Shark kills South African spear fisherman

[DiveGolfSki]

I'm never going back in the water again

Relax, the odds are against it

 

[Cudabait]

I still believe that chumming the waters for cage diving is going to be one of the reasons for the increase in attacks. Who will ever know though?

I agree....I'm a strong believer that feeding these animals, regardless of the method or reason, teaches them to associate food with humans.

Regards,

 

[Creed]

I first read about it on the SBC page. The picture on the blurb was of a whale shark. I wonder how many people now think that whale sharks are killers.

 

[ShakaZulu]

I agree....I'm a strong believer that feeding these animals, regardless of the method or reason, teaches them to associate food with humans.

Regards,

Only have to look at the studies of Pavlov, to know this is what's going on. Pavlov became interested in studying reflexes when he saw that the dogs drooled without the proper stimulus. Although no food was in sight, their saliva still dribbled. It turned out that the dogs were reacting to lab coats. Every time the dogs were served food, the person who served the food was wearing a lab coat. Therefore, the dogs reacted as if food was on its way whenever they saw a lab coat.

 

[UWSojourner]

I'm never going back in the water again

Yeah, but that increases your odds of dieing due to a non-shark related cause.

 

[jepuskar]

I don't even want to leave my house now....no wait, I could die in a home related accident..like the iron falling on me..no wait, i'm never near one of those.

I have always said that if I'm gonna die in a freak accident, let it be a shark..because that makes a cool story!

 

[Mwright15]

Only have to look at the studies of Pavlov, to know this is what's going on. Pavlov became interested in studying reflexes when he saw that the dogs drooled without the proper stimulus. Although no food was in sight, their saliva still dribbled. It turned out that the dogs were reacting to lab coats. Every time the dogs were served food, the person who served the food was wearing a lab coat. Therefore, the dogs reacted as if food was on its way whenever they saw a lab coat.

The difference is that chumming does provide any food to the sharks (other than the odd scrap of fishhead), so if anything the sharks would associate the boats with NOT being fed?

 

[Mike Veitch]

You're right, snappers are too damn fast for those slow poke sharks. I can't even get the sharks here to take freely offered food from my hand! Lots of snapper bites though....

 

[likelite]

Oh man. Here's what chaps my saddle: today I was watching a program called "Blue Realm" on the Discovery High-Def channel, featuring a bunch of footage of whites.

A bunch of jackasses were outside the cages, diving with the sharks, including one High Lord Jackass towing himself along behind the shark's dorsal fin.

But here's what really got me: One of the divers is quite clearly carrying a speargun.

Excuse me?! These men are willfully baiting white sharks, swimming outside of the cages with them, and then are prepared to kill said sharks for falling prey to the bait?!

JESUS, but I'd like to smack that guy upside the head HARD with a pair of gummy yellow ScubaPro twinjets.

 

[dannobee]

But here's what really got me: One of the divers is quite clearly carrying a speargun.

Excuse me?! These men are willfully baiting white sharks, swimming outside of the cages with them, and then are prepared to kill said sharks for falling prey to the bait?!

I saw that one too, along with another show which seemed to borrow some footage. I thought they said that the "speargun" actually had an explosive tip to use on the shark just in case they needed to get it out of there asap. In one of the shows they showed the diver loading a shell in the thing.