Shark diving death ‘could be due to negligence’

Saturday, July 19, 2014

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

THE death of an American this week while shark diving could be due to “negligence and incompetence” of the crew aboard the MV Shear Water run by a controversial US-based dive operator, the president of the Bahamas Dive Association (BDA) claimed yesterday.

The loss of Dr John Petty, a 63-year-old Texan, from an expedition by Jim Abernethy’s Scuba Adventures, is the third mishap for the operator in the Bahamas according to Neal Watson.

Dr Petty was part of a group of eight photographers diving in about 20ft of water at Tiger Beach, off Grand Bahama, with tiger sharks when he failed to resurface. A camera and some shredded dive gear, believed to be those of Dr Petty, were recovered. The search was suspended on Wednesday but the incident is under investigation by US Coast Guard and Bahamian authorities.

Mr Watson, the BDA president, said: “This operation has a controversial history and does not operate under the Bahamas Diving Association’s shark diving procedures and protocols that have been established to ensure safe interactive shark diving experiences,” he said.

Bahamian dive operators pioneered the interactive shark diving experience over 30 years ago and have safely taken tens of thousands of divers to observe the sharks in their natural environment.

“The big issue is when you watch the Today Show or Good Morning America, and the press from around the world, they never said it was a US-registered dive boat that was operating in the Bahamas. They say a scuba diver got killed by a shark attack in the Bahamas.

“So they pull up their anchor and go back home to South Florida and we are stuck with the negative publicity of a situation they created through negligence and incompetence.”

Mr Watson said the boat had eight qualified divers and that protocols for tiger shark diving without a cage is to keep people in a tight, confined area where they can be seen all the time. “The crew should have seen what was going on the second it occurred and been there to assist. You don’t just later find out that you are missing somebody - I think it was negligence on the part of the company.”

Mr Watson said he did not want to see the multi-million dollar shark diving industry in the Bahamas jeopardised “based on the incompetence of a foreign business that is operating in violation of standards that Bahamian dive operators operate under”. He believes that shark diving and feeding is safe when done using the proper protocols.

Bahamian commercial diver and spear-fisherman David Rose told The Tribune on Thursday he believes that shark diving and shark feeding are dangerous and should be banned in the Bahamas. Shark diving and feeding is prohibited in the US.

Comments

DillyTree says...

Why is this foreign operation permitted to dive in the Bahamas in the first place? Perhaps now, after yet another incident, these operations need to be looked at -- either regulate them or ban them from our waters.

Sharks are native to the sea. We humans are not. To taunt and entice a shark on its own turf is ludicrously stupid. There are ways to observe them without having to induce a feeding frenzy, which is just asking for trouble.

Posted 19 July 2014, 1:33 p.m. Suggest removal

B_I_D___ says...

Willing to bet that the Bahamas got next to ZERO revenue from this foreign dive boat operating in our waters.

Posted 19 July 2014, 7:54 p.m. Suggest removal

Clamshell says...

That's your big worry? A guy is dead and you're worried that the Bahamas lost its chance to milk him for a $10 fee? Who raised you? Wolves?

Posted 20 July 2014, 4:02 p.m. Suggest removal

bigkahunadiver says...

They pay 4% gross and 50.00 dive permit pp and a departure tax...

Posted 26 March 2015, 12:36 p.m. Suggest removal

...

Posted 20 July 2014, 4:03 p.m. Suggest removal

Mtesaw says...

I agree that this dive was not handled well. I know folks snapping pics may get wrapped up in what they are doing, but you have crew members that are on the dive to watch for that type of thing. A sad ending to the life of a wonderful man.

Posted 19 July 2014, 8:30 p.m. Suggest removal

stephiedib says...

If these American boats are conducting business inside Bahamian waters, why not seize the boats?

Posted 21 July 2014, 12:43 p.m. Suggest removal

Why not first seize the Dominican fishing fleet that's stripping our waters of all the fish, even out of season? They doing far more damage than a handful of scuba divers, who only take pictures. Or do you just get satisfaction from hating on white people?

Posted 21 July 2014, 12:58 p.m. Suggest removal

Ben says...

