New World Record OW Swim

At this point it seems, as you said earlier, that Ebanks went rogue. There appears to be just too much information out there to support a claim that absolutely no sharks were injured/killed. Maybe Ebanks felt that the ends justified the means, and that he needed to do everything he could to make sure Penny was successful. He may have decided it was his responsibility to make sure no sharks ended the swim prematurely. This is an entirely different thing then addressing an impending threat of physical injury (or death) to the swimmer from a shark attack. I think he may have misunderstood his role in the effort. Maybe he saw Penny's swim as a vehicle to bring attention to the Cayman's in support of the tourism industry, but that is nothing more than speculation on my part. I'll admit after this story came out one of the first things I did was get a map out to see exactly where the Caymans were (who has maps anymore - I just went to Google Earth). It should be noted that if this swim was put together FOR the purpose of marketing Cayman Tourism, it would not be the first time that a spectacle was created for marketing purposes. Frankly, if it allows swimmers to make money while doing something they love, then I am all for it (even just covering the expenses for the swim). As for who put the team together, I can not speak to that. There was a mention that the timing of the swim was in conjunction with the timing of the Flowers Swim. I have not seen anything that suggests it was "produced" by the same people who run that swim. What I do know is that the folks associated with the Flowers Swim were at the conference in SF in March and I thought they were wonderful people doing something great for the sport. They run a large swim event that draws people from all over, and have set it up to allow everyone to participate and enjoy open water swimming at many levels. I love their "all comers" approach to the a sport that sometimes is stifled by the chains of it's history.

At this point it seems, as you said earlier, that Ebanks went rogue. There appears to be just too much information out there to support a claim that absolutely no sharks were injured/killed. Maybe Ebanks felt that the ends justified the means, and that he needed to do everything he could to make sure Penny was successful. He may have decided it was his responsibility to make sure no sharks ended the swim prematurely. This is an entirely different thing then addressing an impending threat of physical injury (or death) to the swimmer from a shark attack. I think he may have misunderstood his role in the effort. Maybe he saw Penny's swim as a vehicle to bring attention to the Cayman's in support of the tourism industry, but that is nothing more than speculation on my part. I'll admit after this story came out one of the first things I did was get a map out to see exactly where the Caymans were (who has maps anymore - I just went to Google Earth). It should be noted that if this swim was put together FOR the purpose of marketing Cayman Tourism, it would not be the first time that a spectacle was created for marketing purposes. Frankly, if it allows swimmers to make money while doing something they love, then I am all for it (even just covering the expenses for the swim). As for who put the team together, I can not speak to that. There was a mention that the timing of the swim was in conjunction with the timing of the Flowers Swim. I have not seen anything that suggests it was "produced" by the same people who run that swim. What I do know is that the folks associated with the Flowers Swim were at the conference in SF in March and I thought they were wonderful people doing something great for the sport. They run a large swim event that draws people from all over, and have set it up to allow everyone to participate and enjoy open water swimming at many levels. I love their "all comers" approach to the a sport that sometimes is stifled by the chains of it's history.