Fatal Shark Attack in the Bahamas

RebreatherNut

Hey all,
I know this is not rebreather related, but my friend from Florida forwarded me the following link:

Tourist dies after shark bite | floridatoday.com | Serving Brevard County and Florida’s Space Coast


Tourist dies after shark bite
ASSOCIATED PRESS

WEST PALM BEACH — An Austrian tourist died today after being bitten by a shark while diving near the Bahamas in waters that had been baited with bloody fish parts to attract the predators.

Markus Groh, 49, a Vienna lawyer and diving enthusiast, was on a commercial dive trip Sunday when he was bitten about 50 miles off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, said Karlick Arthur, Austrian counsel general in Miami. Groh was in the open water without a cage or similar protection.

The crew aboard the Shear Water, of Riviera Beach-based Scuba Adventures, immediately called the Coast Guard, which received a mayday from the vessel about 10 a.m., said Petty Officer 3rd Class Nick Ameen.

The Coast Guard sent a helicopter to the scene, which hoisted Groh from the boat and flew him to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, where authorities said he died Monday.

Ameen said the man was bitten on the leg, but he could not be more specific about the extent of his injuries.

The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office declined to comment, citing an ongoing investigation by the Miami-Dade Police Department. A telephone message left for police was not immediately returned.

It was unclear what type of shark was involved in the attack.

A woman who answered the telephone at Scuba Adventures today said the company had no comment.

The company’s Web site says it offers the opportunity to get “face to face” with sharks. The site explains that its hammerhead and tiger shark expeditions in the Bahamas are “unique shark trips ... run exclusively for shark enthusiasts and photographers.”

To ensure “the best results we will be ’chumming’ the water with fish and fish parts,” the Web site explains. “Consequently, there will be food in the water at the same time as the divers. Please be aware that these are not ’cage’ dives, they are open water experiences.”

Bahamas Diving Association president Neal Watson said Shear Water is known to work with species of sharks considered dangerous: lemon sharks, tiger sharks, bull sharks, hammerheads.

His organization, which has done hundreds of thousands of dives, opposes interactive dives with these species without the protection of cages and says Groh’s death was preventable.

“I think that they just continue to push the envelope and trying to make it more and more and more exciting,” Watson said of Shear Water. “It reached the point where it wasn’t a matter of if but when an incident was going to occur.”

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Christoph

As much as I could gather here in Austria, it was a bull shark and the victim died of blood loss. It was first suspected that DCI caused the fatality but apparently the autopsy showed elsewise.

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Cheers, Chris

When my basement became full, I believed to have enough divegear. Truth is, I had to get another basement.
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silent running

Thanks for the post RN. Very sad for the diver and his family, and it's sad that now there's more bad publicty for sharks.

If I understand this correctly, they were chumming and diving in open water? I'm reasonably comfortable around big sharks and go far out of my way to find them, but I don't think I would go on a trip like that. The 2 shark feeds I've seen both happened in a place where you had reef/rocks behind and under you. Having a feeding frenzy going on in blue water with absolutely no cover for the divers sounds really, really risky. Whenever I happen upon a shark in the wild, the first thing I do is put the reef/wreck to my back, it's instinctual. One of the most scary things I've ever had to do was ascend from a night dive on a reef system in the middle of the Coral Sea, with a bunch of reef and whaler sharks circling. The Captain warned us not to drift out off the reef into the open water and he certainly didn't have to tell us twice or explain why.

jhaaja

Very sad indeed!

I have never understood why we have to feed sharks? That is not normal and can you really blame the animals if they accidentally bite you in those circumstances...

JH

jkaterenchuk

NBC Today show just did a 10 minute report on this accident as well as the current large shark migration off the coast of FL and the closing of beaches. They did a good job of reporting the fault is not with the sharks. Refreshing to see.

For those of you outside the USA the Today show is the largest watched morning news/talk show.

John

Tom Rose

I have been on a number of open water shark dives over the years at Walkers Cay in the Bahamas....yes with rebreathers and OC....and no incidents. I think Walkers has reopened. Things were carefully controlled. These dives have been great fun for myself, my dive buddies (including my teenage and grown children). The video and stills are spectacular.

When I dive off the Virginia and North Carolina coast, I usually see big Sand Tigers that look much worse than they are.

However in open water (especially in the Pacific) where there is the potential for more aggressive species, I wear a Shark Shield. So far no problem.

Sharks need to be protected as do all the large predators in the ocean.

Tom

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JCdesign97

Very sad, but it does sound to me like a little too much fate was being tempted by chumming for and diving unprotected with those species of sharks. I agree that it was probably only a matter of time once the sharks started associating divers with food at the same time/place.

Back in my OC days, for several years running we did a liveaboard trip in the Bahamas. They did one organized shark dive during the week's trip. They always did it in the same place, a coral 'amphitheatre' where the divers backs were against the reef and the only place that sharks would be is in front of you. They used a frozen block of fish parts caught during the week as bait (no chum), dropped it in the water after all of the divers were settled in position and then a short feeding frenzy would take place. Once the food was gone and the sharks went back into a more 'docile' mode, the divers were then free to swim around, take pictures, etc.

Now those were mainly Caribbean and Reef sharks, usually nothing more aggressive; but even then over the years of doing the trip I noticed a marked increase in the sharks comfort level and curiosity about the divers. The first year I did the trip, the sharks would disappear almost instantly after the food was gone. Subsequent years there were more and more sharks (naturally, as they got used to being fed here) and they hung around longer and got closer to the divers after the feeding.

The last time I did the trip and the shark dive, I was amazed at the close-up shots I was getting of several sharks long after the food was gone. I suddenly realized that I was by myself, getting circled by 4 or 5 big sharks whose behavior was becoming more and more aggressive. I've been in the water with sharks many times, but this was the first time that I really started to feel uncomfortable. There was nothing else they were interested in but me. I finished the dive without incident, but I remember thinking then that it was just a matter of time before even one of these more 'docile' species curiosity got the better of them and one went for a little taste of these big, loud potential food sources that were always hanging around ...

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Cheers,

John

cramerdn

Wait until the sharks realize we taste like chicken.

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JCdesign97

True, but eventually the sharks will evolve further and demand only free-range and cruelty-free human. So the New Zealanders and Canadians have much more to fear than American divers ...

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Cheers,

John

PeteS

I found it really strange that the report refers to the diver that was attacked as a Lawyer. I thought Sharks didn't attack Lawyers out of professional ettiquette.....

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Pete S.

http://www.steggle.co.nz

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