Only take pictures? No they do much more than that, they post the pictures and the videos. Please review this small sample most of these are from Jim's operation. Do any of these media hits look or sounds safe to you?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08bxZWl…

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article…

http://www.petethomasoutdoors.com/2012/…

Posted 21 July 2014, 1:14 p.m. Suggest removal

Does this look safe? It is not. It is foolish, stupid, and disrespectful to the animals.

Woman dances underwater with Tiger sharks in the Bahamas dressed in paint and a few pieces of cloth only. With Jim Abernethy 2014.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43Z25E-…

Posted 21 July 2014, 1:20 p.m. Suggest removal

Tommy77 says...

Very sad news.<img src="http://s04.flagcounter.com/mini/kfoW/bg…" style="display:none">

Posted 21 July 2014, 1:23 p.m. Suggest removal

@ Clamshell...of course the death is tragic, and senseless...it sounds like this particular dive operator has a bad history of dive supervision and safety. All the more reason why they should not be allowed to operate in our waters. Their possible negligence shines a very unwanted spotlight on our country, and on the local dive operators that run a very safe dive operation...even if it is a shark dive. I think you will find more tourists die annually SCUBA diving due to a host of other things, medical reasons, some say suicides, equipment failures, the list is endless, I am sure that number exponentially exceeds the number of people even nipped on a shark dive, let alone fatally wounded...but because this unfortunate man went with this particular dive company, into foreign waters and may not have been supervised as well as he should have been, he has lost his life and because a shark may have been involved, everyone is up in arms about how shark dives should not be permitted. The people who do it properly, have a stellar safety record when it comes to actual incidents that result in a shark bite, or worse. Just saying. And it's not so much getting $10 a head from the customer, mind you, in the end the customer absorbs the fees, but if you are going to come into this country with a boat load of tourists on a dive excursion, I think you should have to apply for a permit for the operation and pay a fee...after your credentials are reviewed.

Posted 21 July 2014, 1:46 p.m. Suggest removal

captjohnr3 says...

Stop Baiting-Feeding of Sharks outside of Florida’s territorial waters.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeacti…

The fish feeding law has protected Florida divers for 12 years..... Time for the islands to do the same.

Posted 23 July 2014, 7:59 p.m. Suggest removal

Petitions Against Shark Feeding and Shark Baiting

Continue the prohibition of shark feeding in state waters Fla. Admin. Reg. 68B-5.005. Stop Baiting-Feeding of Sharks: increase fines, protect federal waters and punish offenders. http://chn.ge/1lyxhtG

Continue the prohibition of shark feeding in state waters Fla. Admin. Reg. 68B-5.005. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeacti…

John Russell
Detective and Dive Industry Professional
http://www.RussellPI.com

Posted 23 July 2014, 8:11 p.m. Suggest removal

SSI is a proponent of continued prohibition of shark feeding in FL waters.

Thanks, and keep up the hard work....Jon

Jon Wilkins
HEAD USA Water Sports

Doug McNeese
President & CEO, SSI

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scuba_Scho…

Posted 24 July 2014, 12:08 a.m. Suggest removal

**Florida passed laws to prohibit shark rodeos in 2002 and it has protected divers and sharks,,,**

Continue the prohibition of shark feeding in state waters Fla. Admin. Reg. 68B-5.005. Stop Baiting-Feeding of Sharks: increase fines,

protect federal waters and punish offenders. http://chn.ge/1lyxhtG

Continue the prohibition of shark feeding in state waters Fla. Admin. Reg. 68B-5.005.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeacti…

Posted 24 July 2014, 8:25 p.m. Suggest removal

Stop Shark Feeding Tours

Please contact your US Representatives bit.ly/2ixq2vf and US Senator bit.ly/2ioSEs5 and ask them to vote YES on S.3099 http://bit.ly/2jvKta2 By U.S. Senator Bill Nelson bit.ly/2isEv86

Shark Detective John Russell
http://bit.ly/sharkdetective

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/florida-…

Posted 15 January 2017, 1:38 a.m. Suggest removal