Hi,
I'm new here and I need your opinion on something- I'm a medium-experienced diver (have around 40 dives in the Caribbean, Europe and Asia) and I've seen nurse sharks, reef sharks and leopard sharks on my dives- But today, I saw something different and I'm not sure if I can believe my eyes or what I actually saw.
Well, I'm in Key West at the moment, and I didn't go diving, but snorkeling. We went by boat, the trip took around one hour and we snorkeled very far from the shore (the next shore wasn't Key West but some small inhabited island I guess) in shallow water (I'd say max depth of 5 meters). I'm not sure what the spot was called exactly, but there was kind of a reef which looked quite dead, a couple of fish (nothing impressive) and some remains of a sunk boat/ship. I snorkeled far from the other snorkelers (I hate crowds) and for the first half an hour I didn't see anything but some fish here and there, then in moment I turned my head to the right and I saw a huge shark, not even 10 feet away. It didn't swim fast, but very slow (as if it was stopping to take a look at me), maybe one meter below the surface. As mentioned, I've seen nurse sharks, leopard sharks and reef sharks before and it didn't look like any of them. It was more massive, and much bigger, than any shark I have ever seen before, and it had a dark body. I almost got a heart attack, turned around and swam back to the boat as fast as I could. Now I regret a little bit that I didn't take another look, haha, but I was really frightened.
My first thoughts were- Bull shark or white shark (I know they look different, but I'm not a shark expert and when I saw it I turned around immediately). Considering how big and massive it was I thought it could only be a bull, tiger or white shark. The boat captain told me it's impossible that it was a tiger shark because there aren't really tiger sharks around the keys. Another boat employee didn't even seem to believe me, she said she has only seen once a bull shark in her entire time here in Key West (a few years).
So- Any guesses what I might have seen? What's the most likely? Was it probably a bull shark? Or maybe even a white shark? Or any other guesses? And considering this encounter, might it actually be dangerous to snorkel around there? I was never scared or worried while diving, but snorkeling on the surface, well.
Thanks a lot!
I'm new here and I need your opinion on something- I'm a medium-experienced diver (have around 40 dives in the Caribbean, Europe and Asia) and I've seen nurse sharks, reef sharks and leopard sharks on my dives- But today, I saw something different and I'm not sure if I can believe my eyes or what I actually saw.
Well, I'm in Key West at the moment, and I didn't go diving, but snorkeling. We went by boat, the trip took around one hour and we snorkeled very far from the shore (the next shore wasn't Key West but some small inhabited island I guess) in shallow water (I'd say max depth of 5 meters). I'm not sure what the spot was called exactly, but there was kind of a reef which looked quite dead, a couple of fish (nothing impressive) and some remains of a sunk boat/ship. I snorkeled far from the other snorkelers (I hate crowds) and for the first half an hour I didn't see anything but some fish here and there, then in moment I turned my head to the right and I saw a huge shark, not even 10 feet away. It didn't swim fast, but very slow (as if it was stopping to take a look at me), maybe one meter below the surface. As mentioned, I've seen nurse sharks, leopard sharks and reef sharks before and it didn't look like any of them. It was more massive, and much bigger, than any shark I have ever seen before, and it had a dark body. I almost got a heart attack, turned around and swam back to the boat as fast as I could. Now I regret a little bit that I didn't take another look, haha, but I was really frightened.
My first thoughts were- Bull shark or white shark (I know they look different, but I'm not a shark expert and when I saw it I turned around immediately). Considering how big and massive it was I thought it could only be a bull, tiger or white shark. The boat captain told me it's impossible that it was a tiger shark because there aren't really tiger sharks around the keys. Another boat employee didn't even seem to believe me, she said she has only seen once a bull shark in her entire time here in Key West (a few years).
So- Any guesses what I might have seen? What's the most likely? Was it probably a bull shark? Or maybe even a white shark? Or any other guesses? And considering this encounter, might it actually be dangerous to snorkel around there? I was never scared or worried while diving, but snorkeling on the surface, well.
Thanks a lot!
