Word: sharked
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There are other factors to consider. "It's the first fatality that we have reported involving a dive where the host is specifically bringing in the animal by chumming [feeding the sharks with chopped up fish]," says George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida. "Putting people in the water with these large animals is a risk. It's not a matter of whether an attack like this was going to happen, it was when...
Diving with dangerous sharks without a cage appeals to the thrill seeker, Burgess says, adding, "It is taking further and further steps farther and farther toward danger." The tour, provided by Scuba Adventures of Riviera Beach, Fla., promoted its dives as great hammerhead and tiger shark expeditions. Although the company issued a blanket "no comment" when contacted by TIME, its literature made clear the divers would be in the water without any cages while the sharks were being fed - a practice banned in Florida...
Rodney Barreto, chairman of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, maintains there's no way the crew could ensure the safety of the divers. "That's not a controlled environment," Barreto says. "There's no way you know whether a three-foot shark or a 13-foot shark is coming." In 2001, the commission outlawed the practice of fish feeding off the coast of Florida. Because the tour operator could not legally attract sharks with chum in the state where he is based, he went to the Bahamas, Barreto says. "We're not discouraging people to go diving," Barreto...
Jason Margulies, a prominent maritime attorney in Miami, agrees with Barreto. "It seems to me, that this guy was trying to sidestep the Florida ban on shark feeding by proceeding to Bahamian waters," Margulies says. "He knew the dangers. He was going the extra mile to do this." A statement from the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism said in part, "Shark feeding excursions are legal in the Bahamas...
...apply if the vessel transported passengers between a port in the United States and a foreign country. The federal law would allow a negligence claim; Florida law would bar such a claim. Florida holds that waivers signed by a person participating in high-risk activity such as skydiving or shark watching are valid because they are knowingly engaging in risky activity, Margulies says...