Diver missing in the Bahamas

[DelrayDM]

US Coast Guard update ...

Rescue crews have found dive gear within the search area but have not located Petty.
Petty was last seen by one of the divers in the group.

Link to US Coast Guard News Releases

 

[matt215]

If this is in fact the Shear Water, that is Jim Abernethy's boat. The dives are at tiger beach, and are typically in shallow water, about 20 feet or so. There are other sites that are deeper, but I've only seen night dives done there in shallow water. Chum is used to attract sharks during the day on all dives. Not sure about night dives, and my understanding is that this incident occurred during a night dive. So sad to hear about this. I hope that there is a hapy ending to this...

 

[jake11]

The Coast Guard report does say the Shear Water...
Coast Guard 7th District command center watchstanders were contacted by the captain aboard the commercial dive vessel Shear Water late Sunday night stating that Petty went shark diving with eight others and he never returned.
I too hope this has a good ending.

 

[The Chairman]

Unfortunately, the anti-shark feeding jihadists are using this as a reason to stop shark feedings.

I've heard rumors from an inside source, but I'm not going to post them until I hear corroborating evidence to support them. Here's hoping that they find him soon.

 

[bandit_TX]

The search was ended at noon today. Examination of the gear recovered shows evidence of a shark attack.

 

[chillyinCanada]

It took this long to make that determination?!?

 

[t4e]

The search was ended at noon today. Examination of the gear recovered shows evidence of a shark attack.

doesn't mean the shark attack happened while he still had the gear on, i'm inclined to believe it happened while the gear was loose....but i really like to know why he ditched his gear

 

[dumpsterDiver]

The search was ended at noon today. Examination of the gear recovered shows evidence of a shark attack.

I didn't even know they would do shark feeding dives at night!

---------- Post added July 16th, 2014 at 04:37 PM ----------

doesn't mean the shark attack happened while he still had the gear on, i'm inclined to believe it happened while the gear was loose....but i really like to know why he ditched his gear

So you are going on the assumption that he ditched his gear at night for some reason and then assume that shark(s) attacked his gear and you assume that the sharks left him unharmed and he swam off into the night?

From the tiny bit of information listed here, I think a more likely scenario was that he was dragged off by a big shark, killed and eaten. Sounds like a terrible accident.

 

[Mike]

Holy crap this is horrible and pretty scary as I have been looking into doing the tiger beach trip lately.

 

[t4e]

So you are going on the assumption that he ditched his gear at night for some reason and then assume that shark(s) attacked his gear and you assume that the sharks left him unharmed and he swam off into the night?

From the tiny bit of information listed here, I think a more likely scenario was that he was dragged off by a big shark, killed and eaten. Sounds like a terrible accident.

i'm not assuming anything, i just made an observation

but please do tell what other plausible reasons could there be for gear being separated from the diver, its an honest question, i can't think of one