15-Foot Great White Killed Diver in ‘Provoked Incident’; How To Know if a Shark Is About To Attack?

A diver was killed after a great white shark attacked it last year. According to a new report, it was a "provoked incident."

Great White Attacked a Diver in a 'Provoked Incident'

The 15-foot shark attacked Simon Nellist, a 35-year-old scuba diving instructor, from underneath as he was swimming at Buchan Point, close to Little Bay, southeast of Sydney, according to The Times of London.

Nellist and his Australian fiancée Jessie Ho resided in a Sydney suburb. Nellist was training for a charity swim in a black wetsuit at the time of the event.

Nellist's death has officially been labeled as a "provoked incident" by the International Shark Attack File (ISAF), a global database of all recorded shark attacks. A "provoked incident" is when a human unintentionally or purposefully initiates contact with a shark.

According to Gavin Naylor, head of the Florida Program for Shark Research, Nellist had been swimming near a fishing area but had not intended to provoke the shark in any way.

They discover that a significant portion of reported bites occur in areas where people are fishing and there is chum or bait in the water. Bait fish are brought closer to shore by fishing, and sharks frequently follow.

He mentioned the possibility that these circumstances "excited" the shark or resulted in "atypical behavior."

As a result, the incident was labeled as "provoked" by ISAF, according to Naylor.

The incident was filmed by a fisherman, according to the report. In the footage, a man can be heard screaming that someone had just got eaten by a shark.

In contrast to ISAF, the Australian Shark Incident Database listed Nellist's death as an "unprovoked incident."

Fatal shark attacks are incredibly uncommon. ISAF reports that there were 57 documented unprovoked shark killings worldwide in 2022. The majority of attacks took place in the US, with Australia having the second-highest total.

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How to Know If a Shark Is About to Attack?

There are several hints that will tell you if a shark is about to attack. According to Odyssey, among the things you should look out for is "feeling a bump."

There are a number of documentaries where shark attack survivors mentioned feeling a bump before the attack happened. In a previous report from Science Times, a diver inside a Plexiglass also noticed a bump several times before the 16-foot great white chomped on the glass, breaking it in half and exposing the diver. Fortunately, the shark retreated, and the diver immediately swam to the boat for safety.

Experts also suggest observing the shark's body language. They will puff themselves up when they're being aggressive and will typically point their pectoral finds downward. However, the time it takes to see these hunches differs depending on the species.

Avoid swimming nearby a seal colony or shoal of fish because you are at risk of predators, including sharks.

For instance, an Aussie teenager died while swimming with dolphins after a bottlenose shark attacked. Robert Harcourt, an Honorary Professor of Marine Ecology at Macquarie University and a regular surfer noted that it's not safe to swim with dolphins because they feed on the same fish that bull sharks and great whites consume too.