[News] William Winram dispels some myths about sharks

[DeeperBlue.com]

North American andContinental record holder freediver William Winram, (famous for his swimthrough the Blue Hole in Dahab wearing only his wetsuit and a dive mask and nopropulsive equipment), and world reknowned underwater freediver photograp...

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[sross]

Oh dear . . .

William Winram is a great, amazing diver. I do hope he succeeds in his efforts to promote conservation of sharks, including the tiger shark.

Unfortunately, in the article on his website ( William Winram ), he quotes the embarassing pseudo-statistic that 150 people supposedly die from coconut strikes per year.

Author Joel Best in his book "More Damned Lies and Statistics: How Numbers Confuse Public Issues" skewers the number reasonably well, and he does well to point out the fact that no one actually tracks, or has kept records of deaths attributable to coconut strikes.

There aren't many scientific papers addressing the issue of coconut strikes, but Mulford and his coauthors in their paper "Coconut Palm-Related Injuries in the Pacific Islands," ANZ Journal of Surgery, January 2001 didn't have any first-hand accounts of falling-coconut deaths, and simply quoted the paper by Barss from 1984 "The Danger of Falling Coconuts" in the British Medical Journal which contains only an anecdotal account of one possible death due to a coconut strike. The other coconut tree-related death anecdotes were related to falls resulting from climbing coconut trees (for a total of 5).

Yikes! When I was a kid we were climbing coco palms all the time using the palm frond stalks as improvised girdles around the trunk. Little did I know the danger we were in . . . :crutch:crutch

Anyhow, Peter Barss is a Canadian physician who practices in the area of Public Health & Safety, and he himself says he has no idea how people got the idea that 150 coconut-strike deaths per year from either his article, or anyone else's.

Where I lived as a kid, most coconuts got picked, but even on trees which aren't harvested, coconut falls are a relatively infrequent event. The probability of you happening to walk under a tree at exactly the time a coconut happens to reach the ground is infinitessimally small. Also, I don't know if all coco palms are the same, but the ones I'm used to make a distinctive sound when a coconut lets go. If I were under a tree and I were to hear that sound above me, I would bolt instantly, but I suppose many people might not recognize what was happening.

What Barss cautions against in his 1984 paper is spending a large amount of time under a coconut tree with ripe fruit, which makes statistical sense. The purpose of his 1984 paper was to warn against the practice of sleeping under coconut trees (which truly is a bad idea) and he documents a number of confirmed cases of injuries caused by coconut strikes resulting from that habit.

This has been a long-winded way of saying that if you want to point out the fact that there are statistically more dangerous activities than swimming with sharks, you can pick an easy and accurate one, and avoid the funny-sounding, but totally unfounded one about coconut strikes.

Please don't take anything written above as inferring either that diving with sharks is inherently dangerous, or that anyone should support the ongoing slaughter of sharks! The overfishing of sharks is going to contribute to environmental problems, just like predator killing in any other ecosystem.

Also note, though, that I am totally against the practice of chumming waters to bring sharks around for viewing. This is a dangerous practice, no matter what the apologists say, and does the animals a disservice, leading to unneccessary conflict with humans, as it has with other predators that used to be baited with food.

-Steve

 

[rxcnc2]

There aren't many scientific papers addressing the issue of coconut strikes,
-Steve

Sorry if I carry on about falling coconuts, but having had a close experience myself (coconut smashed about 20 cm to the right of the front wheel of my motorcycle at full speed) I would not dismiss so easily the notion oa non negligible number of deaths. Let's not forget that not everything gets reported in scientific journals, especially when it happens in less fortunate but coconut tree-rich regions of the world.
This said, I have no idea whether coconuts are more lethal killers than sharks, but as far as my freediving goes I'd rather sight the former than the latter.
Sharks might be beautiful animals, but still I'd rather seen them in a photo than around me.

 

[island_sands]

I lived on tropical islands for four years, had THREE near misses with coconuts landing within 3 inches of me and once with a palm frond.

I have dived with loads of sharks and grew up close to where William did those shark dives, boogie boarded out on backline and fortunately, still have all my appendages rofl

Only one of my mates lost a claf to a great white shark. He was lucky. He was also surfing in the river mouth at Isipingo which is extremely dirty and attracts lots of sharks, so perhaps was "looking for trouble".

 

[Frederic Buyle]

I definitely believe coconuts are way more dangerous than sharks (this including the falling ones and digestion's problem they can cause...)

Feeding sharks might be questionable but in my experience, just after the feeding is over, the animals are going back to their normal behaviours.

I'm always surprise of the lack of interest or knowledge most freedivers have of the Ocean and it's habitants. Lot of freeedivers, including instructors, are even afraid of marine life or have difficulties to deal with the elements (waves, currents etc).

I remember reading comments about the small oceanic white tip who visited the training site during last world championship in Sharm...

Freediving is an outdoor activity with the risks associated to a practice in a non secured environment and should be considered like that and not like going to the beach, throw a rope in deep water and doing pb's like you'd do it in a pool.

Seems we have categories amongst freedivers: pool rats, rope rats and watermen

Hey no desire to start polemic here!

Fred

 

[rxcnc2]

Seems we have categories amongst freedivers: pool rats, rope rats and watermen

Hey no desire to start polemic here!

Fred

So I won't reply.

