Shark researcher bitten while teaching a class
By Kellie Patrick
Staff Writer - Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel
Posted April 11 2002
A famous shark researcher who claimed he knew sharks too well to ever be bitten lost part of his leg to a shark as he led a class on the predator's behavior Wednesday.
Erich Ritter, 43, was in waist-deep water with four students in Walker's Cay in the Bahamas when he was bitten by what was thought to be a large lemon shark. He lost a large portion of his left calf in the attack and went into shock. Walker's Cay is an area where tourists commonly feed sharks. Ritter was flown to St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach, where he was treated. Hospital officials confirmed that he was treated but had no other information about him.
Ritter, who lives in Miami, has told the media he can keep sharks away by modifying his heart rate. In August 2000, he told The Associated Press he had never even been nipped, attributing that largely to his ability to understand sharks' body language. Members of Florida's shark scientist circle put little credence in Ritter's ideas on shark behavior.
"That was an accident waiting to happen," said Samuel Gruber, a University of Miami professor and director of the Bimini Biological Field Station in the Bahamas. Ritter taught classes with Gruber in Bimini for about five years, and Gruber said he is a good lecturer but does not rely heavily enough on the scientific method.
"Erich takes certain chances based on what he thinks he knows about shark behavior, but there is no evidence to support his theories," he said. "He's more like a philosopher than a scientist."
He has seen Ritter on television, standing in shallow water in the midst of bait and lemon sharks. "Seeing him in the water with those animals swimming around his legs like that, that just bothered me. Frightened me actually," said Gruber.
But the pictures were beautiful, Gruber said. "I would be frightened to do what he did, but he had gotten away with it for several years."
According to Ritter's Web site, he is a dive instructor and a professor at Hofstra University and the University of Zurich, where he received his doctorate in behavioral ecology. Ritter could not be reached for comment Wednesday night.
Not foolproof
Arthur Myrberg, also a marine science professor at the University of Miami, said Ritter has great belief in his ideas, but they "have never been reviewed by experts in the field."
Myrberg studies animal behavior and said anyone who does recognizes certain patterns than can help predict what an animal will do. However, these patterns offer far from foolproof predictions.
"You would be lucky if it would work 50 percent of the time," he said.
Of the accident, Myrberg said: "It does demonstrate that a shark specialist can get bitten like anybody else."
Shark bites remain rare, scientists say.
George Burgess, the marine biologist who is director of the International Shark Attack File, said so far this year seven people have been bitten by sharks in Florida, two others in Hawaii and 14 worldwide. This does not include what happened to Ritter.
Feeding ban opposed
Both Ritter and Gruber testified before the Florida commission that last year banned feeding sharks and other marine life. Both testified against the ban. Ritter said there was no scientific evidence to support a ban. Gruber thinks the close encounters people had with sharks fed in Florida taught that sharks are not the brutal killers pictured in movies such as Jaws.
Burgess did not testify but considers shark feeding dangerous. Normally, sharks fear humans and swim away from them, he said. But feeding teaches sharks to associate human beings and the noises they make with food.
Staff Writer Nancy Othón contributed to this report, and information from The Associated Press was used to supplement it.
Kellie Patrick can be reached at kpatrick@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6629.
