Death in Cocos from shark attack

[scubadada]

And I think more precisely Manuelita Inside, at least I recall reading that. That is a relatively shallow area, and where they do the night white shark dive. This specific location could be wrong though (as I recall there is a deeper Manuelita Outside)

We saw our one Tiger at Manualita Deep, outside

 

[Johnoly]

... what, if anything, should they do differently,....

Not due to an accident,,,but several years ago the park rangers ban night dives on Manuelita at the time due to "pressure on the reef". {ie light up the holes & sharks attack it}. Since the live aboards also give complimentary transportation to and fro the mainland to many of the rangers, they eventually 'persuaded?' the rangers to open back up night dives on that reef on a limited basis 1 or 2 nights of the excursion. If we hear trip reports from this week of 'no night dives on the reef' then you will have your answer.
The liveaboards have a balanced relationship with the rangers. The boats also act as an extra set of eyes for the rangers if they see something wrong on the reef since they cover 10 times the amount in their daily dives than the rangers can. Yes they want access, but at the same time they can make the ranger's life miserable by not transporting people, fuel, provisions and equipment. On our trip we off loaded alot of fuel and some replacement hardware they needed and then took a ranger back on the return trip (they slept on the couch)

 

[Wookie]

Here's a question going forward, pertinent to all live-aboard op.s visiting Cocos Island; what, if anything, should they do differently, either in advertising, customer education onboard, the manner in which dives are conducted, where &/or what time dives are done, etc...

I'm assuming they're not chumming/baiting/shark feeding or spear fishing, although the regional presence of tiger sharks is not always seen as a strict contraindication to those things. But I'm assuming they already don't.

I'm guessing there's nothing to be done, but I want to see what others think.

Should they...put a 'shark disclaimer' in the liability waiver so they can say all the customers were warned tiger sharks might kill them? Does that need to appear on advertising/promotional materials? If so, should such disclaimers also specify barracuda, large moray eels, the possibility of oceanic white-tip or mako could wander through, etc...? If someone blunders into a Portuguese man-o-war and dies from stings, and that species wasn't mentioned in the disclaimer, is there a liability concern? I once read there's some sort of unofficial legal rule of thumb that if you're going to write at all, you have to write it all. You can't write up specifically every way nature can get you.

Tiger sharks move around; I doubt avoiding the site this happened is practical. But maybe some sites are more likely to provide tiger shark encounters. For some of us, that's not a bug, it's a feature. Is a boat going to catch flack for taking divers places where tiger encounters are 'more' likely (whatever that means)?

Richard.

A shark attacking a diver isn't the purview of the operator, especially one not involved in feeding. Sharks live in the ocean, which is taught in OW class. Releases are to protect the operator from their own negligence. Is it negligent to not tell potential customers that sharks live in the water? maybe, but I'd bet a smart lawyer would show and prove that the diver received that information in their OW class. I was only certified 20 years ago, but even I remember that one.

 

[ChrisM]

We saw our one Tiger at Manualita Deep, outside

Yes, "Deep." Thanks

 

[OceanEyes]

It has been my great good fortune to have made several trips to Cocos aboard Undersea Hunter. I cannot recall that ANY of the scores of fellow travelers whom I met during these voyages came for any reason other than for the specific opportunity to dive amongst and see large numbers of sharks in the wild, and with no artificial stimulus, (i.e. baiting or chumming.) I hold the Undersea Hunter Group in the highest regard and hope that they will not have to endure the anguish and tremendous expense, unwarranted, ( in my opinion), scrutiny, and general mess that litigation can entail.


Ideally, I wish that Rohina Bhandari’s friends and family will honor and cherish her in their memories, and let her rest in peace. I also wish that I could make a fortune photographing the elusive Rainbow Fairy Unicorn.

 

[The Chairman]

Lawsuits outside the US are pretty rare. If it's a US based company, then there might be one, but the event certainly happened outside the US.

 

[peeweediver]

Agree 100% with OceanEyes on the quality and professionalism of the Undersea Hunter staff and boat. On our trip, we had a number of group chats with the crew about sharks and were told that Tigers are more unpredictable and be aware. We went Sept 2016 and our LDS is going back August 2018. BTW, I am not going back because my family is going to Alaska then. As previously stated, bear attacks are similar in concept regarding operator negligence. There is none because everyone is forewarned. What would I do differently Cocos? On ascent, I'd make sure I was close to the group and probably keep a better eye out on ascent and the safety stop than I did last time. I sometimes zone out on safety stops because they are so chill.

Rob

 

[scubadada]

Not due to an accident,,,but several years ago the park rangers ban night dives on Manuelita at the time due to "pressure on the reef". {ie light up the holes & sharks attack it}. Since the live aboards also give complimentary transportation to and fro the mainland to many of the rangers, they eventually 'persuaded?' the rangers to open back up night dives on that reef on a limited basis 1 or 2 nights of the excursion. If we hear trip reports from this week of 'no night dives on the reef' then you will have your answer.
The liveaboards have a balanced relationship with the rangers. The boats also act as an extra set of eyes for the rangers if they see something wrong on the reef since they cover 10 times the amount in their daily dives than the rangers can. Yes they want access, but at the same time they can make the ranger's life miserable by not transporting people, fuel, provisions and equipment. On our trip we off loaded alot of fuel and some replacement hardware they needed and then took a ranger back on the return trip (they slept on the couch)

We did three night dives the week I was there last March/April. The first two I watched the White Tip Sharks feed in the lights along with everyone else. On the third I went off by myself and just watched the reef, mostly with my light off, it was a blast.

We had rangers on board on both the way out and on the way back. I believe we brought some supplies out also. The operator and the rangers seem to have a very good working relationship.

I don't recall this attack as being at night, did I miss that? If it was not at night, not sure why the night dives would be curtailed. We had a few Galapagos Sharks come in on one of the night dives, that was pretty exciting

 

[shamanrx]

I believe I've read it was during the day. In addition I am interested to hear a more thorough debriefing. I have been to Cocos on 2 separate occasions and have dived that site in the day and night.

I'm still not convinced this wasn't another case of mistaken identity here. I'd like to hear any information on the victim's body and arm position in addition to how shiny her fins or wetsuit may or may not have been, among other details like this.

It isn't hard to imagine, from the sharks view below at the right/wrong angle, that a diver with their arms out in a treading water motion with the sun above, would look a whole lot like a turtle silhouette swimming to the surface. Seeing as tiger sharks eat turtles, this could be very similar to the Great Whites and surfer mistaken identities as seals.

In addition to this, what do the dive ops do now? I find myself leaning towards arming the dive masters with bangsticks. I've never used one or seen one used so my opinion here isn't super informed. However, from my understanding of how this unfolded, the dive master saw the tiger shark make a move and possibly would have had the chance to potentially "bang" the shark.

edit- boom to bang

 

[Wookie]

It's a bang stick which kills or maims the shark.