Fatal Shark Attack On Diver Off Great Issac Cay, Bahamas

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Man fatally bitten by shark off Bahamas identified

By Andrew Ba Tran and David Fleshler

Sun-Sentinel.com

5:17 PM EST, February 25, 2008


An Austrian man bitten by a shark while diving over the weekend near the Bahamas has died, authorities said Monday.

The man "passed away from his injuries sustained by a shark bite," said Coast Guard spokeswoman Petty Officer Jennifer Johnson.

The victim was identified as Markus Groh, 49, a lawyer from Vienna, according to Ken Smeriglio, an assistant in the Austrian Consulate in Miami.

Groh was diving about 50 miles east of Fort Lauderdale on Sunday at about 10 a.m. when a shark bit him, according to officials.

Groh had dove off the 70-foot Shear Water, which contacted the Coast Guard after the incident.

The blue commercial diving vessel is registered to Jim Abernethy's Scuba Adventures from Riviera Beach.

The company offers shark trips to the Bahamas for enthusiasts and photographers hoping to interact with hammerhead and tiger sharks, according to its Web site.

Operators for the company stir in fish and fish parts to "chum" the water and attract the sharks, reads the itinerary. "Please be aware that these are not 'cage' dives; they are open water experiences," states the Web site.

The Coast Guard dispatched a rescue helicopter, and its crew hoisted the man off the boat and flew him to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami.

In a brief telephone interview, Abernethy said he felt terrible about what happened.

"Right now my heart and soul is with his family," he said.

Abernethy said he couldn't talk further because he was busy with Coast Guard investigators.

George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File, said this would be the first fatal attack involving shark feeding, if it turns out those were the circumstances of the attack. There have been more than two dozen injuries involving feeding, he said.

Burgess said he opposed shark feeding, not so much because it's dangerous but because it trains sharks to expect food from people and not to fear them.

"They lose their natural caution around human beings," he said. "For the same reason on land, you don't feed alligators, you don't feed raccoons, you don't feed bears. It's changing the behavior of sharks and changing the ecology of these areas by concentrating sharks in one area.

Abernethy had been told by the Bahamas Diving Association to exercise caution with more aggressive sharks such as mako, lemon, tiger and hammerhead sharks.

The association, a group of 36 charter businesses that operate in the Bahamas, sent a letter to Abernathy and other boat owners in the past year recommending a cease and desists to conducting "open-water non-cage Shark Diving experiences with known species of potentially dangerous sharks," said Neal Watson, the association president.

"Most operators do a safe dive behind cages. But Abernethy, for whatever reason, simply refused to comply with the safe diving practices in violation of our standards in the Bahamas," said Watson, who operates a diving company out of Fort Lauderdale.

It is tempting to offer a cageless option to customers: both the photographs and personal experience would be enhanced. But the risks are too great, Watson said.

"Him working with tiger sharks and bull sharks uncaged is totally irresponsible and dangerous," he said. "It wasn't a matter of 'if,' it was a matter of 'when.'"
sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-225sharkbite,0,7692223.story


Raw video of USCG helicopter approaching for pickup of the injured diver: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/brea...33122-t32.html


More about the charter vessels information on their shark dives: http://www.scuba-adventures.com/sharks.shtml

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Some photos from prior shark expedition on the same vessel at:

http://echeng.com/travel/bahamas2007-2/

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Video's shot at "Tiger Beach" off West End at the north end of Grand Bahama Island. This area is some distance to the north off the Northwest portion of Grand Bahama Island. The accident was described to have happened off Great Issac Cay about 30 nm to the south along the southern portion of Northwest Providence Channel.

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I heard one version of what may have happened in this sad accident. The victim came too close to the chumball (the suspended frozen lump of fish). The water can be turbid in this area and feeding sharks are not real careful in this zone. Divers are usually advised to stay well away from the chumball as a result. Anyway, a bull shark blasted by the chumball and hit the nearby victim biting into his thigh. Sharks are not fond of human as a rule, apparently spit out the leg soon after. Tragically the man's femoral artery had been severed causing rapid blood loss. Hundreds of dives have been made around the world under similar circumstances, however in most of those cases that divers kept their distance from the chumball. Feeding sharks does condition them to approach boats and people in the water in the area looking for food. I was on a similar dive last summer in the Bahamas. Four sharks were close to the boat even before we secured the anchor much less entered the water.

I heard another supporting account like this one. It was added that the victim, a photographer was too close to the chumball trying to get better closeup images of the action. Bad choice obviously enough as things worked out. Also, a couple other parties agreed that they are not aware of widespread shark cage use in the Bahamas as of yet despite some statements in circulation.