A private equity manager from Wall Street was killed on Thursday when she was attacked by a tiger shark while diving off the coast of a Costa Rican island.
Rohina Bhandari, 49, was in the ocean with a group of other divers when she suffered fatal shark bite wounds to both of her legs.
Videos by PopCulture.com
According to the New York Post, the groups diving guide noticed the shark and attempted to frighten it away but as the group began surfacing the shark swam directly at Bhandari and started to bite her on the legs. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
The guide was also reported to have been bitten while trying to help.
Bhandari was one of the senior directors at WL Ross & Co. LL, an investment firm founded by Wilbur Ross, the current U.S. Secretary of Commerce. She was said to frequently attend charity events in New York City.
“Unbelievably sad and heartbreaking news that Rohina has died,” posted one of her Facebook friends, Julie Walker. “She was such a wonderful person who loved life. I will always remember her kindness, friendship and our adventures together.”
This new fatal attack once again begs the question, “Why do sharks keep attacking people?” Well, the short answer is, generally speaking, they don’t. These instances, while still terrible, are actually very rare when you consider how large the earth is and how many people that go swimming, diving, and surfing don’t get attacked by sharks.
Scientists and marine biologists have stated that extensive research supports their claims that sharks do not hunt humans. Which essentially means that we have no evidence that sharks are actually out to get humans.
Sharks aren’t really even known for attacking humans out of defense either. Studies show that when sharks do attack it’s because they’ve mistaken a human for their natural prey, which would be any number of marine animals, sea turtles, or large fish.
