A scuba diver had a rough encounter with a tiger shark after it latched onto his leg. However, the scuba diver isn’t made about the occurance. He was not flustered about the fact that his leg now features shark tooth marks. Instead, this diver realized it was merely a case of mistaken identity.
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Tiger Shark Takes A Bite Out Of A Scuba Diver
DiverNet shared the details of the encounter. A scuba diver named Berkley White was working at the Nassau Grouper Spawning Aggregation site off Little Cayman. The outlet shares that he was diving “after sunset on 6 February.” Given that sharks are typically more active during this time due to the cover the dim lighting provides, this was already the perfect environment for an attack.
Additionally, the scuba diver had been photographing grouper activity. So, he was in the water during prime hunting hours and in an area with a massive swarm of active fish. Perhaps this is why, when he was bitten in the thigh by a juvenile tiger shark, the Cayman Islands government was quick to declare the attack a mistake.
Not The First Case Of Mistaken Identity
This incident with the scuba diver and tiger shark is not the first case of mistaken identity. When people are in sharks’ domain, surrounded by their food source, it is natural that the shark may incorrectly assume the human is prey.
Additionally, with great whites, mistaken identity happens a lot. This mostly occurs with surfers, as surfers in wetsuits paddling on their boards can resemble seals. While many people find that difficult to believe, a new study argued that it is true.
Lead author of the study, Dr. Laura Ryan, argued that one of the reasons for this mistaken identity is due to the shark’s poor eyesight. She said in a statement, “White sharks have a much lower visual acuity than us, meaning they cannot see fine details, and lack color vision.” Therefore, in certain shark attack cases, we cannot always blame the shark.
