Bull Shark ate my DINNER!

[Rick Murchison]

Where are the best places to see bull sharks and why are they there?

I don't usually think of "best places" and "see bull sharks" in the same sentence... but if you really want to see one. spear a fish on the Dutch or west banks between Perdido and Pensacola.
They're there because there's food - same reason it's good spearing.
But bulls are pretty well distributed worldwide...

Note that they go well inland in major rivers - they tolerate fresh water well. In fact there's a reliable population in Lake Nicaragua.
Rick

 

[Wayward Son]

There some bulls here that are seen on the same sites year after year. They generally migrate out once the winter temps hit & come back in the spring.

Bulls & tigers are different critters, they don't behave the same. We have tigers in the gulf too, but they don't seem to come inshore much around here. Bulls are our problem & we have lots of them.

I have friends who were forced to kill bulls when starting a dive, i mentioned one already. There was no catch to protect, he was saving his own azz & not really concerned about future divers at the time. The odds are good that this shark had been fed quite a few times, but that's a guess. All we know for sure is that he didn't get 15 feet down on his dive when this shark assaulted him, close enough for him to beat on it multiple times before deciding to shoot it. He did not believe that he would be able to turn around & get back in the boat un-bitten, this shark was as aggressive as any he's ever encountered.

Don't feed them & you may be saving their lives at a later date.

 

[photohikedive]

I think it was you, you attracted them. I'd pay money to see you Chuckie a bull shark. Not much, but some

Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.

Macgyver can build an airplane out of gum and paper clips, but Chuck Norris can kill him and take it.

Chuck Norris once roundhouse kicked someone so hard that his foot broke the speed of light, went back in time, and killed Amelia Earhart while she was flying over the Pacific Ocean.

Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.

If you ask Chuck Norris what time it is, he always says, "Two seconds till." After you ask, "Two seconds to what?" he roundhouse kicks you in the face.

Rather than being birthed like a normal child, Chuck Norris instead decided to punch his way out of his mother's womb. Shortly thereafter he grew a beard.

Chuck Norris appeared in the "Street Fighter II" video game, but was removed by Beta Testers because every button caused him to do a roundhouse kick. When asked bout this "glitch," Norris replied, "That's no glitch."

Since 1940, the year Chuck Norris was born, roundhouse kick related deaths have increased 13,000 percent.

Filming on location for Walker: Texas Ranger, Chuck Norris brought a stillborn baby lamb back to life by giving it a prolonged beard rub. Shortly after the farm animal sprang back to life and a crowd had gathered, Chuck Norris roundhouse kicked the animal, breaking its neck, to remind the crew once more that Chuck giveth, and the good Chuck, he taketh away.

Chuck Norris's girlfriend once asked him how much wood a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood. He then shouted, "HOW DARE YOU RHYME IN THE PRESENCE OF CHUCK NORRIS!" and ripped out her throat. Holding his girlfriend's bloody throat in his hand he bellowed, "Don't muck with Chuck!" Two years and five months later he realized the irony of this statement and laughed so hard that anyone within a hundred mile radius of the blast went deaf.

Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.

 

[Mauifish]

Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.

Macgyver can build an airplane out of gum and paper clips, but Chuck Norris can kill him and take it.

Chuck Norris once roundhouse kicked someone so hard that his foot broke the speed of light, went back in time, and killed Amelia Earhart while she was flying over the Pacific Ocean.

Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.

If you ask Chuck Norris what time it is, he always says, "Two seconds till." After you ask, "Two seconds to what?" he roundhouse kicks you in the face.

Rather than being birthed like a normal child, Chuck Norris instead decided to punch his way out of his mother's womb. Shortly thereafter he grew a beard.

Chuck Norris appeared in the "Street Fighter II" video game, but was removed by Beta Testers because every button caused him to do a roundhouse kick. When asked bout this "glitch," Norris replied, "That's no glitch."

Since 1940, the year Chuck Norris was born, roundhouse kick related deaths have increased 13,000 percent.

Filming on location for Walker: Texas Ranger, Chuck Norris brought a stillborn baby lamb back to life by giving it a prolonged beard rub. Shortly after the farm animal sprang back to life and a crowd had gathered, Chuck Norris roundhouse kicked the animal, breaking its neck, to remind the crew once more that Chuck giveth, and the good Chuck, he taketh away.

Chuck Norris's girlfriend once asked him how much wood a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood. He then shouted, "HOW DARE YOU RHYME IN THE PRESENCE OF CHUCK NORRIS!" and ripped out her throat. Holding his girlfriend's bloody throat in his hand he bellowed, "Don't muck with Chuck!" Two years and five months later he realized the irony of this statement and laughed so hard that anyone within a hundred mile radius of the blast went deaf.

Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.

hahahaha do you have Chuckophobia?? That was hillareous!!

 

[Wayward Son]

Yeah, that's Chuck. But what can you do?

 

[Mauifish]

I find more information on tiger sharks in Hawaii than bull sharks in Florida. Thousands of tigers have been killed since Hawaii became a US state with no discernable change in attack frequency. Additionally, often many tigers were killed shortly after attacks and none were ever even remotely identified as the attacker. Tiger sharks move around a very large territory here, visiting the same spots infrequently, and are most likely long gone shortly after an attack. Tiger sharks are no longer culled after our infrequent attacks. Freedivers keep their string on their SMB, I don't know of anybody that scuba dives with a gun and scuba divers don't get bit by tigers.

As far as Atlantic bull sharks go, I found this statement repeated by many sites.

