My vibratons are shot and bleeding fish, sharks around spearing is not uncommon by any strech but the multiple aggresive passes and following people to the boat is getting close to that line. When humans and animals get around that line the animals normally lose.
Did you not realize i was spearfishing?
Missing sailor found inside shark off Jaws beach | World news | The Guardian
Great White Shark Fatalities Australia | Jawshark.com
What was the name of that navy ship that sank at the end of ww2 with all the dudes in the water for days? Indianapolis maybe? Something like 2 dozen guys we're killed floating in the water...
John, the problem I have with following your arguments against feeding is that you cite aggressive behavior you've seen while spearfishing in on the Gulf Coast, where no shark feeding dives take place, and you cite Florida's shark attack statistics, which are not linked by species or geography to shark feeding dives.
We do realize you are spearfishing. Do you realize that these are marine predators that, for hundreds of millions of years, have survived via seeking out and preying/scavenging upon dead, dying, or injured animals? I am not in the least bit surprised that they might get feisty with you from time to time. In the case of a sizable individual like a big bull shark, he may very well think he can intimidate you into dropping the chalupa and running, because that's what they'll do to each other in a natural feeding situation - biggest and most aggressive individual has first dibs.
Regarding your mention of the USS
Indianapolis (CA-35) sinking in July 1945, that's not an uncommon example - and the death toll was far higher; out of an estimated 880 men who survived the sinking just 321 survivors were rescued after almost 90 hours adrift in open water. The bulk of those were probably casualties of exposure, saltwater poisoning, and dehydration; the sharks took the bodies and more than a few still-living sailors. Again, not a surprise. Those guys were crippled prey floating on the surface - something a shark would not pass up, especially far out to sea where the food options are limited. The
Indianapolis is the most famous case, but a lot of ship sinkings in WWII had the same result.
EDIT: Since the topic has been raised here and elsewhere, I'm running a few Google Scholar searches on studies involving shark feeding tourism. Unfortunately, a lot of those are locked behind journal paywalls (if there's one aspect where I'll loudly criticize the field, it's the money mill that's the publishing industry). I have access to abstracts (the short summary version of the paper) and a few full papers through open-access publications such as
PLOS One. I'll try and take some time this week to read and analyze them, and might see if some of my friends over at the University of Miami's marine science research campus can access other papers using UM's journal subscriptions.
