Croc attacks kill two - Solomon Islands

[DandyDon]

'People are going crazy': Two men killed by crocodiles in Solomon Islands after diving for beche-de-mer

The deaths of two divers from crocodile attacks come less than a month after Solomon Islands lifted its ban on harvesting sea cucumbers in an effort to boost the pandemic-stricken economy.

www.abc.net.au

Two men have been killed in separate crocodile attacks in Solomon Islands while diving for sea cucumbers at night.

The deaths last week of a 36-year-old man and another man in his 20s came less than a month after the country lifted a ban on harvesting the marine animal, also called beche-de-mer, in order to boost the economy after COVID-19.

Royal Solomon Islands Police Force Provincial Assistant Commissioner Joseph Maneluga said he was concerned about the attacks, which occurred just a day apart.

"I think the people are going crazy because of the reopening of the beche-de-mer," he said.

"And the population of crocodiles is really increasing, and so that is the threat that we have."

Key points:​

• A sea cucumber catch can earn Pacific divers hundreds of dollars
• The lifting of a sea cucumber ban has sparked a harvesting craze
• Crocodile populations are booming in the Solomon Islands

Police enlisted assistance from Explosive Ordnance Device Unit divers, who are usually tasked to dispose of old World War II shells, to recover the bodies from the crocodile-infested waters.

"It's quite risky because there are crocodiles still around those places and so it's not safe for our divers to go back to the same location to search for those people," Assistant Commissioner Maneluga said.

Despite the threat of crocodile attacks, diver and marine biologist Stephen Attallifo Mosese said locals were not afraid to get in the water to harvest sea cucumbers.

"I was amazed because Suava Bay in Malaita is a hotspot for crocodiles and ever since the reopening, you can see people diving out [at] the mangroves at night and you know that this is [the] time crocodiles are the most active," Mr Mosese said.

(story continues at link)

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

What a horrible way to go.

 

[drrich2]

Very interesting. From further down in the article you linked:

""It's all about trying to put those sustainable management practices in place so that people have more money, that the ecological system is still functioning and that people aren't placing themselves in danger of getting attacked or eaten by crocodiles," Dr Jupiter said.

She has backed calls from authorities who are urging people to take precautionary measures whilst diving.

That includes knowing the dive location, diving during the day with a group of people, having someone look out for dangers, and avoiding mangroves, swamps and seagrass where crocodiles like to hang out."

I wondered whether dive operators in the Solomons include night dives; per Blue Water Dive Travel's page on the Solomon Islands:

"SOLOMON ISLANDS TYPICAL DIVE
On a liveaboard, 5 dives a day is typical and that usually includes a night dive. You can dive solo or go with friends and/or a guide. Although some dives are from a big boat, tenders are more common."

DandyDon, this isn't the 1st time you've posted an account of a saltwater crocodile attack. I've got a link from some notes I keep on the larger region, along with an interesting post from Lermontov. From my notes:

There is a low risk of a particularly gruesome hazard – salt water crocodile attack. DandyDon posted Crocodile fatality – Vonavona Lagoon, Solomon Islands, though Dan (Post #10) noted it happens in Indonesia, too, including Raja Ampat. Lermontov (Post #40) recalled his group relaxing on a verandah projecting over the water; one member snorkeled till the owner told them about the crocodile traps 100 meters away.

 

[Kay Dee]

Nasty! And a nasty way to go also! Condolences to family and friends.

When diving around Guadalcanal back in the 90's we used to anchor up for the night behind the small islands of Gavutu / Tanimbogo, just opposite some vast mangrove flats on Florida Island. I would not have done a night dive there on the wrecks of several IJN H6K 'Mavis' flying boats for......well for whatever, as you only had to point your flashlight out into the dark to always see several pairs - at least - of red eyes glowing.

And to answer @drrich2's question, yes most recreational liveboards did provide a night dive, generally depending on the location of course.

 

[clownfishsydney]

I have visited and dived the Solomon Islands five times. I have dived locations where crocodiles have been visible many times. These were all tiny, hardly big enough to do minor damage to you. My understanding has always been that these crocs do not get really big and are not dangerous to humans.

