You say a lot of stupid stuff on this board, but this comment has got to take the cake. An extremely experienced and (ballsy) spearo, diving with two excellent buddies gets mauled and you say the use of a float would have avoided the problem.
I can't decide if your comment is based on arrogance or ignorance. What makes you the expert on shark attacks? I am quite sure they were following the normal procedure of floating their fish, once it has been subdued. Even if they were NOT using lift bags, avoidance of the attack was not "easy". In fact, his buddies sound like heroes for figting off the returning shark and getting him on the boat without further injury.
Yikes! If anyone was going to win awards for saying the most stupid stuff, DD would be in a categoty far above the rest of us, looking down with a huge smile on his face
I wish I knew the spearfisherman in question, because as it is all I can do is make wild generalizations about spearfishing....But since I was spearfishing heavily in the 80's and 90's and up to a few years ago, I do have the background to make some comments on this.
In Palm Beach spearfishing circles, "most" spearfisherman I have been on charter boats with are "same ocean buddies"....unlike DIR buddies, they are usually quite far apart, and most consideer this essential to their hunting. Most I have met "are" good divers, and many are quite ready to get in front of a shark to protect a friend....there is just the issue of how close you should really buddy dive when spearfishing.... A tighter group will be more likely to scare fish away, and also at the same time, keep sharks more likely to stay away...But their are plenty of fish that will not pay any attention to 3 divers in formation--even if some other species get spooked by this.....ie., cobia pay little attention to a tight three man buddy team, hogsnappers are nearly brainless fish-completely unaware unless they "feel" you are looking at them; many of the pelagics that blow by the offshore reefs and deep wrecks will not care about a tight 3 man buddy team... Grouper are another story--they can easily see the team as a huge threat, and just disappear.
Bottom line, I don't know how close these guys were, I can only say that if they were close, it would have been easier to protect each other.
If you shoot a fish and send it up instantly, there is a smaller liklihood that sharks attracted to the spear shot noise and fish struggling, will assume you are the food source it just got a sensory news flash on.....if you shoot one fish in an area with lots of sharks, maybe it would be better to send it up on a lift bag, and then NOT shoot any more in that area for quite a while, as you may already be in the "crosshairs". The worst possible scenarios usually involve a diver shooting a fish while a shark watches this, then if the fish starts struggling all over the place, the shark goes insane with excitement for the meal it sees itself about to get.... This is actually what it looked like to me in this video--the shark almost had to have been watching the diver until the shot.....Even with 3 tight buddies, this is a very dangerous situation to be in. Some spearfisherman end up in this scenario frequently, and you might assume this is something of a greed issue--of wanting too many fish for the area you are in--too many for it to be "safe".
