Lemon Shark bite Bora Bora

[Wingy]

After doing this dive site with this op and wishing there had been an alternative all I can say is IMO this was bound to happen. They have ''suspended their shark feeding activities"

Lemon shark attacks diver in French Polynesia - Shark Year Magazine

French Polynesia is one place left on earth where you dont need to bait.

 

[DandyDon]

But in all these bite incidents, the divers were performing ‘ shark feeding ‘. So fish blood or flesh close to the victims appears to have worked as a stimulus on sharks. The author noted that shark feeding should be considered as a major factor of such bite incidents.

I've never done a chummed shark dive, and won't. I do dive a wrist watch and a wrist computer and do hope to keep both hands.

 

[Ayisha]

I dove with Top Dive in Bora Bora and they were a top notch dive op. No overcrowding, attentive DG's, emphasis on safety, great boat, and great sites. We didn't do a shark feeding dive.

In Moorea also with Top Dive, with similar quality boat, staff, and sites, we did do a shark chumming/feeding dive, although I didn't know until just before the dive. They asked if we wanted to see a shark feeding, and since I hadn't done it yet (2007), I said ok.

They made it very clear that we were to stay behind a ledge, our hands were to stay under our armpits or close to our body if photographing, our fins were to stay down, and we were to stay put. They ensured that everyone was in position before one of the DG's trailed a fish head in a cage and hid it under some rocks. Within 10 seconds, some lemon sharks circled the rocks and then a 9 foot or so grey shark came in, and the lemons took off. The grey shark got it's nose under the rocks and got the fish head and ate it or parts of it, then it left. The lemon sharks came back briefly, scavenged around, and left. The DG went over to where the fish head was, and picked up a shark tooth and gave it to me.

I also have to say that in French Polynesia, sharks are abundant, and certainly no chumming is required. We saw tonnes of greys, lemons, and black tips throughout FP, especially in Raiatea.

 

[farsidefan1]

I've done shark feeds at Roatan and with Stewart Cove in the Bahamas. They were early in my dive life and after those experiences I had no fear of diving with sharks and have been an advocate for their preservation. My photos have drawn dozens of questions about being with those deadly sharks which opens up opportunities to educate the ignorant.

I have mixed feelings about these dives. Obviously one doesn't need to do shark dives to see sharks - just dive in the Bahamas, Palau, French Polynesia or any of hundreds of other places. The education provided at both locales I did the shark dives was very interesting and well done. And I was converted to the cause of sharks. On the other hand I hate the idea of habituating sharks to expect food around humans. I have also heard of very bad outcomes with barracuda and moray eels that were trained to expect food from humans. Maybe if they would have just stopped doing them after I did mine?

 

[Wingy]

Ayesha I dove with them in January this year - the Moorea op stopped shark dives after another incident a couple of years ago - people at dive shops in Moorea were warning about it then. The dive I did at Tapu was not a shark baiting dive - I would never pay for that - and I was on my way to Rangiroa where we had hundreds of sharks without feeding. The problem is they have been using that site for so long for both baited dives and there is a rumor around that they have taken to baiting early mornings so when the boat shows up you pop over the side and the lemons are waiting for you - FWIW worst op I have ever dived with..and only did so because as a solo diver midweek they were the only boat going out. In Moorea the guy at the Pearl (not TD, not a fan of this op at all) said it was only a matter of time when I mentioned the lemons hanging at 5m.

 

[Darol]

farsidefan1 said:

I've done shark feeds at Roatan and with Stewart Cove in the Bahamas.

So have I, I found it interesting when someone asked what happens if you get bit? The answer was, it doesn't
matter, there's no liability laws in Honduras.
The Stewart Cove Shark Dive was the better of the two IMHO, just wild.....

[video]https://www.facebook.com/DarolR?ref=tn_tnmn#!/photo.php?v=3090179620107&set=vb.1432496929&type=3 &theater[/video]


Sorry the video is not the best, shot with an old DC500 sealife camera....

 

[drbill]

I dove with more than 50 sharks in Tahiti (mostly black-tipped reef sharks). Fortunately there was no feeding needed to bring them in... they were there already. I started to move closer to the lemons and a gray shark and was grabbed on my fins by the DM who said "no, no." Probably a good thing.