How many fatal shark attacks to stop you diving

[Tigerman]

...
I'd be also interested to hear in a post below how many fatal shark attacks there have been within this distance of the location you typically dive within the three years?

None where I usually go diving with them the past three years (as far as I can recall), however there was 5 attacks where one was fatal within a week in 2010 (which did not stop me from going there), all of them on snorklers/swimmers..

 

[highdesert]

Please, can we get past the shark "attacks"?

It would be more accurate to call it a shark "oops", or a shark "my bad", than a shark attack. PSUSCUBA1313 used the word "encounter". That's probably the most fitting terminology. If sharks "attacked" everyone who has been bitten, what are the odds those people would be alive? If people were tasty, and natural shark food, they'd be goners. Most people who have suffered a bite are around because the shark spit them out. It's no accident that sharks have been proven many, many times more valuable as attractions for divers and tourists than as shark fins, or as a carcass hauled aboard an Aussie fish boat as a result of some misguided political stunt.

 

[Wingy]

.......deleted......pointless responding.

 

[Diver0001]

Clearly I was being overly optimistic. If nothing else the thread to date serves to highlight how difficult it is to have a sensible, level headed conversation on the topic.

Foxfish, If you read through the manner in which people have been telling you this (which hasn't always been friendly), then the gist of the feedback you have been getting is overwhelmingly suggesting that your fear is greater than the facts would seem to justify.

Can you understand why people are saying that?

R..

 

[chillyinCanada]

Fishfox, you don't understand because you have your own agenda and you tried to manipulate our responses for your own ends. You just don't get it. While the majority of us may be against shark feed dives, we still seek to dive with sharks in the wild. Heck, even those divers that DO signup for the shark feed dives are deliberately and intentionally diving in "shark infested waters".

 

[The Chairman]

The OP and the poll were intended to gauge how divers perceive the risk of attack from sharks.

It would appear that the intention of the poll was to skew how divers perceive the risk of shark attack to fit some personal phobia or agenda. You assumed that we share in either and we don't. I've dropped into a school of over a hundred sharks without a cage and with chum in the water. One of the most rational things I have ever done.

If you feel we've acted out of malice or in error, you can always appeal mod decisions to the owner of the site: abuse@ScubaBoard.com. He's a fair, intelligent, handsome fellow and quite approachable.

 

[Doc Harry]

Poll: How much medication must someone take before they stop being paranoid about shark attacks?

 

[Diver0001]

I don't think you're being fair (or very nice) Harry,

I think everyone suffers to one degree or another from anxiety, irrational fears or phobias about SOMETHING. Foxfish, in his own way, is talking to us about his. I don't believe ridiculing him is an appropriate way to offer him any support.

R..

 

[VMI08]

The only way shark attacks would keep me out of the water would be if I was the one attacked... How long I was out of the water would depend on how severe the attack was.

 

[Foxfish]

Thanks folks for your comments and responses to date. Wouldn't have expected it to turn out this way but the poll certainly forced your hand on the matter.