Shark incident

A man was bitten by a shark during a scuba dive yesterday and subsequently died. You may have already heard by now of the man getting bitten yesterday by a shark in the Bahamas, though the media has reported it (erroneously) as having happened in Florida. I just got off the phone with a friend who had some details. 

The boat is Jim Abernethy's "Shear Water", the same boat I went shark diving with a couple of years ago. I was told some of the details of the bite but won't go into it too much since I heard it second hand. The shark was reported to be a Bull Shark. After the bite, the coast guard choppered him off to a hospital where he later died. He was a 49 year old Austrian, and his name was Markus Groh.

I didn't know Mr. Groh. I feel terrible for him, and for his family and friends.

My shark friends are devastated by the news, as am I. I can't imagine what Jim is going through.

I found Jim's operation to be very professional and safety conscious. Diving with sharks from Jim's boat, we were always aware that these sharks are indeed wild animals, and that their behavior is not necessarily predictable. Diving with sharks of course has a certain amount of risk inherent in it. Those of us that enjoy it are fully aware of that, but I fully believe that Jim's operation did it as safely as possible.

The reaction is already getting pretty ugly and will probably get worse. The news media is picking up on the story, though pretty much every report I have seen thus far is filled with errors. I'm not going to get into or try to counter any of the more hysterical responses I've already seen on the internet about this. Many people seem to have a knee-jerk reaction to hearing about a shark attack, and their responses are less than rational. As time passes, the next sensationalistic news report will emerge and this will be mostly forgotten. But, there will be consequences, I am afraid.

I have no idea whether Jim will try to continue with his sharks trips. It's possible that his insurance company, or some foolish legislator in Florida or the Bahamas will try to shut him down. I hope, perhaps selfishly, that he is able to continue. I would love to do another trip with Jim.

People die every day. I'm not trying to diminish the importance of this accident, but some perspective is in order. I'm in Colorado at the moment, doing some skiing. Just a few days ago a boy hit a tree here and died. He was thirteen years old. Several people die here this way every winter. Should skiing be banned? Should trees be banned?

One hundred and fifteen people, on average, die every day in automobile accidents in the US. I could list a lot more statistics about dog bites, bee stings, and lightning strikes, and how shark attacks pale in comparison. I could, but it won't make this accident go away, it won't take away the emotional response that people have when hearing about an accident like this, and it won't stop people from writing irrational and irresponsible things about the accident.

On the same day I found out about this, I heard news that a friend of mine from high school has brain cancer. Talk about a serious dose of perspective. She seems way too young for that. It re-emphasized something I already knew - that life is short, and uncertain.

In my short and uncertain life, I want to dive with sharks.

Different ocean, different day, another net....

I had a great trip out to the Flower Gardens (Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary- about 110 miles off the Texas-Louisiana coasts) this weekend. I was working as a DM on the Spree. We saw mantas, hammerheads, tiger sharks, spotted eagle rays, and a large school of king mackerel, along with the usual assortment of reef fish and creatures. Some of the passengers spotted a large Goliath Grouper, which is a very welcome newcomer to the reef cap at the East Bank. I didn't get to see the GG as I was diving elsewhere doing a working dive (a pretty cool dive on a weather buoy outside the normal dive area that might merit a separate blog entry). The weather was remarkably cooperative for February in the Gulf of Mexico - we had flat seas going in and coming back, with just a bit of wind and seas on Friday afternoon and evening.

I made a fun dive on Stetson Bank, and was bummed to find a net laying on the bottom. Though not nearly as large as the one in Revillagigedos, it was another ugly reminder of how our species is treating the ocean. Fortunately, it was not spread out and so wasn't trapping any creatures, and was only partly caught on the reef, so I hauled it up. Some pictures:


Net on Stetson Bank


Net on it's way out

Net photos

Dean Lea and Emilia White were very kind to send me some pictures they took of the net.

Also, just a clarification to something someone asked me about... no, I didn't actually run out of air at depth while cutting the net. I had enough for a safe ascent and 3 minute safety stop. Beyond that... not so much.




Photo by Dean Lea

 

Photos by Emilia White


Also... in case you missed it, here is a link to more photos. I had kind of buried it in one of the posts so it wasn't too obvious.
More Photos

Oh, and while I'm on the subject of photos by other fellow passengers, the 2nd to last photo from the above link (the one of a manta and me) was taken by Susan Lea, aka Dobby. It's a great shot, thank you Susan.