Missing Fiji diver believed to be shark attack victim

Divers are combing Yadua waters in Bua for a comrade believed to be the victim of a shark attack. Captain Kaukau Corrie said they watched helplessly as fellow diver, Henry Usimewa, 19, struggled and fought off an unseen creature before he was dragged beneath the waves. Mr Corrie said when they rushed to his aid less than half a minute later, Mr Usimewa was nowhere to be seen."He was gone and all that was left behind was his diving gear, he said. The boys dived in to look for him ... we are still looking.

Police spokesman Inspector Atunaisa Sokomuri confirmed that a report was lodged at the Nabouwalu Police Station on Monday afternoon.Mr Usimewa, of Tabwewa Village in Rabi, was part of a group of seven divers working for High San Trading aboard the Grace Three. They dove for sucuwalu or beach-de-mer near Nara Reef, which is an hour’s boat ride from Yadua Island. Four divers including the deceased were in the sea at the time of the attack. Around 9.30am we spotted him surface about 15 metres from the boat, said Capt Corrie. I can still hear his screams as he fought off something that pulled him under. It was terrifying.

"He was wearing his diving jacket but was pulled clean from it.We looked whole day and whole of Tuesday but we couldn’t find him except for his diving gear and sack of sucuwalu. We saw that his regulator hose had been bitten off. We are horrified and scared to dive in this area.

Article on http://www.cdnn.info/news/safety/s100218.html


This seems pretty scary! Imagine getting attacked on the surface! That is the danger point for sharks and diver - generally divers are pretty safe under the water because there is mutual communication between the diver and shark (as they can both see eachother)

Sounds like they were diving for sea cucumbers.....

Yea or just doing a 'tiered diver tow' at the surface!!

This sort of story makes me hate sitting around at the surface in murky waters!

They say you're far more likely to be hit by lightning, but that takes into account most don't dive.

Of course, a shark is more likely to be attacked by a human the other way around, but that is no comfort to any human bitten or eaten!

Yeah murky water or swimming on the surface at night by yourself in areas with known large sharks is dicey. Under those situation I would prefer to have at least 9 other divers within a few feet of me...that way my chances of being the one attacked is reduced by 9-fold, lol.

I listened in on a presentation by a Northern California urchin diver of 30 years and had to quantify how often he would encounter a great white underwater. He say's something like:

" I would see one about once a month. What typically happens is you are busy working away, grabbing urchins and stuffing them in your bag, and you get this odd feeling, and we would turn around, and there would be a 8-20 foot great white shark behind you looking at you from about 5 to 10 feet away. When we turn around and look right at them they always sort of get up and slowly swim off."

Of course, his tale of one of his urchin diver buddies getting attacked by a great white was a bit different I should say.

Seems they all dive on hookah rigs and one guy was near the surface on his way up and a huge great white made an ambush ascent on him and bit down but hit his rope harness and hookah hose instead which started spewing air. he and the shark got hung up in his rope together and the great white turned after missing for another attack and the rope would jerk the diver just out of the way of his opened jaws at the last second, so it would turn and attack again....and this happened a dozen times as the deck crew who saw and knew what was happening were all frantically struggling to pull him to the boat like he was some sort of shark lure. The urchin diver was getting jerked around violently during each successive attack till they finally managed to drag him on board and cut the rope.

The guy refused to dive for years after that even though the few urchin divers who possess the rare, coveted commercial urchin license make really good money.

The guy at our meeting authored the following book:

http://sonic.net/~bigsnest/azaleacre...covercolor.jpg

Thats really interesting! You know, your right they make a lot of money, but some are pretty crazy to be taking those risks.

This makes me think of the book ''Devils teeth'' about the great white research centre on a Californian island. There was and still is an urchin diver there, who has no fear of the sharks around him!

I wonder, could Tom Kendrick be the same guy in the book "devils teeth"?! Long time since I read it, but hey ! Conincidence

Quote:

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Originally Posted by myscubastory

There was and still is an urchin diver there, who has no fear of the sharks around him!

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And why would he have fear of sharks? There is no reason for us to fear sharks, just the opposite should be true as we are the ones attacking and killing the sharks.