That's happened to me. Twice.
Shark
- Thread starter rockystock1
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
That's happened to me. Twice.
By encounter I suppose you mean an aggressive shark, because in some areas you meet sharks quite often like in NC but they are most often sand tigers and sand bars.
OP
rockystock1
Contributor
- Messages
- 163
- Reaction score
- 28
swimrundive
Registered
If it's a white pointer (great white) I hope you have your dive knife with a go pro extension to poke it as a sacrifice. Those things don't care so best course of action would be like jaws and hide at depth while shooting your smb and hope the boat gets there in time
Tigerman
Contributor
A shark has to get within biting range to bite you. As far as they're concerned, if they're in biting range so too are you.
Great white sharks are ambush predators for a reason. If you see one, it's probably curious.
If it's curious enough, it will be like human babies be and put you in it's mouth. It's their most sensitive tactile sense; just like babies who have yet to develop tactile sense in their hands. Unfortunately there's very sharp pointy things in their mouth.
This type of bite, is different from an attack bite. Subtle difference, you're not going to have a curious shark thrash out fast and gore you with a heavy chomp. But it's not going to look like a puppy dog lightly noming on your couch either. If you read actual shark studies, dive with sharks (not those gung-ho touristy dives mind you), and watch shark videos that don't center around shark attacks (hard to find these days) you'll start to cue in on subtle differences of shark behaviors that people often overlook.
Keep in mind it will check you out for a very long time before doing that, because as far as it's concerned, you can do the same.
Eye bites and gill bites are death sentences for sharks.
So unless you deliberately ram yourself into it's mouth, or trigger a flight or fight response, you're going to be fine.
If you see a Great White, stand your ground and enjoy the view. If you make a move towards it, I'm pretty sure it will try to dodge or avoid. Some individuals might have a more adventurous personality and in that case it may not be best to do that.
At the Monterey Bay Aquarium, when they had White sharks, first time they're introduced into their Open Seas Exhibit, all the fish would bolt to one side opposite of the shark, and the shark would do that same.
When divers entered the water, the shark would bolt away too. Those post card glamor shots weren't easy to come by.
Essentially to hit the nail on the head, generally you can treat them as you would a stray dog. As you observe them more, use your common sense to gauge what they might do, and don't use your Shark Week preconceptions. Because those are flat out wrong.
Which btw majority of us Shark Biologists hate Shark Week; fun fact.
And also saying a Great White shark is aggressive is like saying all Pit Bulls are aggressive.
They're NOT.
Great white sharks are ambush predators for a reason. If you see one, it's probably curious.
If it's curious enough, it will be like human babies be and put you in it's mouth. It's their most sensitive tactile sense; just like babies who have yet to develop tactile sense in their hands. Unfortunately there's very sharp pointy things in their mouth.
This type of bite, is different from an attack bite. Subtle difference, you're not going to have a curious shark thrash out fast and gore you with a heavy chomp. But it's not going to look like a puppy dog lightly noming on your couch either. If you read actual shark studies, dive with sharks (not those gung-ho touristy dives mind you), and watch shark videos that don't center around shark attacks (hard to find these days) you'll start to cue in on subtle differences of shark behaviors that people often overlook.
Keep in mind it will check you out for a very long time before doing that, because as far as it's concerned, you can do the same.
Eye bites and gill bites are death sentences for sharks.
So unless you deliberately ram yourself into it's mouth, or trigger a flight or fight response, you're going to be fine.
If you see a Great White, stand your ground and enjoy the view. If you make a move towards it, I'm pretty sure it will try to dodge or avoid. Some individuals might have a more adventurous personality and in that case it may not be best to do that.
At the Monterey Bay Aquarium, when they had White sharks, first time they're introduced into their Open Seas Exhibit, all the fish would bolt to one side opposite of the shark, and the shark would do that same.
When divers entered the water, the shark would bolt away too. Those post card glamor shots weren't easy to come by.
Essentially to hit the nail on the head, generally you can treat them as you would a stray dog. As you observe them more, use your common sense to gauge what they might do, and don't use your Shark Week preconceptions. Because those are flat out wrong.
Which btw majority of us Shark Biologists hate Shark Week; fun fact.
And also saying a Great White shark is aggressive is like saying all Pit Bulls are aggressive.
They're NOT.
Last edited:
Mike
Contributor
Truth is you can't really do anything. Hug the reef if there is one. In open water, if the shark wants you, you can't stop it.
I had to bump 2 aggressive reef sharks in Belize, they had obviously been fed by some of the dive ops, when they came at me it was very quick and the best I could do was bump them with my camera rig, but they weren't really trying to bite me they were just coming in on me trying to find where the food was, had they wanted to bite me, I couldn't have stopped them. Marine life is at home in the water and all you have to do is dive long enough to witness many different fish that can explode with speed when they want to and your jaw will drop.
Being around a lot of sharks, you get used to the distance they tend to keep, when they break that distance you poop your pants and are at their mercy.
i have yet to see a shark in the uk
Similar threads
