Shark expert explains why he thinks teen's body 'may never be found' after he jumped off cruise ship
A shark expert has said that the body of Cameron Robbins may never be recovered after he jumped from a boat into the sea.
The teen, from Louisiana, was out on a boat in the Bahamas celebrating his high school graduation on 24 May when he jumped into the sea and disappeared shortly after 9.30pm.
Warning, some viewers may find the video distressing.
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Three days later, the search for the teen was called off, despite the best efforts of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, with the assistance of the US Coast Guard Southeast and Royal Bahamas Defence Force.
His devastated family held a memorial service for him on June 4, with parents William and Shari, saying they are ‘mourning’ their ‘funny and kind-hearted son’.
Shark expert, Kevin McMurray, believes that shortly after landing in the sea, Cameron may have seen a shark and instead of heading towards a life ring, he rushed away from the creature.
Speaking to the Mirror, McMurray, who runs a website that collects data about shark attacks, said it was possible the baseball star had been eaten by a tiger shark, which are known to be present in that area.
McMurray went on to explain that recovery efforts would be difficult due to currents and the fact there’s a large area to cover.
He said: "Recovering [Cameron's remains] would be nearly impossible. Something like that, you're talking about a massive search area with currents and all that."
When asked, McMurray kept an open mind about what could have happened to the teen saying that if he was bitten by a shark, it was likely to be just one bite - he also said Cameron could have sunk or died from exposure.
He said: "So my analysis, what I think happened is, he got in the water and he was swimming around, the shark, for some reason, or whatever it is - I'm not for sure saying it is a shark, but it looks a lot like a shark - essentially it comes and surfaces and there's a life ring out to his right.
"My guess is that if something like that did occur, maybe a single bite or something like that, more than likely, again you can't say because anything's possible, but exposure would probably be what I think would have occurred and he may have died of that.
"Either he sank or a shark ate his body, that's possible. There are a lot of tiger sharks there, and they'll scavenge."
Claire Reid