Diver missing in the Bahamas

[danvolker]

There have actually been quite a few dive accidents, where the diver ditched all gear, and was later found on the bottom separate from the gear.....Probably DandyDon would know cites on this....as hard as this type of accident is to comprehend.

And we have seen many videos of the tigers picking up cameras and running around with them, like dogs running with a stick.
I'm not saying there is no way a shark was involved....I am saying we just don't know anything yet.
Maybe tomorrow more will be released, and we will have a better chance to figure out what happened.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

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

Finding ditched scuba gear would be somewhat ambiguous.. Finding gear that has been bitten would be a pretty unambiguous clue. Amazing that nobody saw anything- maybe it happened really fast?

Why would a diver ditch their scuba gear? To make a faster swim to the boat or shore? If it were too heavy and not working? If they tried to commit suicide? Not very many plausible reasons to ditch (all?) of your scuba gear in 20 feet of water when diving with a tightly controlled group of people.

 

[FinnMom]

from nbcnews website

Missing Texas Chiropractor Likely Shark Victim
The Coast Guard has suspended the search for an East Texas chiropractor who is believed to have been the victim of a shark in the Bahamas, his family said on Wednesday.

John E. Petty, 63, from Longview, was last seen 20 nautical miles northwest of Grand Bahama island on Sunday. He had been on a commercial shark dive with the vessel "Shear Water," out of Lake Park, Florida, according to the Coast Guard. Petty was with eight others but is the only one who didn't return to the ship. The Coast Guard immediately launched "multiple sea and air assets" that worked with Bahamas police. Dive gear believed to belong to Petty, an advanced open-water diver, was found during a search that covered more than 4,600 miles, the Coast Guard said.

Petty's son-in law released a statement saying in part, "The family would like to thank everyone for the overwhelming support and prayers on behalf of John Petty ... After the Bahamian Government studied the items recovered in numerous searches, it has been determined that a shark attack was the cause. A memorial service is being planned and details will be posted later today. Thank you all again."

Despite the family's statement, the Coast Guard said they could not absolutely confirm that Petty was killed by a shark because they had not found his body.

 

[DandyDon]

There have actually been quite a few dive accidents, where the diver ditched all gear, and was later found on the bottom separate from the gear.....Probably DandyDon would know cites on this....as hard as this type of accident is to comprehend.

Me...?!

I think you might get better answers from dandy DAN. I just post stories that Google gives me.

 

[t4e]

Finding ditched scuba gear would be somewhat ambiguous.. Finding gear that has been bitten would be a pretty unambiguous clue. Amazing that nobody saw anything- maybe it happened really fast?

Why would a diver ditch their scuba gear? To make a faster swim to the boat or shore? If it were too heavy and not working? If they tried to commit suicide? Not very many plausible reasons to ditch (all?) of your scuba gear in 20 feet of water when diving with a tightly controlled group of people.

my question was not "why would a diver ditch their gear" but rather how else would a diver become separated from their gear
i'm struggling to envision a diver attacked by a shark getting rid of their gear and why would they do that

 

[HalcyonDaze]

There have actually been quite a few dive accidents, where the diver ditched all gear, and was later found on the bottom separate from the gear.....Probably DandyDon would know cites on this....as hard as this type of accident is to comprehend.

And we have seen many videos of the tigers picking up cameras and running around with them, like dogs running with a stick.
I'm not saying there is no way a shark was involved....I am saying we just don't know anything yet.
Maybe tomorrow more will be released, and we will have a better chance to figure out what happened.

I can think of plenty of reasons for a diver to ditch their gear at the surface, especially as on work dives I'm often the only one who gets on the boat wearing his tank and BC (a backplate and harness setup makes climbing into an outboard a LOT easier). Alternately, if he died, it could have been for any number of other reasons that we see all too frequently in scuba diving. The shark bites would more than likely have been postmortem.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I can think of plenty of reasons for a diver to ditch their gear at the surface, especially as on work dives I'm often the only one who gets on the boat wearing his tank and BC (a backplate and harness setup makes climbing into an outboard a LOT easier). Alternately, if he died, it could have been for any number of other reasons that we see all too frequently in scuba diving. The shark bites would more than likely have been postmortem.

Are you proposing that he voluntarily ditched his scuba gear and then he died from a medical problem and then a shark bit the gear after he dropped it?

Is your alternative hypothesis that he died while diving with a well organized group and before anyone noticed his death a shark came in and ate him?

I am curious how you make the probability assessment that an attack occur post-mortem? That hypothesis would require three independent and unlikely events occurring in series..
One that he died,
two that nobody noticed his death and then
three.. a shark came in and ate him leaving only tattered gear?

