A Chinese diver wearing a brightly coloured novelty hood is reported to have been bitten on the back of the head by a tiger shark at a popular Maldives dive-site.
The diver is reported to have required more than 40 stitches to the wound but their condition is unknown.
The incident occurred on 15 November at the site known as Shark Tank at the reclaimed island of Hulhumale near the capital Male. The group of tourists were not diving with one of the local dive-centres that offer diving at the location, and are thought to have arrived on a speedboat from the tourism island of Maafushi in Kaafu Atoll to the south.
The guides are reported to have used bait to help attract sharks. Shark-feeding is illegal in the Maldives, and ignoring this restriction has resulted in several incidents of divers being bitten.
The diver was wearing orange ‘Nemo’ fish-shaped neoprene headgear that could have confused the shark in the melee that can arise when bait is in the water.
Elasmobranchs are accustomed to visit the site to feed. Shark Tank is located on the other side of a wall where liveaboards anchor and fishing-boat crews gut their catches prior to processing. Because of its proximity to the capital, there is also a considerable amount of boat traffic.
The site has become popular with divers in recent years but is reported to pose risks because of the number of operators working to their own rules there. Certain boats are even said to be using the site for check-out dives, though a number of bigger operators have ruled out taking guests there on safety grounds.
“Conditions were awful when I dived the place,” photojournalist Daniel Brinckmann, who took the photographs here, told Divernet. “You can see the tuna garbage sinking straight from the surface, with the workers shovelling it in the water, effectively creating a bait vortex.
”If divers come too close or don’t pay attention and stay out of the current, they can easily end up in trouble.”
“On entering the water you are immediately met by plenty of large spinner sharks coming up from the bottom, excitedly expecting to be fed,” another diver familiar with the site told Divernet. “Last year there were 50-plus pink whip rays, but they seem to have moved on.
“You are then faced with several other ray species and, once near the bottom, guitarfish and bull sharks are often present. The highlight is a sighting of a great hammerhead and/or tiger shark.
“This is not a dive for the inexperienced – and certainly no check-dive.”
Also on Divernet: DIVING SOLO WITH THE SHARKS OF TIGER HARBOUR, TRAPPING ZONE: MYSTERY CANTEEN FOR MALDIVES SHARKS, PEARL FLEET HITS BACK AS MALDIVES SHARK-DIVE SLAMMED, SPOOKED SHARKS HIT DIVERS IN MALDIVES
