Death in Cocos from shark attack

[Bob DBF]

...well yeah calling superman isn't going to help.

I've read about him going back in time, so don't sell him short.


Bob

 

[bubffm]

@JohnnyQuest - your assumption that someone not being American meaning they "probably would not have DAN" has me a bit baffled.....DAN Asia Pacific does a good job of covering we non American divers this side of the world.

As does DAN Europe for Europeans. But as we all know by now, some Americans believe they are the only somewhat developed species on this planet.

 

[InTheDrink]

First, correction to my earlier post - the victim total was five, not four. I was reading an article quickly and was thrown off because the victims were subdivided by nationality. Four were injured on Dec. 1 and a fifth was killed on Dec. 5 after the beaches reopened.



I presume that the "world's leading expert on OWT" would be Dr. Elke Bojanowski?

Same shark linked to three attacks in Egypt

About Red Sea Sharks

Seems like she has an extensive photo ID project (881 identified individuals from 2004 to present) going on OWTs in the Red Sea, and from talking to a researcher who was at the International Shark Attack File at the time the belief was that one OWT was responsible for at least two of the attacks due to a distinctive cut on the dorsal seen in video footage of the attacks. Said shark however was not believed to be the OWT caught after the initial attacks; neither it nor the mako contained human remains (tissue was removed from at least two of the first four victims, although whether it was ingested is an open question).

As far as OWT behavior, the impression I've gotten is that given their environment (open ocean with limited feeding opportunities), they don't pass up meals. I don't buy the "developing a taste for humans" trope; applying that to this instance would be concluding that two is a trend.

Overall, the Sharm El Sheikh attacks are really hard to pin down even seven years later; at the time there seems to have been a lot of BS flying around and an authoritarian government dependent on tourism can't exactly be counted on to provide an unbiased account of the matter.

Assumptions correct and yes will never know and the evidence for what it is inconclusive but it at least *seems* that one OWT was responsible for several hits. If true insanely unusual but they weren’t all single tester bites if memory serves.

In any worst case an outlier. Quite possibly wrong data. Just best not to swim or snorkel around them. Diving seems fine with wits around.

 

[Stoo]

This thread has some of the most tasteless responses I've seen in this forum. (And, yes, please excuse the horrible, unavoidable pun).

In these days where shark-loving is very popular with divers, it's perhaps easy to forget that these are large, predatory animals. Tigers are of course near the top of the list when it comes to being a potential threat to divers, regardless of how slight that risk might be. I don't profess to being any sort of authority on sharks, and certainly not with Tigers, never having seen one, but I can't help but wonder what sort of interaction occurred, if any, between this diver, the DM and the animal. I'd love to know if there was any attempt to approach it, photograph it, chase it etc. or if it was a completely random attack.

I noted that Tigers are relatively new to Cocos so perhaps their exposure to divers is limited, and I wonder if that was a factor. Things we will never know.

Hearing from the DM will be interesting, if we ever do.

 

[Rythmmaker]

There used to be a guy in Alaska that spent lots of time with grizzlies in Alaska (or maybe it was brown bears). Anyway he would take folks in for bear encounters and spend time near them. Did this for several years and then one day he and a customer were found dead from a bear attack. Same for any apex predator. You can have lots of encounters and one day the predator wakes up with a headache, hungry, feeling territorial, just ticked off, or whatever, and the encounter does not go well. I have seen cats, dogs, and some other animals take a nip, swat, kick, just because for some reason they got annoyed on a particular day by human presence.

I suspect that there are complex reasons why this shark attack occurred. We may never know or understand the variables.

The story of the grizzly man and his girlfriend who were killed on Kodiak Island likely stem from misunderstanding and misinterpreting available data.

As I recall, he has spent all summer in close proximity to these huge coastal brown bears with no indication that they were any threat to him. He came to believe that they weren’t dangerous.

Others have suggested that those bears enjoyed an almost limitless supply of high-quality, calorie-dense supply of salmon, and simply didn’t view him as a food source. Those well-fed bears may be the first to move up into the higher elevations to find places to hibernate. It has been theorized that when they vacated the prime fishing locations, they were quickly replaced by inland bears who didn’t recognize the humans and who don’t share the same rich diet through the summer months. When the summer resident bears moved out, the inland bears came in to take advantage of the food source. Those newcomers were hyperphagic and used to preying on whatever they could catch.

The amateur bear biologist and his girlfriend failed to understand the changing situation around them and how it put them in grave danger. They paid the ultimate price for their hubris.

Consider that they had lived all summer in the midst of bears in very close proximity - sleeping in tents and having the bears roam freely through and around their camp - and still managed to fail to understand crucial data.