I would have a hard time believing that is more likely than a big shark coming in and snatching him super fast in the dark and running off with him and ..... That would require really only one very unlikely event..

 

[Mike]

It's very possible for the diver to have died of natural causes during the dive and then a shark or more likely multiple sharks eventually long afterward went after the motionless body, tearing it up in quite a violent act while eating it that would result in his gear being damaged by the sharks during the process. Sharks like all marine animals seem to like dead things and will eat them opportunistically while they wouldn't bother them while they were alive. Multiple sharks will get extremely competitive and aggressive when competing with each other to feed on something, which would easily lead to damage to the dead divers equipment during the process.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Are you proposing that he voluntarily ditched his scuba gear and then he died from a medical problem and then a shark bit the gear after he dropped it?

Is your alternative hypothesis that he died while diving with a well organized group and before anyone noticed his death a shark came in and ate him?

I am curious how you make the probability assessment that an attack occur post-mortem? That hypothesis would require three independent and unlikely events occurring in series..
One that he died,
two that nobody noticed his death and then
three.. a shark came in and ate him leaving only tattered gear?

I would have a hard time believing that is more likely than a big shark coming in and snatching him super fast in the dark and running off with him and ..... That would require really only one very unlikely event..

We have no idea what happened at this point, or what the sequence of events might have been. There are a lot of possibilities. He could, as you suggest, have been snatched and eaten by a shark or multiple sharks underwater. He could have suffered a heart attack or regulator malfunction underwater, died, and been consumed. He could have been swept away from the group, surfaced, ditched the gear, and a shark might have gnawed on it out of curiosity. We. Do. Not. Know. At. This. Point. We have a missing diver and gear that shows evidence of shark bites. We have no idea how we got there.

What I described was an alternate hypothesis. In my experience, and from accounts I've read, divers getting separated from their group, suffering fatal medical problems or gear malfunctions, getting swept away in currents, panicking, ditching their gear, and/or other such events are far, far more common than a shark fatally attacking and consuming a living diver. Does the latter occur? Yes, but I'd put money on a sequence of "unlikely events" (especially given that they tend to lead into each other) before one "very unlikely event."

 

[dumpsterDiver]

We have no idea what happened at this point, or what the sequence of events might have been. There are a lot of possibilities. He could, as you suggest, have been snatched and eaten by a shark or multiple sharks underwater. He could have suffered a heart attack or regulator malfunction underwater, died, and been consumed. He could have been swept away from the group, surfaced, ditched the gear, and a shark might have gnawed on it out of curiosity. We. Do. Not. Know. At. This. Point. We have a missing diver and gear that shows evidence of shark bites. We have no idea how we got there.

What I described was an alternate hypothesis. In my experience, and from accounts I've read, divers getting separated from their group, suffering fatal medical problems or gear malfunctions, getting swept away in currents, panicking, ditching their gear, and/or other such events are far, far more common than a shark fatally attacking and consuming a living diver. Does the latter occur? Yes, but I'd put money on a sequence of "unlikely events" (especially given that they tend to lead into each other) before one "very unlikely event."

I agree that we do not know. When I first heard of the missing diver of that age, the natural inclination is to assume a medical problem. When you hear that his gear shows evidence of an attack and the body is not found following a shark edit: baiting dive at night... my thought process does a 180.

I would think that the people at the dive could provide a lot more information which could be useful. The weather, the sea state, the currents, whether the diver was wearing a cyalume (glo-stick) on his tank, if they were diving buddy system, when was the diver first discovered to be missing, the apparent dive skills and fitness of the diver, if there was any unusual shark activity on this particular dive, how far the gear was found from the dive site and its' location relative to the prevailing currents and wind at the time, if the diver was observed to have failed to follow whatever protocols they implement. As I recall, the last fatality this operation had with a shark edit: baiting dive - the operator indicated that the deceased did not follow directions or made some kind of mistake? However, I never heard or understood exactly what was meant by that. I have no personal knowledge of the prior accident or of this particular dive site.

A diver can drift off on the surface in a quick storm that whips up the ocean, especially if he has no secondary light on his tank. If it was a calm, clear night, with unlimited visibility in the air and clear water and everyone has a glo-stick and the dive protocol is somewhat rigid and simplistic for a 20 ft deep dive and a search is initiated within a few minutes after the diver was last seen... well then it is harder to imagine a diver (even an incapacitated one) getting away on the surface.

What a terrible accident. I was involved with a fatality where the diver's body was never recovered and it just had to make things even more horrible for the family.