Any diver out there been attacked by a big shark?!
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Being serious, a few years back, on a SoFla operator who carried me (not completely willingly as I was first to reserve the boat and supposedly therefore got to call the dive and this was not the dive I wanted) and a boat full of divers out in the the Gulf Stream and baited for sharks. Some showed up. On the second dive, a medium size Tiger came in. It behaved much differently from the blues and what not that I had swam with on many occasions. This shark barreled up the scent trail, cut through the middle of the group and then sped away. But, I spun around to follow it but was then smitten by a large and friendly fella that was poising for me. Just as I clicked my second shot, I was shoved forward in the water some distance and then as the Tiger swept by my right Inon strobe arm, the middle joint (clamp) lodged in the jaw and then yanked my camera forward. Fortunately it was tethered and the shark was not biting it. To this day I am not sure what got hooked on what. But anyways, I nearly lost my camera rig. Not to the shark but there was no bottom below us and the rig was rather negative. My new camera rig will be set up to be neutral, lol. But back to the Tiger, it would come in and as soon as the diver made eye contact, it would veer away, though fairly close before doing so. Tigers, Oceanics in particular and sharks that have never seen people and are truly wild, not regularly petted and hand fed like so many of these shark swims, they should be paid close attention to. These are not large brained animals, they have the IQ of a flat worm and run strictly on (evolutionary) pre-programed behaviors and if the wrong behavior is triggered then things could get dicey. People say you should respect them, well, I do. I am glad they are in the ocean, their home and should be preserved not destroyed. That said, I do not intend to be part of their food chain, rather than respect, I might suggest extreme caution with large, wild sharks that are known man-eaters both for the sake of the divers and the wild sharks.
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ATJ
Contributor
urbaneve71
Contributor
ITS A SHARK-ALANCHE
No seriously though. I have done roughly 50 shark dives in the Gulf Coast area -- I have had my fair share of tigers and bulls and believe it or not Barracuda scare me more then these guys. I have been lucky enough to never have been attacked (thank the scuba gods), but I have been circled by female bull sharks (which can get upwards of 13-15ft long). The one thing to remember is to NOT panic. In my experience (and mine only) being calm and having a healthy awareness and respect of ones surroundings can be the difference between life and death.
You've got to look them in the eyes!
I've been attacked by a barracuda. Fortunately, it was just a little duffer who attached himself to the end of my fin. We had quite a tug of war. I had my back to him at the time and so have no clue as to what brought it on.
I once saw a much larger barracuda going for the attack on another driver's head. Fortunately, the dm was next to her, and he saw me gesturing and my immediate distress knowing that I wouldn't make it to her before the cuda. Dm saw from corner of his eye and brought up his arm just in the knick of time! No idea what brought that on either. Dm said he'd never seen such a thing before.
I've had more trouble with large remoras that had lost a big host. These things were huge and ugly and mean. We all had a helluva time getting them to back off. Shudder we were at the surface at the time. Very weird
urbaneve71
Contributor
I haven't had an encounter with a remora, but I was diving with a buddy and he got a bit too close to the reef and POOF out popped a large cuda and snapped his mask and regulator, pulled out the reg and actually ripped a piece of his nose.... it was bad. I do no like them one bit
You (and some others) are making me re-think my avatar...
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