WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - An Austrian tourist died Monday after being bitten by a shark while diving near the Bahamas in waters that had been baited with bloody fish parts to attract the predators.
Markus Groh, 49, a Vienna lawyer and diving enthusiast, was on a commercial dive trip Sunday when he was bitten about 50 miles off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, said Karlick Arthur, Austrian counsel general in Miami. Groh was in the open water without a cage or similar protection.
The crew aboard the Shear Water, of Riviera Beach-based Scuba Adventures, immediately called the U.S. Coast Guard, which received a mayday from the vessel at about 10 a.m., said Petty Officer 3rd Class Nick Ameen.
The Coast Guard sent a helicopter to the scene, which hoisted Groh from the boat and flew him to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, where authorities said he died Monday.
Ameen said the man was bitten on the leg, but he could not be more specific about the extent of his injuries.
The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's Office declined to comment, citing an ongoing investigation by the Miami-Dade Police Department. A telephone message left for police was not immediately returned.
It was unclear what type of shark was involved in the attack.
A woman who answered the telephone at Scuba Adventures on Monday said the company had no comment.
The company's Web site says it offers the opportunity to get "face to face" with sharks. The site explains that its hammerhead and tiger shark expeditions in the Bahamas are "unique shark trips ... run exclusively for shark enthusiasts and photographers."
To ensure "the best results we will be 'chumming' the water with fish and fish parts," the Web site explains. "Consequently, there will be food in the water at the same time as the divers. Please be aware that these are not 'cage' dives, they are open water experiences."
Bahamas Diving Association president Neal Watson said Shear Water is known to work with species of sharks considered dangerous: lemon sharks, tiger sharks, bull sharks, hammerheads.
His organization, which has done hundreds of thousands of dives, opposes interactive dives with these species without the protection of cages and says Groh's death was preventable.
"I think that they just continue to push the envelope and trying to make it more and more and more exciting," Watson said of Shear Water. "It reached the point where it wasn't a matter of if but when an incident was going to occur."
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What. The. Hell. Was. Wrong. With. Those. People? Sharks are not cuddly, gentle creatures. Sharks are swimming eating machines.
Reading this story makes me hopeful that there may be additional nature safari markets as yet untapped, perhaps in Europe, in which tourists clamor to pay for an expedition where the guide throws bloody food to crocodiles while ensconced safely on a large boat, who will then allow/encourage tourists to pay an extra fee to swim among the crocs and observe/record for posterity their natural feeding behavior. This would be most attractive to those people that are bored with being alive, or perhaps just those people who have always wanted to experience a traumatic limb amputation.
For those who are worried about polar bears starving, perhaps there could be polar bear feeding expeditions in which people pay a polar bear guide to drop chopped-up seal pieces to hungry-looking polar bears from the safety of a bear-proof vehicle, and the ecotourist-cum-polar bear saviors get to stay with the chopped-up seals to observe authentic polar bear feeding behavior. Even better, find a sow with cubs. She would appreciate the food ever so much more. The cubs like to be cuddled while momma bear eats.
Apparently the attorney didn’t know that feeding frenzies are something that he really should not be involved in. Mother nature is an unforgiving bitch and doing stupid things sometimes carries a death penalty.
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