‘When Adventure Tourism Kills’

With that over-the-top headline, Time magazine begins addressing the safety of adventure tourism in the wake of the death of 49-year-old Austrian Markus Groh. He died last month during a shark-diving excursion off Great Issac Cay in the Bahamas. A shark bit his left leg, and he bled to death. Scuba Adventures, the Florida company that ran the trip Groh took, chummed the waters to draw sharks and eschewed cages for its clients. 

From Time:

Every year hundreds of people die while living life to the fullest—battling white-water rapids, climbing the world’s tallest mountain peak, descending to the depths of the ocean. These extreme sports are inherently dangerous and you take your chances. Or do you? “One of the things about these high-risk activities is that if you’re going to participate in them you assume a certain kind of risk,” says Prof. Lyrissa Lidsky, who teaches tort law at the University of Florida. In the case of Groh, the question is whether the tour operator failed to use reasonable care when he took a group of tourists diving for sharks without using cages. “Is the thing that killed him something that you normally associate with shark watching?” Lidsky asks, “Or, is it something that could have been avoided had the company used reasonable care?”

Wildlife experts and attorneys predictably tell Time that travelers’ best bet is to avoid risky behaviors and obey the laws. And, at a minimum, “check out the tour operator’s safety record and whether the company adheres to proper safety standards,” Time’s Siobhan Morrissey writes.

All good common-sense tips to be followed. But I hope we don’t collectively try to strip some of the adventure out of adventure travel.

A little edge can enhance a travel experience—even one involving sharks.

Related on World Hum:
* Weighing the Thrills and Ethics of ‘Shark Safaris’

Photo by Jeff Kubina, via Flickr (Creative Commons)

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