Time:
Every year hundreds of people die while living life to the fullest -- battling white-water rapids, climbing the world's tallest mountain peak, descending to the depths of the ocean. These extreme sports are inherently dangerous and you take your chances. Or do you?
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This is yet another of the non-article articles here on HufPo. What a disgrace. Why is there no CONTENT to the article? Ans: because Huf Po IS NOT paying for authors to write....... So, obviously, there's no content.
SHARK BITES LAWYER! Writer's must have struggled hard to resist this as a headline after 49-year old Austrian attorney Markus Groh was bitten by shark.
But wait! I thought sharks didn't bite lawyers. The reason....
Professional courtesy.
(Sorry, I couldn't resist.)
When one willingly plays with fire, one should expect to get burned.
Dumbass dies while swimming with sharks.
Should anyone care?
Those type-A idiots deserve the results of their fate-tempting exploits.
I am very skeptical of a label such as 'type-A'. Most especially when money is the key to that persons actions such as swiimming in a place where sharks are being fed. I prefer the moniker of type-D meaning a Darwin Award recipient because of his well thought out purchase of such a tourist attraction as this. If it was on video, then is should be shown to the world to give a video definition of the dictionaries' entry for a stupid person and a Darwin Award winner.
I remember seeing a documentary where a diver was swimming with sharks, with no cage, and this was apparently a first. This was a very dangerous thing to do, and the danger wasn't played down at all, but it was presumably somewhat lessened by the head-to-toe chain mail which the diver was wearing, which had been very thoroughly tested beforehand. Even so, the diver wouldn't have ventured into the water if he didn't consider himself to be an expert wih many years experience of dealing with sharks.
The Time article says "no one goes on an adventure tour with the thought that he won't make it back alive", but there has to be a point beyond which that ceases to be true. Otherwise it's like saying "no one jumps off a tall building, without a bungee rope or parachute or safety net or other safety equipment, with the thought that he won't make it back alive". If amateurs are being invited to share the water with sharks that are being fed, and if they aren't being provided with extremely strong guaranteed-sharkproof armour, then to me that sounds more like assisted suicide than an adventure tour. As such, it can only be said to have "gone horribly wrong" if a participant emerges from it maimed but still living.
Can anyone advance an argument which would suggest that this *isn't* actually assisted suicide? I haven't seen one yet.
I have swam with sharks without body armor and if you need proof that it isn't dangerous than consider the statistics. Sharks are so sensitive that they can see and sense you far outside of your visual range underwater. I am a free diver and at 140ft here in Hawaii I can see about 100ft, more or less. We have all kinds of sharks here including big Tigers, silkies, hammerheads, Great Whites, etc... and we have millions of people in the water every year yet only a couple are ever hurt.
The causes of this involve ungainly swimming skills and wierd visual patterns caused by clothing that make the animals curious, a lack of education about swimming in the sea, etc....
I agree with you that the diver was foolish to be uneducated and still do it and the tour operators are liable regardless of their disclaimer.
To feed sharks and swim with them is foolish. They are no different than a bowl full of hungry goldfish when you drop some food in. They get excited and sometimes they miss the food and catch an arm or leg. They don't want it, they don't like it, they don't tear the guy apart. He bleeds to death because they have sharp teeth... I was present for a fatality in N Queensland on Opal reef in Dec of 2004 and the spearfisherman was killed when a shark tried to grab a fish and caught his leg instead.
So don't feed them, respect the space and enjoy the opportunity.
I bring in sharks by crumpling an empty two liter water bottle. Its sounds like breaking fish bones. When the animals show up, and they often do, I just swim around with them as we all look for food.... no problems, neat experiences. The animals aren't overly excited but you can get them close enough to see. They tend to be shy and nervous....
Here in Hawaii it is a rite of passage to be thrown into the sea with sharks and nobody is lost by doing it. Sharks are considered Ama'kua and are revered.
All good BUT:
Then does not equal Than (your first sentence). Your english will improve if you learn this point.
I had a relative working for a travel company that would book elephant rides in Thailand and Amazon Expeditions, and Mountain Climbing.
During the Dot Com boom you had all these instant Tech Millionaires who wanted to climb Mount Everest ... When they were being booked they were asked if they had any mountain climbing experience and some of the hotshots would just cut them the 50k check and say "That's not your problem."
I never got a count on how many of these guys died on the mountain, but there were a few.
Another Darwin award winner. Gotta love it. Poor shark didn't mean to bite the poor man. All I can say is keep it up. There are a lot of people out there that this world can do without. While you're at it, take little w & dick along with kkkrove down to the tiger pit and drop them in. They definitely deserve the Darwin Award in a group special.
Insurance companies need to exclude injuries caused by stupidity, recklessness, amateur participation in extreme sports etc. and hire an army of "injury investigators" so the rest of us can quit sharing the expense of the claims of those who think gravity somehow doesn't apply to them.
You want to climb mountains or ride a motorcycle without a helmet? Fine. Get a policy that covers it.
I am a free diver and I live in Hawaii. I dive almost every day. I will tell you that sharks are very misunderstood animals. Unless you get them excited by being a poor swimmer or you are feeding them the chances of getting hurt by one are almost zero. I have swam with very large (12ft) Tiger sharks and a variety of other sharks as well as animals that can be dangerous though you wouldn't expect it like dolphins, toothed whales, various rays, eels, etc....
This is an irresponsible form of tourism, shark chumming. This man was killed by accident while the shark was munching on scraps. It cut his artery and he bled out. It didn't bite him intentionally and most never do.... I was present for a fatality in Australia on the Great Barrier Reef in Dec of 2004. A party had been spearfishing in the same place for several hours and had sharks on them and one of the animals grabed a fish and the guys leg at the same time. He bled out and died in minutes. It was an accident, a preventable accident.
I can tell you from personal experience that there is nothing mindless about sharks, they are very alert and very careful. They want the most calories for the least risk and can be so shy that they will follow a corpse for days before attacking until and unless they are certain that it is dead.
This isn't the sharks fault, it is the tour operators and the lack of education on the part of the diver himself...
Hundreds of thousands of people get in and out of the sea every year and very few are killed by sharks. When they are it is because of a combination of ungainly swimming, unusual visual patterns caused by clothing and equipment and a lack of education about how to be in the sea. If one is quiet, moves organically with appropriate equipment and pays attention there is no risk. Surfers on the other hand just beg for an investigation or an attack...
Watch how a trained freediver swims and you will see what it means to integrate with the environment and avoid sending the wrong signals. We are quiet, we move organically, we aren't threatening.... Sharks have been around for 400million years and are at least as smart as dogs....
I respect your high....................no doubt you know from living in Hawaii that tourists are a dumb bunch of hotel foyer to hotel foyer day trippers trying to live a life of Magazine Covers
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First Posted: 03- 5-08 03:27 PM | Updated: 03-28-08 02:46 AM