Concerned about sharks? Odds?
- Thread starter on_two_wheels
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
Deefstes
Contributor
- Messages
- 1,396
- Reaction score
- 49
- # of dives
- 100 - 199
I remember being quite worried by this reported incident when I moved to Catalina in the late 60s. It was then a classic story. However, I read much later that it was not authenticated. Do you have a source that indicates it did indeed happen?
There are two ways I avoid GWS attacks. The first is by carrying a camera (although both Wyland and I had video cameras when the 14 ft great white swam by us here off Catalina). The second is by hugging the bottom on most dives (because that's where the critters I usually film are). Until GWS learn to bury into the sand and surprise me from below, I think I'm pretty safe. I think...
stinkynewf
Contributor
I just got a pm from Bruce the shark about this thread.
Ha, ha, you humans are concerned about us. We're the ones who should be concerned. What are the odds for us sharks that we'll come across some knuckle head who throws food in the water with a hook in it, and then when we eat they pull us in toward the boat and shoot us? Or someone who wants to cut off our fins?
The most common shark attacks are humans attacking us!
--Bruce
Ha this thread is funny. I was just looking at a book we picked up at a local library sale that I bought hoping it might help me identify fish more easily. the first section of the book is sharks. The first two pages are "Man eating Sharks". I laughed and laughed at that then I looked at the copyright date. 11th edition, copyright 1967.
Clearly we've learned a lot since then.
Clearly we've learned a lot since then.
OP
on_two_wheels
Contributor
BTravlin - Of course, this list is ONLY those from the US, resulted in a fatality and were scuba diving.
Bill - Only source was wiki. I did do a little more on a few of them that didn't specify scuba (just said diving). Not much info on the net about an unknown, i.e. non-celebrity, death over 50 years ago. I did try, though.
Bill - Only source was wiki. I did do a little more on a few of them that didn't specify scuba (just said diving). Not much info on the net about an unknown, i.e. non-celebrity, death over 50 years ago. I did try, though.
PatW
Contributor
Well, I just looked up a site that had the total USA fatal shark attacks. It was 9 in the past 10 years or .9 per year.
We have bunches of attacks in New Smyrna Beach FL. That is really close by. But the vast majority of those seem to be done by small sharks chasing bait fish in turbid waters. I think they do not see the swimmers and waders. They collide with a person whilst they are chasing fish and bite down in hopes of getting a fish (which does not happen). The shark swims away with a bad taste in its mouth and the swimmer gets a bunch of stitches. If you look at aerial photographs of the beach, there are very large numbers of sharks mixed in with the bathers. If the sharks were going for the people intentionally, there would be dozens of attacks daily.
You do not get very many shark attacks on Scuba divers. Scuba divers are big. We also look bigger because of fins, which adds 3', the BC, which adds bulk, the mask, which makes us look pretty sinister I would think, a metal tank and blowing bubbles. I figure that to even a 10' shark, I would look a bit bigger than it is. I would think that it would take a really big shark that was
really hungry to attack a diver.
Also about 100 people die in the USA of bee and/or wasp stings. So they are 100 times more dangerous than sharks.
We also manage to elimate tens of thousands of people per annum in auto accidents. But we just accept that as a cost of our life style.
The risk of fatality to a shark attack is vanishingly small. But sharks are big impressive animals so the fear they invoke preys on people's minds.
There are about 50 diving fatalities in the US per year. Sharks get about .2 divers per year. You are much more likely to die because you had a heart attack or did something stupid than you are from the attentions of a large predacious fish.
We have bunches of attacks in New Smyrna Beach FL. That is really close by. But the vast majority of those seem to be done by small sharks chasing bait fish in turbid waters. I think they do not see the swimmers and waders. They collide with a person whilst they are chasing fish and bite down in hopes of getting a fish (which does not happen). The shark swims away with a bad taste in its mouth and the swimmer gets a bunch of stitches. If you look at aerial photographs of the beach, there are very large numbers of sharks mixed in with the bathers. If the sharks were going for the people intentionally, there would be dozens of attacks daily.
You do not get very many shark attacks on Scuba divers. Scuba divers are big. We also look bigger because of fins, which adds 3', the BC, which adds bulk, the mask, which makes us look pretty sinister I would think, a metal tank and blowing bubbles. I figure that to even a 10' shark, I would look a bit bigger than it is. I would think that it would take a really big shark that was
really hungry to attack a diver.
Also about 100 people die in the USA of bee and/or wasp stings. So they are 100 times more dangerous than sharks.
We also manage to elimate tens of thousands of people per annum in auto accidents. But we just accept that as a cost of our life style.
The risk of fatality to a shark attack is vanishingly small. But sharks are big impressive animals so the fear they invoke preys on people's minds.
There are about 50 diving fatalities in the US per year. Sharks get about .2 divers per year. You are much more likely to die because you had a heart attack or did something stupid than you are from the attentions of a large predacious fish.
- Messages
- 93,462
- Reaction score
- 91,815
- Location
- On the Fun Side of Trump's Wall
- # of dives
- 2500 - 4999
Similar threads
