Death in Cocos from shark attack

[JohnnyC]

Asked my friend. He understandably didn't want to go into it, just confirmed what was already in the news. I wasn't going to push it. If he wants to go into detail later, I'll post up what he says.

Accentuates the point, everyone should carry a tourniquet and hemostatic bandages and pressure dressings, essentially an IFAK, along with their normal save-a-dive kit, and make sure they know how to use it. It's no rocket surgery, and it may save your life.

 

[Divegirl412]

Such a tragedy. So sorry for the divers and the victims’ families. Was on the Argo in August. Some of my group saw one of the tiger sharks. I was on the submersible and missed that dive. But even though the rest of us looked out for other tigers the rest of the trip, I was always just a trifle nervous. Like several others, I am a bit nervous about being in open water, especially at the surface or at night, around great whites, tigers, bulls and oceanic white tips. I think the tigers and bulls make me the most nervous. That must have been a TERRIBLE 36 hour ride back to Puntarenas for the group after her death. I can’t even imagine!!! So so sad.

The guides definitely said the turtles had been decimated by the returned tigers. Makes you wonder..... I really hope there are no more such incidents.

 

[ChrisDarke]

Been on a couple of trips to cocos and for sure the tiger sharks have been having a greater presence there since 2012.. the only time I have ever been diving and gotten scared by an animal was there in Manuelita (the site where the attack took place) when night diving and my buddy and I moved away from the group watching the white tips feeding, and ran into a tiger shark, which I had to kick to push away (was holding my camera so no free hands) and which continued to circle us till we went up for our safety stop.. not being able to see if it was close by at that point at 5m in the dark was quite scary but I’m sure it was just waiting for it’s turn with the white tips..


it’s just sad that it got confused in this incident. I know people who have booked trips for next year now asking “is it safe to go??” But the freezers on the Okeanos boats have been used to store dead bodies before various times, as most people have pointed out, it’s such a rare occurrence, just hope it doesn’t affect the support for the island or the activity on it. (The government here gives in to popular pressure on a lot of things and allows shark finning and drag fishing to continue)

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Been on a couple of trips to cocos and for sure the tiger sharks have been having a greater presence there since 2012.. the only time I have ever been diving and gotten scared by an animal was there in Manuelita (the site where the attack took place) when night diving and my buddy and I moved away from the group watching the white tips feeding, and ran into a tiger shark, which I had to kick to push away (was holding my camera so no free hands) and which continued to circle us till we went up for our safety stop.. not being able to see if it was close by at that point at 5m in the dark was quite scary but I’m sure it was just waiting for it’s turn with the white tips..


it’s just sad that it got confused in this incident. I know people who have booked trips for next year now asking “is it safe to go??” But the freezers on the Okeanos boats have been used to store dead bodies before various times, as most people have pointed out, it’s such a rare occurrence, just hope it doesn’t affect the support for the island or the activity on it. (The government here gives in to popular pressure on a lot of things and allows shark finning and drag fishing to continue)

The tiger shark in that clip isn't what I would consider aggressive - certainly curious, but not aggressive. The problem with sharks is that "curiosity" sometimes involves tooth marks, and a jaw built to crack sea turtles can do a lot of damage to a human even with a glancing blow. A couple years ago I picked up a fresh tiger shark tooth on a dive; at the bar later I was running my fingers along my prize when some lime juice hit the pad of my thumb and I painfully realized it was covered with cuts almost deep enough to bleed.

However, the fact that it's at night would make what's left of my hair stand up; tigers are ambush predators and the closer they get without being tracked the more likely it is they might try something cute. For reference, here's an encounter I had off Jupiter, FL with a ~10 ft female in reduced viz; she wasn't aggressive but "Sassy Cassie" lived up to her moniker:


I would be interested to know what the extent of the wounds were; the most recent article describes the woman as receiving "deep lacerations to both of her legs" and the divemaster suffered "a serious wound to one of his legs." I have seen tigers come up at us from below; typically we spot them coming and they break off. I can see how the shark might have attacked the woman first and then the divemaster caught an open-mouthed blow to the leg while driving it off.

I did talk to a couple of researchers about this incident, including one based in Costa Rica - that's actually one of his BRUV (Baited Remote Underwater Video) images from Cocos in the most recent article. Another researcher who was formerly on the International Shark Attack Files staff said he was aware of only one other fatal attack by a tiger shark on a diver in a group, although the details were questionable.

 

[tarponchik]

Off topic, but here is a new story from Miami (sorry, could not embed the video here).

 

[drrich2]

The Miami story was interesting but sensationalistic; in a nutshell, a tiger shark came in shallower than usual near swimmers which was concerning, but swam on off without bothering anybody (aside from the swimmers' understandable anxiety about having a big shark cruise nearby).

Richard.

 

[mmmbelows]

I think it was a day dive and from the link I just posted, it was while they were surfacing or perhaps on the surface which makes sense as it’s my understanding that sharks typically attack from below the prey.

Maybe a bit too much influence of the discovery channels endless reruns of the of the great whites ambushing seals at seal island, a rather unique situation, but really shouldn't be thought of as demonstrating how all sharks everywhere feed.

 

[Bogtrotter]

The Miami story was interesting but sensationalistic; in a nutshell, a tiger shark came in shallower than usual near swimmers which was concerning, but swam on off without bothering anybody (aside from the swimmers' understandable anxiety about having a big shark cruise nearby).Richard.

Similar situation very recently in Holguin, Cuba, although tragically a young man was bitten on the leg and died. This incident apparently occurred after dark and suspected to be a tiger shark. Very rare to see sharks here from what I understand, the dive centre guys I talk to there say they rarely see sharks- let alone tigers.

Fatal shark attack reported in Cuba

 

[riftvalley84]

Condolences to the family and friends of this woman. Tigers, I believe, are much more curious than most other sharks and will approach closely to investigate. I was at Tiger Beach last week and saw this for myself. We were told to always make eye contact as they approached and continue to make eye contact as they circled behind and to keep our eyes out for them while ascending & descending for the same reason. Also, to never retreat but hold your ground. Tigers are ambush predators and are much less likely to attack if the subject they are interested in is looking at them & not retreating. I feel this is good advice whenever coming across any shark in the open water. It was an amazing trip and we saw up to 8 on every dive.

 

[kelemvor]

Sharks that are fed suck. They are highly aggressive, they associate things with being fed such as hearing boat propellers show up, and divers in the water...

That hasn't been my experience. I did a shark dive in Honduras this past June. It was great, there were lots of sharks, and the sharks didn't mess with the divers. I can't wait to do it again, honestly.

We didn't see any of the "big boys" though (no tigers, whites, etc). I'd probably have been uncomfortable if they were tigers - especially after having read about this attack.