Risks of Diving With Sharks

Plenty of diving companies offer shark dives, where members of the public are invited to enter the water in areas where sharks are common. The organizers of these dives bait the sharks with food, in a process called chumming, before the public enters the water and gets close to the animals. While this activity involves dangerous species such as bull sharks, the severity of the risks associated with shark diving is a hotly debated subject.

Concerns

• The major concern regarding shark diving is that there is a risk of individuals in the water being attacked by the animals they've come to see. These fears became reality in 2008 when a man in the Bahamas died in the hospital after sustaining a shark bite. He was diving as part of an excursion run by shark-diving operator Scuba Adventures. Authorities have also worried about rising aggression from sharks baited by tour operators. Shark diving has been declared dangerous by leading diving organizations, such as the Bahamas Diving Association, which in 2007 asked shark diving companies to cease such operations. The state of Florida banned shark diving in 2001.

Mistake Attacks

• There's certainly a risk of being attacked by a shark while engaged in shark diving, but it's worth noting that what constitutes such an attack is typically not an attempt by the shark to kill a human but merely a mistake by the animal. In the water, the shark may see the diver and presume he is food. When the shark attacks and realizes the victim is not food, it will likely swim off. As noted by the Shark Savers website, the majority of shark attacks end in injuries, not fatalities, for this reason. In the case of the victim in the Bahamas, eyewitnesses reported that the shark was attempting to eat bait rather than the man's leg, as noted on the MSNBC website.

Relative Risk

• Shark-diving tour operators and advocates of shark well-being have been quick to defend the activity in the face of criticisms from certain authorities. The Shark Savers website, for example, compares the risk associated with shark diving with the risk found in other activities, such as boating and biking. According to the website, such activities lead to many more injuries per year than shark diving.

Triggers of Attacks

• Regardless of how great the risk is, both sides of the debate do agree that there is always some danger inherent in shark diving. Understanding how an attack may be triggered can help an individual to stay safe. For example, people should avoid erratic and fast movements while in the water, to prevent the shark mistaking them for food. In particular, when ascending to the surface after a dive, individuals shouldn't move too quickly. A person is most vulnerable to a shark bite when floating on the water's surface, so individuals should aim to descend quickly after getting into the water.