Shark attack, Egypt, Brothers islands

[SapphireMind]

Wow. That attack story was heartbreaking.

I noticed the first guy that the shark was really interested in was in a shorty, and I was wondering if maybe he had cut himself on coral or something, because the attention really didn't stray from that guy until the end where it went into attacking.

I've gone snorkeling with juvenile whale sharks who only scare me that they will accidentally hit me with a fin, not that they will bite me, obviously, and been around lemon sharks and such, little bitty things. I'm not terrified of sharks, but there's a healthy fear of bothering something that could easily eat me. Even with the whale sharks, I was working to keep my proper minimum distances and the whale sharks weren't paying attention to those rules. A good whack with one of their fins, and it doesn't matter they wouldn't eat me!

I didn't realize this species was so aggressive towards people in general. Good to know. It's amazing he survived.

 

[KenGordon]

I didn't realize this species was so aggressive towards people in general.

They are not, in general they ignore people.

There are dozens of boats there, each with 20 or so divers, doing three or four dives a day. Say a 1000 dives each day on the big southern reefs, for years. Even if the season is only a few months that is still 100k dives/year, so litterally millions of opportunities for people to get hurt.

There are some rules in place to mitigate the risk, for example no night dives. The guides/their bosses brief on how to dive in the presence of the sharks. What I was told to do did not match what the people in the video were doing.

I did this itinerary three years ago. We had oceanic white tips on all the dives down there. We didn’t need to mob them with selfie sticks, we stuck close in to walls and kept in groups to appear as bigger. Getting back in the boat seemed like the riskiest bit. There were also some times when we had to pull against current along mooring ropes from the main boat that felt a bit exposed.

They would hang round the boat at night. If I was on the back deck fiddling with kit I could usually see a fin or two.

 

[АлександрД]

About spear or sling-spear, as offered above:
I will go back again to the main researcher of sharks behavior in the Red Sea - Cousteau team.
Unfortunately I did not found any english edition of "The silent world", and will bring here google translation from our edition:
Chapter 12:
Seeing how the sharks continue to calmly swim with their heads punched by a harpoon, with gaping wounds in their bodies and even after a strong explosion in the immediate vicinity of the brain, we stopped placing any hopes on the defensive qualities of the knife. Then it is better to use the "shark club" - a strong wooden spear four feet long, studded with sharp spikes at the end. The idea is that the spikes need to rest on the skin of the advancing shark - so the trainer drives away the lion with the help of an ordinary chair. The spikes will not allow the club to slip off; at the same time, they do not cry out enough to tease the predator. Thus, the diver gets the opportunity to maintain the necessary distance between himself and the enemy.
We had to dive hundreds of times with a baton tied to a hand in the shark-infested waters of the Red Sea. However, the cudgel did not find any practical use for itself, so it may easily turn out that this is just another theoretical defensive means against these creatures inaccessible to human understanding.

and again:
Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Philippe Cousteau The Shark: Splendid Savage of the Sea
Conclusion about sharks behavior:
Sharks never attack a scuba swimmer immediately. For some time, more or less long, they walk around the person, then retreat, then again carefully approach. You have time to calmly decide whether to stay under water or go out. In the afternoon, in the clear water, the underwater swimmer, when meeting with a shark, is not directly threatened. A link of two scuba divers can easily keep track of two sharks. But no matter how many swimmers under the water, if there are three sharks or more, it is better to take care of this or that shelter.

A solid object from half a meter to a meter long - say, a movie camera or a “shark club” - will reliably protect against one or two sharks. The end of the baton must be equipped with short spikes or studs so that it does not slide over the shark skin. The baton allows you to push the shark away and maintain a safe distance. But in order not to provoke a defensive reaction in a shark, it is impossible to hit the enemy with the club and the more so to injure it.

So, this "Club" used just to push out sharks, and should NOT damage shark skin.
Idea with tennis ball is nice. The simplest way - is to take PVC water pipes and made this Spear-Club by yourself.

but... it useless! really.
How many sharks attack is annualy? I think is no more of 50...
How many dives all world population has per year? I think over 500 000.
What is the probability of accident with you?
less than 1/10 000
it is the same, as aivaition accident probability! (approx.)
But nobody take parachute in the cabin in to the passenger flight....

 

[WS007]

Many visitors here in egypt feed sharks from the boat...sharks linked food with boats and what falls from them...this was the first mistake...second one that shark got nervous from divers surrounding him shotting photos flashes & videos..if you notice that shark body was curved down thats mean nervous signal & after awhile his side fins comes down which means ready for attack...why divers didnot get closer to each others beside reef and lets open water way for him to pass through...third mistake that the victim diver didnot keep his eyes on shark whose going behind him on his horizontal position ....
Which him quick recovery...

I am not an expert in Longimanus behaviour, based on the few encounters I had in Egypt. In my cases the Longis were behaving calm, but interested (not so excited as the shark in the video)). The interaction times were always just few minutes, as it is known the sharks come closer and become more interested the longer the interaction lasts...

Regarding feeding:
I dive in Egypt since the 80ies and also was many times on boat Safari (including the offshore reefs like Brothers, Daedalus, Rocky):

=> I NEVER saw divers feeding sharks from the boat and I am 100% shure the guides would have strictly have went inbetween and strictly prohibited this behaviour if some idiots would have started with it...

