of attacks. Floating on the surface while finning (simulating a struggling seal/animal) do attract unwanted investigation from predators, that's what they do!! Surfers have the same issues. That’s why I am nervous if I have to float and wait for a boat to pick me up. Sharks are also becoming more opportunistic due to low fish stocks and the increasingly more popular chumming charters!!!

Unfortunately we enter their domain and need to understand the risks.
 
This is yellow journalism at it's worst....No one should consider this an "account" of what happened, and it is NOT news...apparently for some, it is entertainment, or it would not be posted.
 
It is a sensational account, unfortunately, but I do consider the event worthy of discussion. There is a better account by the BBC. I found this interesting:

The Seychelles Tourism Board's director Alain St Ange told the BBC the latest attack was caused by a "foreign shark" and was a "freak accident".
He said: "We need to find the beast and get it out of our waters, we have requested help from South Africa and two experts are arriving in the country in the next day."
British High Commissioner Matthew Forbes was with the bride and her family were due to arrive in the east African country, he said.
"We have now closed the beach and all the surrounding beaches, and stopped diving in the area," he added.
Setting aside the unfortunate parallels to Jaws plot lines, I wonder what basis he has for making the determination that it was a "foreign shark," except for concern for tourist revenue. And I wonder how many sharks will be senselessly killed while they look for the "rogue."
 
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It is a sensational account, unfortunately, but I do consider the event worthy of discussion. There is a better account by the BBC. I found this interesting:

Setting aside the unfortunate parallels to Jaws plotlines, I wonder what basis he has for making the determination that it was a "foreign shark," except for concern for tourist revenue. And I wonder how many sharks will be senselessly killed while they look for the "rogue."

If you talked to shark experts, they would be shocked at the level of stupidity involved in the "determination" that this was a rogue or "bad" shark
 
If you talked to shark experts, they would be shocked at the level of stupidity involved in the "determination" that this was a rogue or "bad" shark
I can show ( post a link) to countless videos of Jimmy abernethy and many of his guests from his boat, snorkeling with tiger sharks and bulls, with no problems whatsoever



Let's say you walk down a street in a rural setting, one KNOWN to have many big dogs on it...not really mean dogs, but a few that are loud and often approach people.. You walk by a big german sheppard, and the moment it looks at you, you freak out, get scared, and turn and run as fast as you can away from it...worse still, people TOLD YOUa that this is the right thing to do, if you see a dog....so the dog chases you, and bites you....
Are dogs bad? Was this dog specifically, a bad dog? Or, were you acting ignorantly, due to stupid advice, and this advice and behavior got you chased and bitten.
Run from a dog, they are likely to chase...it is known behavior...known to any with some sense.

With sharks, too many people are in the water, with the equivalent of a "run from dogs" behavior and knowledge set, when it comes to seeing a shark. They don't know what they don't know, and are like ignorant children, wandering the street--not knowing that cars could run over them and kill them...even though the cars to not actually "want to" kill them ( motorists).

If you are going to have snorkelers at a resort, where sharks are common in the waters, then maybe some intelligence needs to be infused into the staff of the resort, for watersports, so that this can run downhill into the tourists....


From the shark dives Abernethy does, in which all free swimming encounters..the clear knowledge exists that sharks can get curious, and often like to gently bump divers.....this is MUCH better if the diver has something in their hands, that they can allow the shark to "bump" into. You don't HIT the shark, you let it bump the camera or blunt pvc pipe, or whatever.

Visit this.... http://thisisyourocean.com/thefilm and watch the trailers..... If you watched the whole film, and then if you went on a shark expedition with abernethy. you would quickly realize how stupid the attacks on snorklers or divers are--attacks due entirely to our own ignorance, and the ignorance of others we trust to give us good advice.
 
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The media here of course call this snorkler a "diver" in some cases and a snorkler in others.
As usual the media dont have a ****ing clue and shouldnt be allowed to post anything in public to protect themselves from their own ignorance.
Only cases where they are fairly accurate is when they get fed information directly from the police..
 
Of course we will now have the predictable human knee-jerk reaction to slaughter anything in the water to avenge this and to assuage our sense of outrage at animals doing what animals do. This is a horrible tragedy but to the extent, as we divers know, we willingly enter a habitat in which we slide down the food chain, it is avoidable. I'm certainly not downplaying the horrible loss and the unimaginable pain and terror this victim went through and now what his family must cope with. I am saying, however, there should be a rational response.
 
The problem is Deac, that we divers might know whats down there and go down there on its premises, however the average snorkler is nothing more than Joe Shmoe going for a swim, not knowing what lives in the pond or how to deal with it.
That being the case, the tourist industry need to pretend to be dealing with it for them, even IF they know better than thinking mindlessly killing sharks will help..
 
If I was the owner of the Resort where this incident occurred, I would have an entirely different approach to handling the snorkelers....Rather than indicating there are no sharks and no danger ( bad for tourism thinking ), I would get a half a dozen or more Go Pro video cameras, and "mount" them to sturdy 3 inch diameter PVC pipes about 3 feet long ( probably need to experiment a bit on exactly what would be perfect--this is the concept) ..... If they have pretty reefs to snorkel on off of the resort, they should want to take video ... A Go Pro "can" take good video, mounted on a long tube like a speargun( which you don't want them to have :) , because of the long polar moment of inertia it gains from the long barrel----the Go Pro by itself make very shaky video, if you even crack your wrist...on a long tube, especially with some weight and mass to it, you can have very steady video that will not make people seasick when they watch it.

So all snorkelers are told they SHOULD rent the camera set up, both for video they can later show in the resort, and post to Facebook....and as the optimal way to "ENJOY" seeing a shark---this making it a fun m, cool thing....because if they are lucky enough for the shark to come in close for a "close up video shot", and a bump, the pvc pipe is just held out between the snorkeler and the shark, they let the shark bump it, and then off he goes...and they get an awesome video!!! And, the snorkelor is "prepared" with intelligent behavior protocols, and the "tools" to be far, far safer, when snorkeling at the Resort. The Resort has to spend a little money on the cameras, but the rental fees will soon turn this to profit.....and the videos on youtube and facebook links will be great for business as well.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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