My Dive buddy is afraid of getting eaten by a Shark.

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Never saw or heard about wobbegong attack diver in Raja Ampat. I've seen them about 12 times. They are pretty calm & mostly hunkering down on the bottom or below rocks or table corals. One time during a night dive under Arborek jetty, it just swam under my fins, as you see in my video, below:


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Wobbegong bites are quite common in Australia mainly due to someone inadvertently stepping on one, hooking one while fishing and trying to release it (my dads case) or some idiot trying to pull one around.

Raja Wobbies seem a lot mellower, I've been in a cave looking at two completely missing the one underneath me who was inches from my fins til a guide pointed him out - but don't for a moment think they won't bite. Apparently getting them off when they do bite on can be a problem :)

BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | Diver flees with shark attached


 
I didn't see Australian wobbegong when I was diving in Code Hole. I guess that could be a good thing (not getting bitten on the arse by one). :D
 
I would advise your friend to train to become a faster swimmer. Not to out swim the shark, mind you, just to outswim his buddy in such a situation. Maybe the shark will settle for the easier prey...
 
Things we have learnt in Western Australia -time of year and water temp below 17c is a common factor in the recent years "incidents". Time of day (dawn, late afternoon/sunset) and weather conditions play a part.

So, if the water temp is under 17 like now and the day is overcast I can either wait out the week because there's no sunshine forecast for a week, or drive down south where it's even colder but there's blue sky forecast on Wednesday so I should be fine, or drive 1700km to Ningaloo where we have whalesharks too and the waters too warm for whites and tigers. I'm personally more bothered by tigers due to my dads buddy being a fatal in the 60s and I've only ever seen one GWS while diving here - a juvenile but still impressive. It did absolutely zero, just cruised past doing whatever it is GWS do between meals.

I have another theory - being bitten by sharks is a heriditary condition that skips a generation - father and nephew have been bitten by wobbegong and black tip reefie baby respectively. There is most likely zero evidence to support this theory.

There is some truth in that saying it's the ones you don't see ....

According to some of the locals "feeding time" in Hawai'i is early morning and late afternoon. Guess when I don't go in the water?
 
The OP specifically stated "...We live in Southwest FL and will primarily being diving the Keys and probably the Caribbean..." so a specific region was given; and I never said "that shark attacks never happen."

And it was not a "general 'fear of being eaten by sharks' discussion" it was specifically about the OP's Buddy and his fear of sharks and how to help him to deal with it.

Ahhh... you're right. My apologies. I guess I got caught up in the replies to the original post and lost sight of what the original post actually said.
 
I've seen a black tip Indonesia. In South Australia I've dive a location where GW have been seen however the boat I was on had a big shark shield and two of the divers on the boat wore a shark shield so I knew I would be disappointed.

For most sharkd we are bigger than their food don't smell like their food, don't sound like their food and don't look like their food. For the big sharks when I looked into it I mostly found attack on things that look like food (surfers) or smelled like food(fisherman abolone or spear). I'm more scarred of jelly fish because they just float there and can still sting even when they're dead. In my part of the world crocodiles because their food consists of everything made of meat, so locally I swim where I can see the tiles.
 
I've seen sharks in OZ, PNG, Indonesia and the USA. The only time one acted in a way that made me nervous was a dive where they were spearing lionfish. I have to add though I have never seen a Bull shark, Great White Shark or Whale Shark. With the exception of the Whale Shark (on my bucket list) I prefer to give them a miss!
 
My youngest daughter (teenager) is scared of sharks as well, and she sticks to snorkelling "because divers are attacked more frequently...".
I have explained to her that scuba diving is by far the safest water activity when sharks are involved... nothing
I told her that divers actually PAY top dollars to see sharks... still nothing
While snorkelling, we bumped into a half asleep nurse shark: she found it "cute" and not threatening, but she is convinced that great whites, tiger and bull sharks are out there waiting for her...

Finally, I explained that other fish are way more territorial and potentially aggressive than sharks, like triggerfish or even clownfish. Result? Now she is afraid of sharks AND triggerfish...

Eventually, she will meet a good looking divemaster with 10% of her father's dives, and she will change suddenly her views...
 
For the OP, here is something that although written with an attempt at humour, your Dive Buddy might find interesting. If they don't want to be eaten by a shark, here are some different options that have a statistically higher probability ...
18 Things more Dangerous than Sharks

The first stat is an eyeopener: On average 10 people are killed worldwide by sharks every year compared to 8 deaths every day in the US alone from texting while driving.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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