How many fatal shark attacks to stop you diving

[Hank49]

Stewart . . . Guess you've not been that close.

Hank, how many peopleodo you think were boogie boarding in 1950. . .1977 . . . compared to these days. Ya it was the 8 footers that brought it on after the"culling" .

This is what I was told by an ichthyologist in Hawaii. Made sense to me. But what do I know......

 

[chillyinCanada]

You know an itchthyologist!

 

[gcarter]

But if you aren't fatally wounded . . .what if all that happens is that the shark approaches you, makes you soil yourself as you think it might be your last moment . .. but it isn't. Just an extraordinary experience that you desire to have again and again and again and. . . .

That's why so many encounters are single bites - we taste like ****.

 

[ferris213]

SB Members: "If their relatives were dumb enough to get eaten be glad the gene pool has been improved a bit and overall family IQ raised!"

Nice compassion there Jim. I wonder if you would say that to a grieving mothers face?

 

[Hank49]

You know an itchthyologist!

And quite a good one at that....

John Ernest Randall - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://www.fish-isj.jp/info/JohnE_Randall.pdf

 

[ibj40]

Isn't it about time for this?

 

[TMHeimer]

Nice compassion there Jim. I wonder if you would say that to a grieving mothers face?

If a diver does what I would consider a dumb thing (such as feeding sharks, going near Great Whites in a cage or not , or even--at least IM0-- seeking to find sharks to dive with/photograph--remember that's IMO, so no nasty replies from all of you photogs please) then I agree with Jim. I will assume he would not say what he posted to grieving relatives--would anyone?

 

[Foxfish]

If a diver does what I would consider a dumb thing (such as feeding sharks, going near Great Whites in a cage or not , or even--at least IM0-- seeking to find sharks to dive with/photograph--remember that's IMO, so no nasty replies from all of you photogs please) then I agree with Jim. I will assume he would not say what he posted to grieving relatives--would anyone?

South Neptune Islands off South Australia are home to a large sea lion colony and seals and so naturally the numbers of white pointers in the area are high - the highest of anywhere in Australia. There are a number of charters in the area that take people out to see sharks which indicates that viewing white pointers is a popular activity in this region.

In spite of this risk and and the obvious popularity of the activity, there has only been one fatal attack in the area in 90 years.

What does that statistic indicate? Can we infer the risk of an attack to a person scuba diving in the area is so low that no protection is necessary even though it is a well known haunt for white pointers?

You can read about details of the fatal attack here taken from the 'global shark attack file':

http://www.sharkattackfile.net/spreadsheets/pdf_directory/1998.06.28-Chesser.pdf

The person was freediving 3 m (about 10 ft) from shore when he was attacked by a white pointer.

If you scroll down the page the second newspaper article starts off with Rodney Fox, recognised as that area foremost expert on white pointers, saying that anyone who went diving in this area without a shark cage was 'mad'.

I checked the definition of the word 'mad' on line and found the following:

insane, mentally ill, certifiable, deranged, demented, of unsound mind, out of one's mind, not in one's right mind, sick in the head, not together, crazy, crazed, lunatic, non compos mentis, unbalanced, unhinged, unstable, disturbed, distracted, stark mad, manic, frenzied, raving, distraught, frantic, hysterical, delirious, psychotic, psychopathic, mad as a hatter, mad as a March hare, away with the fairies, foaming at the mouth; sectionable; informalmental, off one's head, out of one's head, off one's nut, nuts, nutty, nutty as a fruitcake, off one's rocker, not (quite) right in the head, round the bend, stark staring/raving mad, raving mad, bats, batty, bonkers, dotty, cuckoo, cracked, loopy, loony, bananas, loco, dippy, screwy, schizoid, touched, gaga, up the pole, off the wall, not all there, not right upstairs; informalbarmy, crackers, barking, barking mad, round the twist, off one's trolley, as daft as a brush, not the full shilling;informalbuggy, nutsy, nutso;out of one's tree, meshuga, squirrelly, wacko;

informalbushed;nformalporangi; informalhave a screw loose, have bats in the/one's belfry;

informalhave kangaroos in the/one's top paddock"he felt he was going mad"

This meaning and the various euphemisms listed in the definition tally well with my understanding of the term. I note this had the letters BRIT in front of the definition which I presume indicates the definitions are intended for those who speak the Queens English. There may be some variances in the US definition.

Clearly Mr Fox's beliefs about diving in an area with sharks where the risk of an attack is very high correlates strongly with my own. That would go a long way to substantiate my previous reluctance for including a frequency of attack in the above poll deemed so high that the the obvious conclusion was that the diver simply did not care about the risk in the context described above ie. was a suicidal maniac.

In spite of the popularity of Nepune Islands as a shark viewing area, I wasn't able to find any online companies that ferry people to the area for the purposes of swimming with or diving with the white pointers apart from cage diving operators. I think it is safe to conclude that most if not all people who visit the area to view white pointers are doing so in boats with cages.

Again we can infer from this a couple of things. Firstly, the high risk of an attack by a white pointer is well known in the area including scuba divers. And Secondly, most scuba divers share a similar perspective to diving in the area as the one expressed by Mr Fox and only view the sharks from the vantage point of a cage.

Herein then lies the solution to the quandary highlighted earlier regarding the very low number of fatal shark attacks in the area. ie. It is that the reason there has only been one attack in this area is precisely for the reasons outlined in the previous paragraph.

This stands in stark contrast to the most popular responses shown on this poll which clearly indicates that when presented with the opportunity to dive in an area considered to have an extremely high risk of shark attack, most scuba divers simply don't care about the risks and would dive regardless.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

In spite of this risk and and the obvious popularity of the activity, there has only been one fatal attack in the area in 90 years.

Apparently the reality doesn't support his opinion. I live in a quiet residential neighborhood. One time, about 40 years ago, there was a fatal accident on this road. By Mr. Fox's measure, people who drive on the street in my neighborhood are mad, with more than twice the justification he brings to the argument.

But what is madness isn't so much diving with the sharks, but the circumstances in which it's being done ... cage diving operations dump chum in the water to attract the sharks, so that by the time they appear they're responding aggressively to blood in the water. Putting people in the water under those circumstances corresponds to my view of madness. But they do it because people are willing to pay large sums of money for the thrill of a close encounter with the animals, and especially because of the human-induced agitated condition they'll be seeing these animals in.

People do lots of crazy things. What's crazy in this case is people agitating a wild animal for entertainment purposes, then rationalizing that it must be killed because it behaves according to its nature. If you simply left them alone, they'd never associate humans with food.

I know quite a few people who believe that anyone who puts a tank of air on their back and goes underwater is crazy, regardless of where they do it.

By their definition, all scuba diving activity is madness.

Maybe we should use their opinions to justify culling dive shops.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[The Chairman]

In spite of this risk and and the obvious popularity of the activity, there has only been one fatal attack in the area in 90 years.

Scuba divers have one of the most effective deterrents against shark attacks: Bubbles. No fish likes them and that includes sharks. If you encounter an aggressive sea creature a quick pop of bubbles from your regulator will send them running.