Jarrod Stehbens tried to fight off shark

Victim tried to fight off shark, witness says.:

"Jarrod Stehbens had been diving on a reef several kilometres offshore.

Only his breathing apparatus and buoyancy vest have been recovered. A search of the area has been called off."

This has obviously been the talk of our town today and the pragmatism we have is not only evident in this article, but throughout our community. This is a sad, sad thing and the families of shark attack victims have to have an amazing amount of humanity and emotional strength to deal with it. As a marine biologist, Jarrod Stehbens appeared to be trying to manage the situation with a very cool head and a logical approach. Divers are not put off by this. Divers love the ocean and an attack like this is not going to stop them diving because they love seeing their underwater world and know that sharks are a part of it. They are in no way thrill seekers. They just want to know about the underwater world. When people are killed on roads it doesn't stop us from getting into our cars. We have a better chance of stopping road accidents than diving mishaps because divers are notnoted for their irresponsibility on the whole. They are very careful. We can change speed limits to try and stop road accidents but drivers who speed do not change their behaviour. There is only a possibility they might change if they are caught. So we need to change our approach.Divers are usually looking for information or photographs. Some use shark pods on their boats or on their person to try and dissuade sharks . The personal ones can cause a shock to anyone who bumps into them and so they can be a deterrent to the diver. The shark pods, though, seem to dissuade sharks quite effectively. But it also seems to be the opinion of divers I spoke to that the sharks are living in waters which are increasingly depleted of their food sources. This is something we can have an effect on, something we can work on and something we are able to change. It's the divers who have information which could be used to resolve some of this . They understand the ocean and it's not something we can control from up here with no inside knowledge. We were all thinking of Jarrod Stehbens today even though we didn't know his name and we had all spared a thought for the diving friends we had.