Why always shark-infested waters??

[The Chairman]

Seems to me that we'd be safer with the sharks ...

BP gets all the blame for the economic losses to Florida following the oil leak at Deep Water Horizon, but in reality the MEDIA did far more harm with their incessant and inaccurate predictions. No oil ever reached the Keys, but boy oh boy did they tell EVERYONE it was heading our way. Shame on them.

 

[Topcat333]

NetDoc

Thats what I was saying - 3 miles = 600+ ft of water and we have done many beach dives here in South Florida out to the 2nd/3rd reef no problem

Some nurse sharks but they are way cool

 

[gregboon]

It is good that the dive operator has taken some heat. It is the dive operator's responsibility to do a head count. Pretty easy to write down we have 25 divers, and count 25 divers before you head off. Leaving divers in the water IS leaving them to die. A mistake here can easily mean death for the divers. The divers were very lucky that they were found. Notice the article said they had a large red tube - a scuba tuba. If not for that, they would likely be dead. A dive operator should be sued for this and be sanctioned.

The "shark infested" part is not all bad. This keeps a flood of other divers from crowding the dive boats and making them all cattle boats.

we divers are the exceptional few,

 

[The Chairman]

If not for that, they would likely be dead.

Likely? Not if they are competent divers. You're in the water with something BETTER than a PFD. The shore is not too far to the west. The current is N/S. Its not like they were diving with Split Fins!

 

[CapeUW]

If the sharks where ever able to realize what we where doing to them, they would spend each day trying to eat there weight in humans as a measure of self defense!

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

If the sharks where ever able to realize what we where doing to them, they would spend each day trying to eat there weight in humans as a measure of self defense!

... and if there were any justice to it, they'd just bite off a foot and leave the rest of us to bleed to death ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[BKDiver]

Actually, when you consider how many millions of people flock to the beach, the more appropriate term should be "people-infested oceans."

 

[David415]

Two facts that highlight how the media grossly overstates the danger from shark attacks:
1. According to the World Health Organization, road traffic injuries caused an estimated 1.26 million deaths worldwide in the year 2000.
2. In 2006, the International Shark Attack File (ISAF) undertook an investigation into 96 alleged shark attacks, confirming 62 of them as unprovoked attacks and 16 as provoked attacks. The average number of fatalities worldwide per year between 2001 and 2006 from unprovoked shark attacks is 4.3.

1,260,000 deaths from road traffic injuries VERSUS 4.3 deaths from unprovoked shark attacks.

I like my chances better with the sharks!

 

[101recon]

Shark attack - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

According to this link around 60 people worldwide are killed each year by sharks and 100 Million sharks are killed by man.
It's pretty obvious who is actually in danger. But "Sharks killed in people-infested waters" doesn't sell as many papers. It just makes the fishing report. If you're looking for a blood-thirsty killer who attacks for no reason...Stay on land. Plenty of dramatic headlines there.

 

[TMHeimer]

Two facts that highlight how the media grossly overstates the danger from shark attacks:
1. According to the World Health Organization, road traffic injuries caused an estimated 1.26 million deaths worldwide in the year 2000.
2. In 2006, the International Shark Attack File (ISAF) undertook an investigation into 96 alleged shark attacks, confirming 62 of them as unprovoked attacks and 16 as provoked attacks. The average number of fatalities worldwide per year between 2001 and 2006 from unprovoked shark attacks is 4.3.

1,260,000 deaths from road traffic injuries VERSUS 4.3 deaths from unprovoked shark attacks.

I like my chances better with the sharks!

Really old stuff. My standard reply has been: How many people are driving on roads at a given point in time compared to how many people are even near--let alone in--the oceans? A gazillion times more people die from dog attacks than from shark attacks. Road deaths vs. plane crash deaths. Same flawed statistics that mean very little if anything at all.