BAHAMAS (24 Feb 2008) — A European attorney on holiday in the Bahamas died after he was attacked by a shark that was manipulated with fish bait to perform for thrill-seeking scuba diving tourists. Markus Groh, 49, of Vienna, Austria, was diving off the 70-ft M/V Shear Water dive boat when a shark suddenly attacked him. The Shear Water dive boat is owned and operated by notorious shark feeder Jim Abernethy of "Jim Abernethy Scuba Adventures", a Florida-based company that was forced to move its shark feeding dives offshore after Florida banned so-called "interactive" diving in January, 2002. Florida's ban on shark feeding dives followed a four-year battle by a grass-roots coalition of scientists, citizens, divers, dive business owners and environmentalists led by the Marine Safety Group and the Humane Society that defeated defiant dive industry insiders including PADI, DEMA, Scuba Diving Magazine and Skin Diver Magazine, which went bankrupt in 2002. Mayday According to the U.S. Coast Guard, authorities received a "mayday" call from the M/V Shear Water dive boat located about 50 miles east of Fort Lauderdale and 5 miles north of Great Isaac Cay at about 10am this morning. The Coast Guard dispatched a rescue helicopter to the dive boat, hoisted up Groh and rushed him to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami where he was pronounced dead apparently from loss of blood. The Miami-Dade medical examiner's office described the death as accidental despite the fact that the victim died after being attacked by a shark while participating in a shark feeding dive. Neal Watson, Stuart Cove and other industry insiders in the Bahamas who profit from shark feeding dives are attempting to frame the issue as a "cage diving problem". According to Watson, the Bahamas Diving Association warned Abernethy to "...cease and desist conducting open-water non-cage Shark Diving (sic) experiences with known species of potentially dangerous sharks, such as Tiger Sharks, Bull Sharks, Hammerhead Sharks, Lemon Sharks & Mako Sharks (sic)". | | Despite pumping more than a million dollars into its campaign to legalize shark feeding, PADI, DEMA and various dive industry insiders bent on supporting the status quo failed to prevent a ban on so-called "interactive" diving in Florida, which banned fish feeding in 2001. CDS President Evan T. Allard says that Watson's comments are an irresponsible "business as usual" smokescreen aimed at preventing a ban on shark feeding in the Bahamas. "While this fatality was certainly preventable, we all need to understand that shark feeding endangers both humans and sharks--it's more than a human safety issue, it's also an environmental issue," said Allard. "Sure you can enhance the safety of thrill-seeking tourists with cages but barrier gimmicks accomplish absolutely nothing in terms of protecting sharks from being manipulated, harassed and exploited by greedy shark feeding profiteers." According to George Burgess of the University of Florida's International Shark Attack File, there were 71 confirmed unprovoked shark attacks in 2007. Burgess has also gone on record promoting cage diving as the "preferable way to go" although there are no peer-reviewed scientific studies confirming that using fish bait to attract marine wildlife for the entertainment of tourists protected by underwater cages does not adversely affect sharks and other marine animals. © CDNN - CYBER DIVER NEWS NETWORKCDNN RELATED NEWSCDNN SPECIAL REPORT - Shark FeedingFLORIDA - Utah tourist dies scuba diving with Jim Abernethy Scuba AdventuresSCUBA FORUMDISCUSS THIS TOPIC - Dive in and have your say at Scuba Forum |
