Dear Editor,
My dive partner and I were overcome by
deja vu after reading your article about the
woman attacked by a shark while people
aboard the Sea Dancer were apparently
throwing food into the water.
Referencing our dive logs, we were passengers
on Peter Hughes Sea Dancer the
week of April 10-17, 1999, out of Provo.
Huge letters on the bottom of the Sea Dancer and clearly visible underwater read: "Eat at
Stan's." ( Stan was the cook.) It became
apparent that this sign was not only for the
guests on the boat but also for the visitors
underneath the boat.
On April 11, 1999, at a dive site near
French Cay, Stan, other crew members, and
a few guests began throwing food overboard
from the top deck and the dive deck
because a Caribbean reef shark was circling
the boat. Approximately half of the divers
were still underwater. A crew member was in
the water near the ladder with his camera as
the shark approached him at a high rate of
speed with its jaws opened. He probably
escaped serious injury by using the camera
to smash the nose of the shark. Fortunately,
the shark veered away. When the crew
member jumped out of the water, the other
passengers cheered. This is not my idea of
responsible scuba activities. I repeatedly
expressed my displeasure at this practice as
divers were still in the water. One crew member's
response was: "They can wait to come
up." I suppose that is fine except if a diver
were low on air and needed to surface. This
practice was repeated throughout the trip.
Your article raises a serious concern that
we hope is addressed by appropriate authorities,
agencies, or legal proceedings.
-- Dorene Fredette and Jay Prochnow