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Joined on
12/19/2010
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Are there many shark or fish attacks that have happened to scuba divers?
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Joined on
3/31/2006
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Unprovoked attacks on people which result in injury are quite rare. Most such attacks are the result of mistaken identity, such as incidents involving swimmers in the bad visibility of surf zones or surfers on short boards that look like seals in silhouette from below.
Provoked (deserved?) attacks are much more common. Spear fishermen have been known to have been bitten by barracuda who were after the fish they were carrying on a stringer next to their person. The barracuda just got a bit of diver with his bite of fish. A friend of mine was witness to a 14 year old diver who was bitten by a nurse shark. Nurse sharks are generally considered harmless but this one objected to the kid grabbing him by the tail in an effort to get a ride. Most often divers are bitten while in the act of feeding fish. Many fish have poor eyesight and find their food by smell. Feeding fish by hand is a good way to loose a finger. If you do not molest or feed them the fish are no more likely to bite you than the squirrels in your back yard are.
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