Sunday Brunch for Bahamian Bull Sharks

Markus Groh, a 49-year-old Austrian tourist was fatally bitten by a shark this weekend while on a dive near the Bahamas with commercial shark baiters Scuba Adventures. The company’s website promises adventure seekers an up close and personal encounter with some of the most menacing sharks in the world. After “chumming” the water with dead fish to attract the hungry man-eaters, cage-less divers get “face to face,” or in this case, tooth to leg, with the creatures.  Few were surprised by this weekend’s tragedy. CNN reported today that the company’s owner, Jim Albernethy, had been told he was asking for trouble. Shark feeding was banned in Florida in 2001, and is considered a dangerous and unadvisable practice by local Bahamian diving experts. Less than a year ago, the president of the Bahamas Diving Association sent a letter to members, copied to the government, asking for such operations to immediately “cease and desist.” Albernethy ignored him. And Groh hopped in the water presumably understanding the danger. Who's responsible for risk-takers' safety?

Comments

[Elliot]

Nonsense, great headline. Sharks have to eat too. If you're brilliant enough to dive down and wave fresh bait at a shark, what do you think it's going to do? Let you pet it.

[Lisa-Marie]

When you go on a guided outing, even shark feeding, the people who you hired are responsible for your safety. Otherwise, you could have seen sharks in the Bahamas alone. You hire these people because they are supposed to know the dangers and be ready for any sort of aggressive behaviour. Perhaps more divers from the company with electric rods in case the sharks get too close to the people observing?

If you take a wildlife safari in Africa, you go to see the animals up close, but the guides still carry guns for an emergency. If you claim to be a guide in anything, it's your job to know the world around you and be ready for anything- not just figure you are standing there to get paid and everyone is at their own risk.

I've known too many people with horror stories of irresponsible dive boats that they hired. The dive boats in the industry must take more Responsibility for their guests.

[Craig]

The "Sunday Brunch" headline is pretty tasteless - in my case the pun is unintended - even for a blog.