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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.
Tell you what, I have the degrees, the magic number of dives and the decoder ring to boot, not to mention first hand experience with the unpredictable behavior of Bull Sharks and I agree with you on that score.
BTW: My son and I were diving off Kona last week, we saw a Tiger and made a slow and dignified exit of the water.
All of life is about risk mitigation and choices. Given the choice of facing a deer on the side of the road on a foggy morning in Georgia or diving with bulls or tiger sharks as Jim does -Give me the sharks anyday. Deer kill 300 times more folks than sharks!!!!
The big difference is JASA doesn't handfeed like the operation in the video. They just tease them with the smell and leave them hungry.
Really, have you ever been on one of these shark feedings with JASA? Do you sir really know this to be fact, or is this just hear say? Have you ever been closer than a TV screen to a Bull Shark? Have you sir ever had a "cream you wetsuit" awsome shark experience that you couldnt wait to get back in the water? Are you sir just a "Lawyer or Media hound" that cant wait to put a stick in the (poop pot) and stir for more stink?
All divers must stand up for what we believe in and stop letting the non-diving community tell us anything!!!!!
As for Neil Watson, He was kicked off the Island of Bimini!
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"Can't never could till he tried" People that don't try can't, so never say you can't till you try!
[quote=scu_ba_doo;3417735]Have you sir ever had a "cream you wetsuit" awsome shark experience that you couldnt wait to get back in the water? Are you sir just a "Lawyer or Media hound" that cant wait to put a stick in the (poop pot) and stir for more stink?
All divers must stand up for what we believe in and stop letting the non-diving community tell us anything!!!!!QUOTE]
BRAVO!!!!!! And yes to the creamy wetsuit, it is freekin awesomely unbelievable!!!!! Mine was with schooling hammerheads in an unbaited environment but I wouldn't have cared how they got there so long as I was in the middle of them!!!
Really, have you ever been on one of these shark feedings with JASA? Do you sir really know this to be fact, or is this just hear say?
I am going by what I was told on this thread and others by JASA's customers. They say that JASA uses a bait crate and doesn't feed. If this is not the case, then you can just say "I was on a JASA dive where they fed".
At this point, I take you for your word and say "okay, so JASA feeds".
See how easy that is?
Quote:
Have you ever been closer than a TV screen to a Bull Shark? Have you sir ever had a "cream you wetsuit" awsome shark experience that you couldnt wait to get back in the water?
Do I have to been drunk driving to say that it is unsafe to drive drunk? This isn't good logic. My best shark experience was actually at Bull Run off Bimini. Divers go in and get on their knees, dingy went out, reef sharks went to the top of the water (45 feet up?) and ate, I got bored. I looked off to my left and there was a great hammerhead in the distance cruising the scene to see what was up. I had never seen a shark that thick in the middle. Underwater everything looks huge, so I have always been reluctant to speculate on how large it was. However, in southern terms, it was ginormous. It was all the more special to me since everyone else was fixated on the feeding and I was the only person to see him.
Again, what does having a magic shark moment have to do with this? What credential does it give me to say "this website doesn't accurately reflect the danger involved". Does it give me the permission to say "if this is advanced scuba as you claim, why did you take an 11 year old?"
Quote:
All divers must stand up for what we believe in and stop letting the non-diving community tell us anything!!!!!
I kindly disagree. My opposition to what JASA does comes exactly from being a diver.
These 3 members have said "Thank you." to deco_martini for this useful post:
I'm not familiar with the website though I've now had a look at it. Is anything they say well-researched and objective, or is it all journalistic tittle-tattle?
In regard to the CDNN site.....Some of the stuff out there is well researched, but it is done with such an opinionated slant that I rarely read anything there anymore. When you resort to name calling in your articles you lose a lot of credibility with me.
I read a quote once. " Shakespeare: The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers'."
You might have read it, but you definitely didn't read it in context. This quote is from the play Henry VI, Part II. The character Jack Cade and his followers are advocating doing away with the rule of law and replacing it with dictatorship.
Many people have the mistaken idea that this is Shakespeare having an anti-lawyer moment. (Haven't we all?) But in this case it's really quite the opposite. Lawyers are represented as being on the side of right; they are the ones to uphold the rule of law, so important for any stable and enlightened society--and that's why Cade wants to get rid of them.
For the record, I'm not a lawyer, but I can tell you that waiver this unfortunate gentleman signed isn't worth the paper it is written on. It's unfortunate that we need lawsuits to make any meaningful progress in public safety.
Outside the USA most "waivers" don't mean anything. In the UK for example, any attempt to remove a person's recourse to criminal law is always void (and sometimes a criminal act in its own right), and a court will if asked decide if an attempt to remove recourse to civil law was reasonable. They will generally err on the side of the individual against the business which is imposing the waiver. Getting a signature on a waiver isn't even evidence that the person therefore understood the risks they were adopting, as the court will go into the substance and ensure there was a true "meeting of minds" and the individual really did understand what he was doing.
I've come across these "waivers" in diving, skydiving, bungee- jumping, flying, kayaking, etc. As an instructor working for a PADI dive shop I've had to ask people to sign them, but I've always explained that they have no effect in the UK.
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Protech Belize Dive Centre
(now at Spindrift Hotel, San Pedro)
I would really like to know what happened. I have been in the water in Belize when they chummed the water above us after the Blue hole dive on a safety stop. We were with Amigos Del Mar out of San Predro. They do this type of thing a hundred times a year and they have a perfect safety record as far as I know. It was a life changing experience for me and I certainly wouldn't want to discourage somebody from diving with them or having the experience I did.
Anyways, something went very very wrong here. I would like to know exactly what happened. There are relevant arguments for/against shark feeding. Here in Montana, it is illegal to feed deer. They are obviously not dangerous creatures but the Fish and Wildlife department recognizes that feeding the deer means more interaction with humans which usually results in deer being hit by cars.
Anyways, this accident probably had nothing to do with chumming the water or feeding. Some of you may think I am crazy, but these types of things happen so infrequently, I am more inclined to believe that there is another piece of the story we havn't heard yet. Diver panic and inexperience, something shiny he was wearing...who knows. I would like to get Jim's viewpoint on what he thinks happened.
By the way, I wouldn't want to be told what kind of dives I can and cannot do. I don't believe that an individual or government should get involved in what kind of dives I choose to go on. As a responsible adult, I understand the risks that I am taking by climbing into the water.
How many people died in motorcycle accidents this year? It is "obviously" a reckless practice that puts the rider and other drivers at risk right?
Last edited by WarmGoingCold; March 6th, 2008 at 11:45 PM.
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