Welcome to ScubaBoard, an online scuba diving forum community where you can join over 100,000 divers from around the world discussing all things related to Scuba Diving. To gain full access to ScubaBoard you must register for a free account.
As a registered member you will be able to:
Participate in over 500 dive topic forums and browse from over 3,000,000 posts.
Communicate privately with other divers from around the world.
Post your own photos or view from 80,000 user submitted images.
Gain access to our free classifieds marketplace to buy, sell and trade gear, travel and services.
Use the calendar to organize your events and enroll in other members' events.
All this and much more is available to you absolutely free when you register for an account, so sign up today!
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact the ScubaBoard Support Team.
Accidents and IncidentsThis forum is for the discussion of diving Accidents and Incidents. Please read the message at the top of the forum before posting threads or responses. Memorial threads can be posted in the Passings forum.
Please note: The last reply in this thread was more than 7 month(s) ago.
Lack of preparation on your part will most certainly lead to an emergency on my part. Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.
You can freely sell your reputation but once it’s gone, you can never buy it back.
Just please don't tell those of us who enjoy these animals and are knowlegeable of and willing to accept the inherent risks involved that we can't continue this activity.
I agree with this statement, with the proviso that "chummed" or feeding dives potentially affect everyone in the vicinity, over an extended period of time, and as such they're not merely a matter of "live and let live."
__________________
"Dive computers are conservative because of the logarithms."
This member has said "Thank you." to Gombessa for this useful post:
If you do not want to dive with sharks or only want to dive with them from cages, I have no problem with that. Just please don't tell those of us who enjoy these animals and are knowlegeable of and willing to accept the inherent risks involved that we can't continue this activity -- especially when your opinion is based on one extremely tragic and unfortunate death despite many many years of shark diving around the world
But as has been acknowledged by many people, feeding sharks in this way causes them to associate food with man and changes their behaviour forever. Just as voluntary or involuntary feeding of bears is frowned on everywhere and illegal in many places, so I think shark feeding should at the very least be tightly controlled. I also have dived in many places around the world and I have witnessed shark feeding in a number of places, and I dive with sharks almost every day of my life. I still regard this activity as dangerous in the short term and undesirable in the long term.
__________________
Protech Belize Dive Centre
(now at Spindrift Hotel, San Pedro)
These 2 members have said "Thank you." to peterbj7 for this useful post:
Why don't we just ban every activity where someone has been killed in the past 25 yrs. Not a world that I would choose to live in. If you haven't been diving with Jim Abernethy & gained a much greater appreciation for sharks of all types, then you're missing a lifetime experience.
Last edited by jcclink; February 29th, 2008 at 09:41 PM.
Anyone looking to dive with sharks without a cage either already understands the danger or they are an idiot. Sorry to be so matter of fact, but it's the truth. Walk up to 100 people on the street and ask them if they would get in the water with a large shark and they would say NO FREAKING WAY! So, you find the small percentage of the population that would say yes, and either they understand the risk, or they are stupid. I'm sure Jim's waiver has the words injury and death on it. Stop coddling people.
Interesting. I quoted this post to apologize for using the word idiot and the MOD deleted it??????
So, I'll post it again.
I don't think people that dive with large sharks outside of cages are idiots. I think the caveat is that they understand the risks; otherwise, they are uninformed.
To be informed, understand the risks, and then make the decision based on this educated position is the key. To go in dumb is to tempt fate.
I can't remember everthing I said in the original post that got deleted, but basically, sorry for using the word idiot.
__________________
Eric Stadtmueller, otherwise known as, "Mem Da Pilot"
My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of our fallen diver... :(
Now as I saw in one post, asking 100 people off the street about getting into water with a shark isn't fair... Most of those people probably don't like the water anyways or would say the same for jellyfish... It would be the same as asking someone if they would want to be a police officer, firefighter or even in the military. Most don't do it because of the risks but there are plenty of each around the world even though there are risks. If you choose to dive with sharks that is your option (not that I choose to). I think almost everyone knows that sharks can be dangerous, they show the dangers on TV and in the news all the time. How about putting this statement on top every dive certification:
"WARNING, DIVING WITH SHARKS CAN BE DANGEROUS AND/OR FATAL.
ENTER AT OWN RISK"
In Mid 2007 we at Shark Attack Survivors learned of shark bites taking place at Aliwal Shoal in South Africa on shark viewing/feeding dives. We began to ask questions about the bites.
At first we learned that there was an unknown operator that had 2 people bitten in 2007, but paid the persons bitten to keep quiet.
Then we contacted others involved shark feeding operations at Aliwal Shoal via shark discussion boards to try and learn more about the bites.
NOTE: These are comments made by South Africa shark viewing/feeding operators. These were comments made in mid 2007 which is prior to the Bahamas incident. The comments and problems are those in South Africa shark viewing/feeding dives not the Bahamas.
Sorry but the responses and comments exceeded the character limit so here’s a link to the Aliwal Shoal, South Africa shark feeding/viewing problems PDF.
If shark viewing/feeding in the Bahamas has problems similar to those in South Africa let us all learn how to better the industry, protect our fellow humans and sharks.
Newsletter Here!
Linear Mode