Now consider how much less we know and understand about tiger shark biology and their behavior than we do about bears.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

As I've stated before in threads discussing shark behavior, I don't think large land carnivores such as bears are a good comparison. A case such as Timothy Treadwell's is even less appropriate due to differences in the setup (2 people versus a larger group, camping in a fixed location for weeks versus short 1-2 hour excursions from a base the predator cannot reach). I believe the comparison comes about because bears are predators that, like sharks, freak most people out and humans are more familiar with them.

As for the circumstances, we may not hear about them in this setting, especially given the threat of a lawsuit in this case even if it is on questionable grounds. However, I doubt it was triggered by approaching the shark, especially as the attack reportedly occurred at some point between the safety stop and the surface.

I had forgotten about this clip earlier, but this incident from South Africa is probably a good comparison and matches my experience - isolating yourself and turning your back on a tiger shark is asking for trouble. If it had been a larger or more determined animal the results may have been the same as the case we're discussing:
Another one from a similar dive, although in this case the damage appears limited to the diver's BC:

 

[peeweediver]

I also posted this question on the Central America site:
Besides this very unfortunately fatality from a Tiger shark attack 4 months ago, has anyone visited Cocos Island in the last three months and observed or heard of any additional unusual Tiger shark activity? We have heard a few dribs and drabs that more aggressive behavior has occurred from a Tiger or two since the fatal attack. We are unable to definitively confirm anything we have heard, but have also not received definitive information to the contrary from operators. Has anyone been there recently and experienced or heard anything about this?
Thank you for any honest information you can provide.

 

[curamax]

Hi Peeweediver
I just return from my trip to Cocos , so I will try (with my poor english) to mention in my own experience what I saw there.

First , about the shark behavior , I can tell you, we did 22 dives during the week. We saw tiger sharks in 4 of them .
At any of those 4 dives , the tigers didn´t show aggressive behavior at all. at 3 of them only pass close to us and continue his way.
and the other dive , ( four people from the group got separate from us ) and the tiger stay with them just passing close , for about 3 to 4 minutes but also dind't show aggressive, only curiosity

Also the night dives are cancel , but we did one evening dive around 5 pm ( when the white tips start to be more active)

The main difference is this : tiger sharks don't get scare of people, like all the others sharks in cocos.

For what I hear , its suppose to be there in cocos one particular tiger shark more curious than others ( but I don't known for sure).

But its only my opinion, and I'm far away of been expert in shark behavior.

Another thing I want to mention is that from 19 people in the trip , none of us was from United States. (its my first time I'm in a live aboard trip with no one from USA ) . Looks like some people from USA cancel,

considering that the average of americans who visit cocos its suppose to be higher to 50% , in my opinion authorities over there must do something about it . for example , we pay $400 dlls for the park fee . multiplied 3000 divers each year its $1.2million dlls . They need that money to protect the island from illegal fishing., Also Live aboard companies , i guess they have less bookings than before the incident. So if they have to take away (dont known how ) one or two tiger sharks in order decrease the risk of encounter with a diver and to protect thousands of other animals there , I think its the best thing to do, with the help of some shark protect foundation.

Finally , If your question is about how safe its to go there? I would say (again only my point of view) , its the same than five years ago when I went there for the first time, and I would do it again, it was a great trip. its always a risk involve when you dive with sharks and we all known it .

 

[peeweediver]

Gracias, Curamax. I will pass your thoughts to the group considering a visit. I was there two year ago and it was truly special.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

considering that the average of americans who visit cocos its suppose to be higher to 50% , in my opinion authorities over there must do something about it . for example , we pay $400 dlls for the park fee . multiplied 3000 divers each year its $1.2million dlls . They need that money to protect the island from illegal fishing., Also Live aboard companies , i guess they have less bookings than before the incident. So if they have to take away (dont known how ) one or two tiger sharks in order decrease the risk of encounter with a diver and to protect thousands of other animals there , I think its the best thing to do, with the help of some shark protect foundation.

To put it bluntly, "taking away" sharks from a marine park which is intended to preserve a pristine marine environment for the sake of liveaboard bookings grossly perverts the whole purpose of marine conservation. Places like Cocos are a wilderness environment. Apex predators are a feature, not a bug.

Likewise, "taking away" apex predators is not going to "protect thousands of other animals;" that's an invitation to destabilize the ecosystem. I would advise looking up Dr. Michael Heithaus's research on the ecosystem effects of tiger shark predation in Shark Bay, Western Australia:
Dr. Mario Espinoza, a former graduate school colleague of mine, is currently studying tiger sharks at Cocos (article in Spanish): Analizan comportamiento de tiburones de la Isla del Coco | Crhoy.com