 

[drrich2]

Not all stay little - here's a March 2019 RNZ article (Karoi Hawkins) - Crocodile attacks on the rise in Solomons says report

Snippets from that:
"The report documented a total of 225 crocodile attacks on people. One of its authors, Dutch scientist Jan van der Ploeg, said the real number of attacks was likely to be higher because many villages and indeed whole islands were not visited.

In the 20-year period from 1998 to 2017 a total of 194 attacks were reported.

One third of these attacks resulted in a person's death: 83 people have been killed in total, 31 were children."

"Jan van der Ploeg, links the increase in attacks to a burgeoning crocodile population since the government banned the export of crocodile skins in 1993 as part of a global push to prevent the reptiles from becoming extinct.

"And when they stopped hunting the population was very small but it responded and it recovered very rapidly," Mr van der Ploeg said.

It is estimated that there are now between 1400 and 2300 saltwater crocodiles in the country."

"According to the report at least five people a year are killed by crocodiles on average in Solomon Islands over the past decade. In the first few months of 2018 alone there were 13 attacks, three of them fatal."

"The saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) is the world's largest living reptile, with males recorded in excess of 6m and over 1000kg. The largest saltwater crocodile recorded in Solomon Islands was 5.9m, on Isabel."

 

[Kay Dee]

I have visited and dived the Solomon Islands five times. I have dived locations where crocodiles have been visible many times. These were all tiny, hardly big enough to do minor damage to you. My understanding has always been that these crocs do not get really big and are not dangerous to humans.

Diving with little ones - of which quite a few very nice u/w photos of same have emerged from the Sols - is one thing, and I would also do that. However, little ones off Gavutu - when we used to anchor there - they were'nt, as when things went quiet / and all but mooring lights went off later in the night, they would come very near the boat and one could sneak out and get an eyefull of 'big enough "I am not diving with those" size salty's.

So with all due respect re not getting very big you are in error Michael - although that depends on what one calls 'very big' as opposed to 'giants' I suppose. Besides, the figures that @drrich2 provides are hard to ignore, so big or not there seems to be plenty of 'killers' around

Be that as it may, we would always do things differently anyway Michael.

 

[TonRin]

There is a wreck dive just West of Honiara about 30mins that is called Bonegi 1 & 2.. We hear about crocs there regularly. I haven't seen one diving there yet, but locals say they are always there. Unfortunaltey the Beche-de-mer guys can be a little gung hoe with how they dive. We had a young man gent bent not long ago diving for them. Went down to 40m on a hookah and the air just could push down that far, came up all the way to see what was wrong.. Didn't feel well, went home, became paralysed over a week at home, then went to doctors and took another 5 days to get him to Honiara to our chamber here. Wasn't much that could be done. He lived but won't walk again.

Big croc, small croc they would all hurt the buggers!

 

[Kay Dee]

Didn't feel well, went home, became paralysed over a week at home, then went to doctors and took another 5 days to get him to Honiara to our chamber here. Wasn't much that could be done. He lived but won't walk again.

Yes, we had many an amateur salvage diver (max depth for them at the time 35- 40m on home made hookah) boat skipper who would pull alongside in Java Sea and ask if we had any 'medicine' as one of their divers was 'sick' and couldnt move his arms, or legs, etc. I can post a couple of photos of their boats and primtiive equipment - no doubt much like what used by the diver in Sols you mention - when back at my computer, and as for 'dive tables', well they had no idea! After all, they were just simple fishermen turned salvors, as the fish had basically evaporated from the JS, but there was brass and scrap aplenty in the above depths and shallower (and hence why the deeper warship wrecks there remained 'protected' until the commercial Chinese salvors came along circa 2012+ and removed most of the completely.

 

[drrich2]

Unfortunaltey the Beche-de-mer guys can be a little gung hoe with how they dive.

Good to know. This sounds similar to the plight of lobster divers of Mexico's Mosquito Coast, who dove deeper when shallow water stocks were depleted, and some of them got the bends. I'm talking poor people without dive computers in an area without much other opportunity; if one got bent pretty badly but recovered, it'd be no surprise to find him back doing the same thing later. Take really poor people with families and not much other opportunity, and tell them there's basically money laying around on the sea bottom, and apparently this is the sort of thing you may get.