Food Chain Realities
Category: News Commentary...
Posted Thursday, August 21, 2003 at 09:59 AM [GMT-6]

The death of Deborah Franzman, the California woman apparently killed in a shark attack while swimming amongst seals, is truly sad. No one should die in that fashion.

But...

As a scuba diver, the hundred or so entries in my logbook don't make me Jacques Cousteau, but I've dived with enough sharks to know this: when you're in the water with them, you're at the top of the food pyramid, not the food chain. I don't mean to be callous or flippant, but this death had a pretty high inevitability factor (if that's not oxymoronic).

Personally, I'd no sooner swim with wild seals in the ocean than cut in front of Ruben Studdard in a buffet line. To a shark, a swimmer amongst seals is basically just a big appetizer, or garnish. That fact can only deepen the sadness of her family's loss.

And I never have understood the implied comfort of a comment like, "well, at least she/he died doing something they loved." If the sentiment makes grieving family and friends feel better, then it's valid. But I doubt that my first thought as, say, a parachutist whose backup chute just failed to deploy would be, "well, dang... this reeks, but, you know, I really loved doing this!"

If I'm going to die doing something I love, I want it to be during my coveted Sunday afternoon nap.