Kayaker killed by crocodile

Kayaker presumed dead after Congo crocodile attack By Jenny Gross - JOHANNESBURG | An acclaimed South African outdoorsman who was leading a kayaking expedition from the source of the White Nile into Congo was dragged from his craft by a crocodile as two Americans watched, horrified. The guide is presumed dead. The two Americans paddled to safety after the Tuesday morning attack on the Lukuga River in Congo. The International Rescue Committee helped evacuate the Americans to a nearby town after Tuesday's attack, said Ciaran Donnelly, the organization's regional director in the Central African country. The body of 35-year-old Hendrik Coetzee, who was living in Uganda, has not been recovered.

Dear Monterrosa what you are talking about is calculated risk. Most activities your talking about are low risk. Do you realize how many crocodiles live in African and Australian Rivers? They estimate the population to be between 250,000 and 500,000 crocodiles in those African Rivers. That’s not counting Australia. It is almost suicide to go swimming and extremely dangerous to go Kayaking. This is not calculated risk this is suicide. Rivers are small and oceans are huge. So you can’t compare this crocodile tragedy even to swimming in the ocean. Now take in the fact that humans are nearly defenseless in the water, not our environment, and you can see why death for this poor soul was a forgone conclusion once the Crocodile focused on him as prey. I would sky dive, swim in the ocean, camp in Grizzly Bear country, mountain climb, and rescue people from a burning building all in the same year but I would never swim or boat, in anything smaller than a yacht, in Crocodile country. It’s suicide. One final word. You can’t compare any land based risk to water risk. You would have much better chance in Grizzly Bear country with no weapons than you would in Crocodile infested waters with a machine gun. Good Day, Mike.

“...I would sky dive, swim in the ocean, camp in Grizzly Bear country, mountain climb, and rescue people from a burning building all in the same year but I would never swim or boat, in anything smaller than a yacht, in Crocodile country...”

Point taken!

But when adventurers overstep the bounds of good sense in their underwater cave diving, croc petting, base jumping, salmon sharing with bears, etc. I believe we should still feel a bit of empathy for them and not just laugh off their passing as some on FR like to do.

Also on that same note you can't compare kayaking in a crocodile infested river to going to Ranger School. Although you may think your dying, and maybe you even want to die, your not. The Army gains nothing by your death. Crocodiles, particularly, the large species are very aggresive and humans are regularly on it's food chain in Africa. By contrast there's a good chance a shark won't even attack you if it's right beside you. Similarly to a Grizzly. In most situations if a Grizzly Bear hears you it runs away. Crocodiles don't run from nothing, except maybe hippos. No matter how anyone on here tries to justify this kayaking trip it was an ill advised trip, it was reckless, and this is not healthy risk taking. You can not equate this with the weekend sky diving trip, camping in bear country, swimming in the ocean, or mountain climbing. You certainly can't equate this with Ranger School. In the normal scheme of things sky diving is not all that risky because 99.5 percent of the time the parachute will open, 99.5% of the time camping in bear country or swimming in the ocean will lead to nothing more than perhaps a sun burn and 99.5% of the time you won't die in Ranger Training. I bet you that if you kayak in crocodile country as much as you do any of these other activities your death risk goes up exponentially. You can sky dive, camp, or swim all your life and never encounter a malfunctioning parachute, a shark, or a Bear. Now kayak the Congo at that same rate and I bet you that your in a world of hurt. People seem to be so easy to write this incident off to chance or bad luck. No this was foolish people doing foolish things. I don't know exactly what it would be equivalent to but lets start with drinking and driving. You may do it once and get away with it or you may kill some one the first time but one thing is for sure if you keep doing it some one is going to get hurt. Some how that example seems to not be enough but it's all I can think of. In closing this was not risk taking it was foolish arrogant behavior by folks who's thrill seeking past made them think they were invincible. When you think your invincible it's funny how mother nature reminds us that were not. It's horribly sad for that poor victim's family. It's a shame he did not have more regard for them. Good Day.

I agree with your points but don’t go too light on Ranger School. Here is what an instructor posted on a Mil site...

“...in the mid-90’s four men in one patrol died on the same night in Florida(Swamp) Phase, student deaths are tragic and are certainly not deliberate and this is not a point of pride among the cadre by any means but training deaths do occur in Ranger School and they occur in Reg also.
The training is not only tough and realistic but it is also hazardous.
In my experience alone as an RI, I know of at least a dozen tragic deaths in Ranger School alone...”

Of course Ranger School’s risk is measured against the necessary risk of the job that Rangers may be asked to do on real life missions. Paddling dangerous rivers is more difficult to justify.

To those who responded to my response. I do have empathy for the poor soul who died. I have empathy and sympathy both to be honest. I feel bad for him his family and everyone involved but my frustration is with folks who tried to justify his suicidal behavior by equating it to adventure. No one seems to respect how dangerous crocodiles are. Risk are suppose to be calculated. There is a reason people don’t regularly paddle in kayaks on rivers like the congo. The locals are taken all the time off their wooden fishing boats. Unfortunately the locals have not choice they have to fish and make a living but they do so under great hazard and stress. Africa, Australia and other places may be beuatiful but underneath their deadly. You have to respect those places immensely. You don’t just go up to a body of water in those places and say: “ Wow looks like a nice place to swim or hey lest go kayaking”. Foolish. The poor people on this kayaking trip were not taking rational risk. You can’t compare this even with going to the moon on thousands of pound of rocket fuel. The outcome was very predictable yet these adventurers thought they were invincible and now a man has lost his life. To all of you who try to justify foolish behavior STOP!!!!!!!! It was foolish and reckless to do what these three folks did and it’s a tragedy that need not happen. Good Day!!

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