=> What I, however, observed frequently is that the boats dispose the kitchen waste at night just overboard (not with dingy), resulting in attractive "fish soup" (Night dives are anyhow prohibited in the egyptian marine parks - I am pretty shure this is not because of sharks, but because these are offshore reefs with strong currents and too dangerous in practice - frequently tourists would get lost - many more than eaten by sharks ).

I believe the Longis learn quickly that safari boats mean delicious foot. The boats should stop food waste disposal at these places. An additional factor is that the Longis get used to divers, when hundreds are down every day with them, loose respect and come (for my taste too) close to investigate. On top of this is the "wrong" behaviour of the divers (as described here) - I am surprised that accidents still happen so seldom...

Wolfgang

 

[UFOrb]

We didn’t need to mob them with selfie sticks

It would annoy me too if I was walking down the road and some random person ran up to me and stuck a selfie stick in my face!

 

[johndiver999]

It would annoy me too if I was walking down the road and some random person ran up to me and stuck a selfie stick in my face!

Yeah, it probably was the selfie sticks. That is something I'll try to remember when dealing with one of the most dangerous sharks in the world.

 

[UFOrb]

Yeah, it probably was the selfie sticks. That is something I'll try to remember when dealing with one of the most dangerous sharks in the world.

On the flipside, you could always use it as a ‘shark club’!

I guess the intended tone of my comment was lost on you. I wasn’t for a minute suggesting this incident was all down to the selfie stick. If you’ve read my previous comments in this thread then you’d know that.
Selfie sticks are friggin annoying though!

 

[Dan]

About spear or sling-spear, as offered above:
I will go back again to the main researcher of sharks behavior in the Red Sea - Cousteau team.
Unfortunately I did not found any english edition of "The silent world", and will bring here google translation from our edition:
Chapter 12:
Seeing how the sharks continue to calmly swim with their heads punched by a harpoon, with gaping wounds in their bodies and even after a strong explosion in the immediate vicinity of the brain, we stopped placing any hopes on the defensive qualities of the knife. Then it is better to use the "shark club" - a strong wooden spear four feet long, studded with sharp spikes at the end. The idea is that the spikes need to rest on the skin of the advancing shark - so the trainer drives away the lion with the help of an ordinary chair. The spikes will not allow the club to slip off; at the same time, they do not cry out enough to tease the predator. Thus, the diver gets the opportunity to maintain the necessary distance between himself and the enemy.
We had to dive hundreds of times with a baton tied to a hand in the shark-infested waters of the Red Sea. However, the cudgel did not find any practical use for itself, so it may easily turn out that this is just another theoretical defensive means against these creatures inaccessible to human understanding.

and again:
Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Philippe Cousteau The Shark: Splendid Savage of the Sea
Conclusion about sharks behavior:
Sharks never attack a scuba swimmer immediately. For some time, more or less long, they walk around the person, then retreat, then again carefully approach. You have time to calmly decide whether to stay under water or go out. In the afternoon, in the clear water, the underwater swimmer, when meeting with a shark, is not directly threatened. A link of two scuba divers can easily keep track of two sharks. But no matter how many swimmers under the water, if there are three sharks or more, it is better to take care of this or that shelter.

A solid object from half a meter to a meter long - say, a movie camera or a “shark club” - will reliably protect against one or two sharks. The end of the baton must be equipped with short spikes or studs so that it does not slide over the shark skin. The baton allows you to push the shark away and maintain a safe distance. But in order not to provoke a defensive reaction in a shark, it is impossible to hit the enemy with the club and the more so to injure it.

So, this "Club" used just to push out sharks, and should NOT damage shark skin.
Idea with tennis ball is nice. The simplest way - is to take PVC water pipes and made this Spear-Club by yourself.

but... it useless! really.
How many sharks attack is annualy? I think is no more of 50...
How many dives all world population has per year? I think over 500 000.
What is the probability of accident with you?
less than 1/10 000
it is the same, as aivaition accident probability! (approx.)
But nobody take parachute in the cabin in to the passenger flight....

I'm not sure if you understand my description of the rod that Argo's DM uses to fend off a Tiger Shark in Cocos. It is about a meter long steel pipe (~ 2 cm diameter, so it's pretty solid). At the attacking end it has a pointy tip made out of a machine screw (I wish I took a picture of the tip) for jabbing on to the shark. The tennis ball mounted on the other end is for grabbing and shoving the rod.

 

[ijdod]

Ouch. I think that puts to bed any notion it was an "exploratory" bite.

Does it? Not saying it was, but If something with a mouth full of very sharp teeth nibbles on your leg, and you pull away, chances are chunks will come off. Not unlike (but severely more serious wound-wise) pulling away your hand when your cat/dog is playfully holding on to it.

Yeah, it probably was the selfie sticks. That is something I'll try to remember when dealing with one of the most dangerous sharks in the world.

If we can train divers to associate selfie sticks with shark attacks, surely that's a good thing?

 

[CuzzA]

Does it? Not saying it was, but If something with a mouth full of very sharp teeth nibbles on your leg, and you pull away, chances are chunks will come off. Not unlike (but severely more serious wound-wise) pulling away your hand when your cat/dog is playfully holding on to it.



If we can train divers to associate selfie sticks with shark attacks, surely that's a good thing?

Yes. It does.