DIVE DRY WITH DR. BILL #855: SHARK IN THE PARK
I've dived all over the world with sharks.When I first came to the island, blue sharks were abundant in our waters. You'd see them frequently offshore. We used to play a game when flying across the Channel in a Grumman Goose or going by boat. How many sharks can you count? Numbers could reach into the dozens. Sadly, no more.
None have ever tried to bite me... with a single exception. We do have our share of small horn sharks and swell sharks in our waters. I was filming an 18" horn shark and tried to move it for a better camera angle. He rose up from the rocks and started biting me on my wetsuit chest. I laughed so hard the regulator fell out of my mouth. I wasn't too worried about being gummed to death!
One summer when my sisters came out for a visit, we kayaked out to Long Point. On the way back we ran into a large school of leopard sharks near Frog Rock. I jumped into the water with them, and told my sisters Judy and Nancy to join me. It was their chance to tell their friends back home how they swam with sharks. Neither one took me up on the offer.
Back in the fall of 1969, I was diving out at Shark Harbor with students from the Toyon School and a fellow faculty member, Sherman Herrick. We went out as far as Ragger's Point to collect some abalone. On the surface swim back to shore, I noticed that something was following alongside me in poor visibility. I looked ahead and saw all the other divers. Then I realized that what was by my side was a shark. Not sure if it was a blue or a soupfin as I was new to the island.
I think the first time in recent history (you, know... since the Jurassic) that I filmed a fairly large number of sharks in one place was right here in Lover's Cove about two decades ago. There were about two dozen soupfin (aka tope) sharks swimming by Abalone Point. The Island Company's crew took me out there and dropped me off so I could film them. It was awesome!
I took a fair bit of video of the soupfins and wrote a front page story for the Avalon Bay News, complete with images of the sharks swirling around me. I mentioned that these sharks were essentially harmless and there had only been one record of an "attack" on a human, and it was well before anyone here was born... or their great-great-great-great-grandparents.
Of course four jocks decided they wanted to have a little fun with the sharks. They entered the waters in Lover's Cove and instead of following my safety guidelines, they began grabbing the tails and fins. Now I'd call that a human attack on the sharks. The soupfins felt the same way and fought back. All four of the idiots ended up in our hospital ER with bites. For some reason the City didn't broadcast this news. I had to learn about it from the attending physician.
Well, within the past two weeks there have been sightings of sharks in our dive park. One report relayed to me was of a brown, heavy bodied shark but there were no pictures. Several divers (including locals Chelsea, Sean and Joel) filmed a soupfin in the dive park by the wreck of the Suejac and the harbor mouth. They also got images of a blue shark feeding on a gray whale carcass off Avalon.
Now don't get too concerned about this. As people should know by now, most sharks are pretty harmless if you don't threaten them. I find it wonderful news. Soupfins were decimated during World War II for their livers which were rich in Vitamin A. They have been making a slow comeback in our waters. And most people are aware that blue sharks have been decimated, locally during the "Jaws" scare and globally for their fins. I welcome any sign of possible recovcery.
© 2020 Dr. Bill Bushing. For the entire archived set of over 850 "Dive Dry" columns, visit my website Star Thrower Educational Multimedia (S.T.E.M.) Home Page
Image caption: Soupfin sharks (Galeorhinus galeus) in Lover's Cove (top) and blue shark (Prionace glauca) offshore (bottom).
I've dived all over the world with sharks.When I first came to the island, blue sharks were abundant in our waters. You'd see them frequently offshore. We used to play a game when flying across the Channel in a Grumman Goose or going by boat. How many sharks can you count? Numbers could reach into the dozens. Sadly, no more.
None have ever tried to bite me... with a single exception. We do have our share of small horn sharks and swell sharks in our waters. I was filming an 18" horn shark and tried to move it for a better camera angle. He rose up from the rocks and started biting me on my wetsuit chest. I laughed so hard the regulator fell out of my mouth. I wasn't too worried about being gummed to death!
One summer when my sisters came out for a visit, we kayaked out to Long Point. On the way back we ran into a large school of leopard sharks near Frog Rock. I jumped into the water with them, and told my sisters Judy and Nancy to join me. It was their chance to tell their friends back home how they swam with sharks. Neither one took me up on the offer.
Back in the fall of 1969, I was diving out at Shark Harbor with students from the Toyon School and a fellow faculty member, Sherman Herrick. We went out as far as Ragger's Point to collect some abalone. On the surface swim back to shore, I noticed that something was following alongside me in poor visibility. I looked ahead and saw all the other divers. Then I realized that what was by my side was a shark. Not sure if it was a blue or a soupfin as I was new to the island.
I think the first time in recent history (you, know... since the Jurassic) that I filmed a fairly large number of sharks in one place was right here in Lover's Cove about two decades ago. There were about two dozen soupfin (aka tope) sharks swimming by Abalone Point. The Island Company's crew took me out there and dropped me off so I could film them. It was awesome!
I took a fair bit of video of the soupfins and wrote a front page story for the Avalon Bay News, complete with images of the sharks swirling around me. I mentioned that these sharks were essentially harmless and there had only been one record of an "attack" on a human, and it was well before anyone here was born... or their great-great-great-great-grandparents.
Of course four jocks decided they wanted to have a little fun with the sharks. They entered the waters in Lover's Cove and instead of following my safety guidelines, they began grabbing the tails and fins. Now I'd call that a human attack on the sharks. The soupfins felt the same way and fought back. All four of the idiots ended up in our hospital ER with bites. For some reason the City didn't broadcast this news. I had to learn about it from the attending physician.
Well, within the past two weeks there have been sightings of sharks in our dive park. One report relayed to me was of a brown, heavy bodied shark but there were no pictures. Several divers (including locals Chelsea, Sean and Joel) filmed a soupfin in the dive park by the wreck of the Suejac and the harbor mouth. They also got images of a blue shark feeding on a gray whale carcass off Avalon.
Now don't get too concerned about this. As people should know by now, most sharks are pretty harmless if you don't threaten them. I find it wonderful news. Soupfins were decimated during World War II for their livers which were rich in Vitamin A. They have been making a slow comeback in our waters. And most people are aware that blue sharks have been decimated, locally during the "Jaws" scare and globally for their fins. I welcome any sign of possible recovcery.
© 2020 Dr. Bill Bushing. For the entire archived set of over 850 "Dive Dry" columns, visit my website Star Thrower Educational Multimedia (S.T.E.M.) Home Page
Image caption: Soupfin sharks (Galeorhinus galeus) in Lover's Cove (top) and blue shark (Prionace glauca) offshore (bottom).
I dived off Catalina frequently for the decade between 1970 and 1980. We frequently saw blue sharks, often, many. That seems like a long time ago 
