Diver killed by a blue shark - Egypt

[Diver0001]

Dutch news is reporting a fatal shark attack on a diver near Marsa Alam in Egypt. Apparently the culprit was a blue shark.

Anyone know anything else about this?

R..

 

[chrisch]

Sounds like nonsense. Blue sharks are non aggressive and don't kill people. People kill millions of blue sharks.

Do you have a link? Could be bad translation.

 

[Diver0001]

It's not a bad translation. I read it in Dutch and the article wasn't translated. The information could well be incorrect but they definitely reported it as a blue shark.

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[Diver0001]

Oh wait... my bad. They're reporting two separate events in the same article. The blue shark chased some tourists out of the water in Mallorca. The type of shark that killed the diver in Egypt isn't mentioned.

R..

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Did a quick Google search and only came up with one hit that looked credible; supposedly a 41-year old Czech tourist. No mention of diving or even if the attack was observed, which always leaves open the question of a drowning and postmortem scavenging.

Shark Kills Czech Tourist in Egypt’s Marsa Alam | Egyptian Streets

I would advise waiting to see if the details get nailed down; one of the hits I got was a TripAdvisor thread where a poster seemed to be conflating this incident with the series of attacks in 2010. Also advise changing the thread title; while blues have attacked humans before it overwhelmingly involves castaways on the surface. The last case I heard of where a blue shark bit a diver was off the Florida Keys when a snorkeling photographer found one in shallow water (possibly sick or injured) and got between it and the exit. Sounds like what happened in Mallorca may have been similar: Shark which forced evacuation of panicked tourists from Mallorcan beach dies as rescuers drag it out of sea

 

[drbill]

Sounds like nonsense. Blue sharks are non aggressive and don't kill people.

Actually they do, although they are not a major factor in fatal attacks. Check out the International Shark Attack File stats at Species Implicated in Attacks

Although other species like great whites and tigers are way up there in the stats, blue shark attacks exceeded those by oceanic white tips.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Actually they do, although they are not a major factor in fatal attacks. Check out the International Shark Attack File stats at Species Implicated in Attacks

Although other species like great whites and tigers are way up there in the stats, blue shark attacks exceeded those by oceanic white tips.

The problem with tallying up attacks by blues and oceanic whitetips is that those are pelagic species; it's somewhat rare for either to come into areas where recreational swimmers/surfers (the primary demographic for recorded shark attacks) are. Aside from divers, most of their encounters with humans in the water would have been with shipwreck and air crash survivors; survivors of such encounters probably aren't taking notes about what kinds of sharks they ran afoul of.

I have yet to encounter either species, but from secondhand information blues aren't nearly as bold as oceanic whitetips.

 

[OMANDIVER]

Reported on the front page of the London Times today. (Subscription) but basically agrees with the above but says Egyptians tried to hush it up to avoid tourism damage.

 

[scubadada]

There are numerous published accounts, though little additional information.

 

[drbill]

The problem with tallying up attacks by blues and oceanic whitetips is that those are pelagic species; it's somewhat rare for either to come into areas where recreational swimmers/surfers (the primary demographic for recorded shark attacks) are...

I have yet to encounter either species, but from secondhand information blues aren't nearly as bold as oceanic whitetips.

Agree in general, but in days past (say 50 years ago) blue sharks were quite common in our coastal waters here and we'd see dozens of them cruising the coast and even while diving. Today it is very rare to see a blue at all. We had to stop shark dives several years ago because it was getting rare to see them.