Diver bit off Jupiter during shark feed.

[HalcyonDaze]

Boulderjohn, I couldn't agree more. Whilst in Belize, I have seen many fish pointing out lionfish and then eagerly awsiting the kill by the dm.

Alternately,as I said earlier, my finger was perceived by a nurseshark to have been pointing out dinner for him.

I observed the same in Grand Cayman last year - on the wall the big snappers were following us around and hovering over lionfish holes. They were sorely disappointed as I had not attempted to get my pole spear through Customs and various Wile E. Coyote tactics were unsuccessful.

The interesting thing to me is that there is at least one natural precedent to this - groupers have been observed approaching and signaling moray eels, then leading them over to prey tucked into the reef. The moray will then go in after the fish in their hidey-hole; if they run out into the open the grouper is there to scoop them up. I wonder if this is a behavior only seen in those species or something we'd come across in other marine predators.

 

[Zeagle Eagle]

Diving since 1968. I don't feed critters under the water. I have seen too many people missing appendages and or dead.

 

[tekkydiver]

The last diver fatality in South Florida attributed to a shark was in 2001; the victim was a diver who was last seen struggling with an unidentified shark (possibly for a speared fish). The Broward County coroner classified the death as a drowning while the International Shark Attack File categorized it as a shark attack. I assume the difference in opinion was due to him not actually being bitten. Before that I think the last diver fatality was a bull shark attack in the Keys in 1995.

Huh? I remember this incident. This was the two guys diving the RBJ, correct? I don't recall any mention of spearing or the victim struggling with a shark. I recall this was a CCR diver collecting tropicals. I believe the divers lost contact with each other on the way down, and the body of the deceased was recovered a few days later (sans rebreather; leading many to believe he ditched his gear in an attempt ascend) by the F/V Rebound.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Huh? I remember this incident. This was the two guys diving the RBJ, correct? I don't recall any mention of spearing or the victim struggling with a shark. I recall this was a CCR diver collecting tropicals. I believe the divers lost contact with each other on the way down, and the body of the deceased was recovered a few days later (sans rebreather; leading many to believe he ditched his gear in an attempt ascend) by the F/V Rebound.

You may be correct. I was unable to get an original source for this one; the list entry I saw stated that the diver, Eric Reichardt, drowned on the RBJ "while fighting off a shark." However, the Broward County coroner judged it a drowning.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

EDIT: Looked up the International Shark Attack File record for the incident: http://sharkattackfile.net/spreadsheets/pdf_directory/2001.09.16-Reichardt.pdf

George Burgess's determination that a shark was responsible was based on bruises found on the left arm and back, and "hemorrhaging" on the left leg. He reasoned that these had to have occurred while the diver was alive. The amputations of the right arm and leg, as well as "puncture marks" to the face and torso, were determined to be postmortem. His lungs were full of water, so the immediate cause of death was still determined to be drowning.

To me this seems like tenuous evidence to determine he got those bruises struggling with a shark; as you stated he could have been trying to ditch his gear. When I saw the note that he had been "fighting off a shark," I assumed there would at least be an eyewitness observation to back that determination up. I may have gotten the fish collection detail confused with spearing.

Expert: Shark Attacked Diver - tribunedigital-sunsentinel