Cape Cod... too dangerous or okay?

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Not seeing a large animal in RI is not a huge surprise. With 15’ visibility and a giant bubble maker attached the majority of divers, it wouldn't take much for a sand tiger to avoid contact with divers.

Reading the brief account of the surfer dude, I am not convinced. He didn’t see it and I doubt the guys that saw pictures of the bite have seen enough bites to accurately identify the animal.
 
I dive several times a week and have only seen seals in the late fall and dead of winter (witnessed) in Narragansett Bay but have yet to see a Great White or any signs of them up here. However, there have been numerous reported sightings of belugas, big schools of large spotted dolphins (witnessed), humpbacks, pilot whales (witnessed), orcas (witnessed), minke (witnessed) & seals (witnessed) in the past few years.
 
Why all this GW fear? Stay on the bottom, GW like to attack from below you. If you are on the bottom it can't come from below. That means you should easily see it approaching/showing interest in you. That goes for any shark.

I have got in the water while actively in a chum slick to clear a prop of line. No fear at all. They don't prey on people. They mistakenly bite people. If you are that fearful carry a bangstick. That is why humans are the top of the food chain, we are a highly intelligent species.
 
Why all this GW fear? Stay on the bottom, GW like to attack from below you. If you are on the bottom it can't come from below. That means you should easily see it approaching/showing interest in you. That goes for any shark.

I have got in the water while actively in a chum slick to clear a prop of line. No fear at all. They don't prey on people. They mistakenly bite people. If you are that fearful carry a bangstick. That is why humans are the top of the food chain, we are a highly intelligent species.

It's not fear, it's respect for an animal large enough to make a mistake fatal, on you. I wouldn't be concerned either to go and clear a prop in a chum slick. Maybe a seal chum slick but not fish chum slick, GW's around here aren't here for the fish.

I suspect you maybe looking at this from a perspective of someone that doesn't do a lot of surface swims very often or very long or at night. It's easy to post "stay on the bottom" but we have to come up and if there is 200 yards of 6 - 10' deep water between you a shore it gives plenty of time and room for a mistake.

As far as a carrying a bang stick, you rarely see the one that makes a mistake. Which of course is where the concern comes from.
 
It's not fear, it's respect for an animal large enough to make a mistake fatal, on you. I wouldn't be concerned either to go and clear a prop in a chum slick. Maybe a seal chum slick but not fish chum slick, GW's around here aren't here for the fish.

I suspect you maybe looking at this from a perspective of someone that doesn't do a lot of surface swims very often or very long or at night. It's easy to post "stay on the bottom" but we have to come up and if there is 200 yards of 6 - 10' deep water between you a shore it gives plenty of time and room for a mistake.

As far as a carrying a bang stick, you rarely see the one that makes a mistake. Which of course is where the concern comes from.

I think it's different strokes for different folks. Some are afraid of spiders, snakes, or sharks. You mitigate your accessed risks according to your beliefs. I just don't see the need to in NE waters. A GW is the least of my worries day/night, shore/boat dives.
 
I didn't mention "Great Whites" in my first reply. I understand the apprehension, and it's a healthy fear. Just one that I do not have,
Cheers.
 
I'm so used to thinking of seal and sea lion diving in the U.S. region as something down off the west coast or out of Mexico, which east coast U.S. states have substantial seal/sea lion populations?
 
The seals have always been here but were a threatened species many years back. They've recovered and their numbers exploded in recent years. Hence, the buffet.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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