 

[trux]

Fred, nice to have you participating here too. I just saw a document with you (and sharks) on the TV this week. Beautiful and amazing! I saw you often had to push the sharks away by hand or by the camera (I believe they were tigers?). As long as you see the shark, it seems to be a pretty safe method - the sharks were apparently just curious and not too aggressive. I wonder though, if they wouldn't try biting a piece from you, if you did not push them away, just to see what it gives. Or what would happen it the shark came from behind and you did not see it. I also wonder what you have would done if two sharks approached you in the same time from different sides. It might be then difficult to push them both away. Although amazing, I have to admit that I still find such encounters rather scary, and would personally prefer getting out of the water if sharks started to come so close, and being so "friendly". Especially if they were so many in the same place that it is impossible to keep an eye on all of them in the same time.

Feeding sharks might be questionable ...

Yes, shark feeding was frequently criticized here on DB. People fear that the feeding becomes a habit at far too many shark diving companies, and that it influences the natural behavior of sharks, who then start associate humans with food. Some spearfishers are reporting changed behavior and higher level of aggressivity at sharks in areas close to shark touristic spots.

Nice to see you have your doubts about the shark feeding, but I saw in the document that you were chumming the sharks too. What's you real opinion about it?

 

[Frederic Buyle]

Trux,

First about the little piece on tv, if you understand french, I guess you were disapointed by the voice over. Once again, the journalist made last minute changes to make it sound more tragic...seems that french tv is taking the same way as Discovery etc. We are mixing another version of the clip with another voice over for our conferences and presentations in order to give the right infos.

About the tigers, yes we have often to push them away. As you know, sharks have highly developed sensorial organs. When they come close for a contact, it's to "taste" us. When a shark come to touch you with his "nose", he is totaly disorientated for a few second because of the amount of information he gets. If you touch his nose, then, he his lost for a while. It works with any shark. I could even experience that with a great white earlier this year).
We also experienced another thing on sharks including 4m50 tigers...and the result is absolutely crazy. But can't tell that...

Of course at some point the shark might bite. But you'll always have plenty of time to get out of the water. In 25 years of freediving and spearfishing in sometimes "nasty" places I've been charged only 2 times and never bitten. The species involved were carcharinus obscurus and carcharinus galapensis.

That's why if you're not alone in the water, you have very slim chances to get in trouble.

You have to know that in the water, a freediver is not far from 3m long with the fins. It's a very very big prey even a big predator. The shark will hesitate to put himself in potential trouble before attacking such a big animal like any other main land predator would. (a cheetah won't try to get a antilope if he is too far or missplaced) Also, with the neorpene suits and all the rubber we have, we smell very very bad for a shark. Last but not least, we are not enough fat for them

About feeding, the problem is called "the humans". More and more people go in the ocean and then create interaction with sea life. The interaction can be deliberate, passive or not noticeable. I don't think feeding is a problem for spearfishers. As a spearfisher, I can tell you that in some of our fishin ground in south pacific where there is no feeding and no bubble makers, the sharks are attracted by the noise of the rubbers on the gun, not more, not less.
So the problem is us going in the water, we always change the balance.

I'm against feeding for only one reason: it brings a lot of scuba diving tourist in a reduced area, that changes the ecosystem. That's the real problem. And don't even need feeding to ruin dive sites, look for example at most of the Egyptian coast, nothing left to see except some corals and reef fish. the only reason is too many people in the water on the same spots.

But that's just my opinion.

Fred

 

[trux]

Thanks, Fred, for the detailed answer! It is appreciated.

I still wonder though about the safety of such shark encounters as we can see in this video, and some other similar ones with other freedivers. I know that the sharks are not really going after you and won't start tearing off your limbs. However, they are apparently curious, and quite clearly they use to bite anything in their proximity just to sense it better. Although I agree it is not necessarily any sign of an attack, if such a huge shark just checks you out with its jaws, it may easily have serious or fatal consequences anyway.

Now, I understand and often saw that you can push away the shark quite easily, but it assumes you see it, and are in a good position to do so. I still wonder what was your plan for the case two sharks approach you from different sides, or if a shark comes to check you out from behind without you noticing it. Why do you believe that swimming with the sharks is quite safe, despite them coming in direct contact with you, considering their number and size, and the very limited field of view with a mask (and often a camera in plus)? Well, I know the argument that they are not really the killing beasts as often presented, but what did you do to prevent accidental biting when surrounded with all those curious sharks?

 

[Frederic Buyle]

Trux,

A situation like the one in the video will never happen during a "normal" freediving or spearfishing session.
You'll never encounter that many at the same time (unless you spearfish at the same place for 8 hours gutting the fishes in the water...)

Even if you have several sharks around, they won't bite directly, you have plenty of time to get out of the water.

The accidents involving spearfishers are in 99% of the cases because they are alone or separated from their buddy. Same as freedivers drowning by the way.
So more chances to be hurt by a coconut

One more thing, why are we speaking of shark "attack"? Do people know the meaning of "attack"? Check in a dictionary and you'll see something like "an offensive action" or so. Do you think the shark deliberately choose to harm human beings...? Humans have some big self perception's issues and that might explains the tendency they have or anthropomorphy when it comes to explain animal's behaviour. Quite amusing.

Of course "a shark violently attacked a swimmer who was lucky not to be eaten alive" sell more copies, brings more hits to websites or flaters more the journalist's egos than "a big grey fish bit an human being that was not aware he was observed and checked for the last 10 minutes. The fish quickly understood he made a mistake and swam away"

Fred