Crocodile bites diver on Cozumel swim

A 72-year-old American scuba diver has been bitten by a crocodile whereas going for a late-afternoon swim off a resort seashore on the Caribbean island of Cozumel in Mexico. 

Eric Greager from Richland in Washington state was about 30m out from the shore when the crocodile, which he estimated to be about 3m lengthy, clamped down on his proper arm. He was thrashed about in a approach that he later described as “like a dog with a rag toy”, based on US press experiences. 

Greager, a private coach and spin-bike teacher who had been on a diving vacation in Mexico along with his spouse, says he was dragged 4-6m beneath water.

He fought to interrupt free by lashing out on the crocodile’s head along with his good arm and kicking it. He finally succeeded in fending it off and says that after a remaining nip at his proper hand the crocodile retreated. 

Greager managed to tug himself again in the direction of the shore alongside a marker rope and was assisted by a lifeguard who acted shortly to use a tourniquet to his arm even earlier than he was out of the water. He later mentioned that this motion had been the important thing think about stopping catastrophic blood loss.

Taken to a hospital far away, Greager underwent six hours of emergency surgical procedure to save lots of his arm, together with restore to severed tendons and a broken artery. He had additionally sustained a leg damage. 

The diver spent three days in hospital and left with no indicators of an infection, though full restoration was anticipated to take a very long time. He mentioned that though he must miss a scuba journey to Fiji booked for June, he was hopeful of getting recovered sufficient by October to take pleasure in a deliberate dive-trip to Indonesia. 

American crocodiles

Crocodile incidents round Cozumel are uncommon however often contain American crocodiles (Crocodylus acutus), that are among the many world’s most saltwater-tolerant species and native to Mexico’s Caribbean coast.

Occasional bites or encounters have been reported close to seashores, lagoons and resort areas in or close to brackish water zones, resembling the place mangroves hook up with the ocean.

Cozumel’s well-known scuba-diving reefs are largely offshore and are usually not typical crocodile habitat. The largest concentrations are inshore at Punta Sur (South End), which features a system of protected wetlands inside a nature reserve related to the ocean; the north coast community of shallow lagoons and mangroves; and the mangrove-lined resort zones on the west and south-west coasts.

Mexican environmental businesses resembling SEMARNAT/CONANP emphasise that crocodiles are protected wildlife and that folks ought to keep away from coming into identified crocodile habitats, particularly at occasions of peak exercise in early morning and at nightfall.

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