Great White spotted at Crystal Bay

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

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

"Only". Sounds like you had a terrible dive :p

Which one is better, seeing a GWS or these, below?
GH011109_Moment.jpg
GH011111_Moment.jpg
GH011115_Moment.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dan
@Sam Miller III , I grew up in South Africa. I know what sharks can do. And they only do things like that when WE invade THEIR home and don't behave.
If we behave as proper guests, they leave us alone. It can be one of the most amazing things to see, when a great white takes a seal from the surface above you. But you always need to remember to behave as a proper guest. Otherwise you become a threat or food and are dealt with accordingly.

You are anthropomorphizing a wild animal, and an apex predator at that. Apex predators have little if any fear and don’t have any understanding of what is “proper” or the concept of another organism being a “guest” or not.

They are driven by instinct and immediate biological need, and as such their behavior is mostly predictable, until it’s not. And there’s no way to communicate with a wild animal to ask them why they are suddenly trying to eat you when they didn’t on previous encounters.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a shark enthusiast. I make huge efforts to see them, and in my experience they only get aggressive when feeling their territory and access to food are threatened. When people say some sharks exhibit curious behavior towards divers, I think they may be mistaken in that a shark is only curious as to whether or not you are a threat to their dominance. Sharks are not curious about your manners or whether you think they are amazing. They are ambush predators, as most predators are, meaning they take opportunities when they find them, and so long as you don’t give them an opportunity (swimming on the surface, doing a blue water ascent at night, collecting abalone) or act like an aggressive competitor (spear fishing, swimming towards them with a big video camera out in front of you) they will probably pay little if any attention to you. Which is the best possible result if you are fascinated by observing their normal behaviors, as opposed to trying to “commune” with them...
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

Back
Top Bottom