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/descript/bullshark/bullshark.htm

In the western Atlantic bull sharks migrate north along the coast of the U.S. during summer, swimming as far north as Massachusetts, and then return to tropical climates when the coastal waters cool.

I have years of reef shark pictures at the same dive sites and can show you resident white tips monthly at the same site for years. Does anyone have bull shark pictures of the same shark repeatedly at the same site? My 200 dives off Key Largo were not at sites frequented by hunters and the other divers did not seem concerned with bull sharks other than we couldn't get close enough for a decent photo of the two I saw. If there are popular dive sites where hunters and non-hunters are regularly harrassed by bull sharks, wouldn't it seem reasonable that it is the hunters activity that is causing danger to humans, not the sharks behavior? It's not the shark's fault he is behaving like a shark, killing a shark to protect your catch is only protecting your catch!

I guess the remains of that scuba diver that washed up at Makena not long ago were from a green turtle attack? being a smarty pants here

 

[wardric]

I've had experience with a problem shark before, back in the 70s.

I was working as the local police chief at a small town on the island of Amity. It was just a small resort town, people from the mainland would come over for the summer to swim and lay out on the beach.

Anyways, we began having trouble with what I thought was a large shark. Some bathers had been injured. However, our mayor was not convinced. So I called upon a spunky young marine biologist from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. He confirmed what I thought. It was not a boating accident that had injured (fatally) the bathers, and in his words "it certainly wasn't Jack the Ripper. It was a shark."

So after a few more minor attacks, I set off with Matt Hooper (the marine biologist), and a salty old fishermen (lets just call him "Q"). We had plans to eradicate this shark. We chummed and chummed, until finally we drew him in. We I first saw the shark, I was astounded. Its head was enormous. Matt thought it was a 20 footer, Q thought it was 25 feet.

Then disaster struck. After agitating the shark by shooting it with a spear-gun several times, it breached and landed on the back of our vessel. The transom was smashed to bits. Mr. Q slid right into the jaws of the massive shark, and was unfortunately eaten alive. Hooper had disappeared earlier while scuba diving, so now I was alone. The shark swam right up to me while I was rummaging inside the stricken vessel, so I threw an aluminum 80 into its mouth. Satisfied with its new prey for the moment, the massive shark swam backwards (I didn't know they could do that) and headed out to sea.

I climbed up to the top of the Crows Nest with an extra-long bang stick and a vintage World War II rifle. Out of nowhere, the shark surfaced right below me! I jabbed it with the bang stick, but it wouldnt detonate. Tiny pock marks appeared on the sharks head, but nothing else. The monster dissappeared beneath the waves once more, then I had an idea. The aluminum 80 was still in the sharks mouth! I remember Hooper telling me that compressed air could blow up the entire boat, I'm sure that it would mess up a shark too.

Out in the distance I saw a dorsal fin rise out of the water. It was the shark. *Kapow* I fired off a shot, harmlessly passing through the water next to the shark. "Come on, blow up" I said as I squeezed the trigger again, the shark racing towards me. Another miss. *Kapow* "Blow up!" I said louder as I missed again. *Kapow* Missed again. I looked down the iron sights of that old M1 Garand, aimed as best as I could, and yelled "Smile you sono************!" *Kaboom!* The bullet struck the air tank and the shark exploded into ten thousand pieces. It was dead! Then Hooper surfaced (he had been resting on the bottom) and we swam back to shore on some old barrels.

you're so lucky Chief Brody. I'd love to see a tank explode

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

As with most shark stories, missinformation is common. The San Jose, CA free diver (age 45) had recently picked up the sport and was practicing alone late Thursday afternoon. It was reported that he was building up his stamina with an ultimate goal of 100ft (also common). Makena Landing / Turtle Town is not a deep area, only 45ft all the way out to the end of the reef. It is likely, based on his plan and where his remains were found (Friday morning), that he was as much as a mile off shore. The ME described the vital organs as juicy, consistant with death by drowning (or stroke). The shark (or sharks) found a dead body on the bottom (weight belt?) and consumed the appendages, there was no shark attack

http://www.mauinews.com/story.aspx?id=17316

Smarty pants is not the phrase I'm thinking of.:mooner:

 

[OceanObsessed]

The shark circled us from about 70 feet away (as far as we could see - the viz was about 60-80 feet) - It circled so far away the first few circles, that it almost seemed like it was going to leave us alone.

Then the circles got tighter, and the shark came closer to us. Reluctantly, I released my catch

The Shark continued to circle us in "tightening spirals" - but never came closer than 30 feet to us. It was too far away for Howard to get pictures even. Once we were about 40 feet away from the fish I had left behind... the shark swooped in (rather quickly) and took the whole fish in one chomp, and swam away.

I had a surprisingly similar experience with a monster hammerhead. I know exactly what you mean with the extrememely fast circling just on the edge of visibilty. If you are interested you can read about it here:
http://www.scubaboard.com/showpost.php?p=2746238&postcount=9

 

[Dack77]

I guess the remains of that scuba diver that washed up at Makena not long ago were from a green turtle attack? being a smarty pants here

Assuming this is the same incident you are talking about, he was freediving, not scuba diving. And according to the report, he most likely drown, but they cant confirm it.

"We're not able to determine the cause of death," said Dr. Tony Manoukian, a coroner's physician, from the morgue at Maui Memorial Medical Center Saturday. "We can't exclude the possibility that he was dead at the time of the attack."

Tigers are known to be scavengers, which is where they get a lot of their food. In fact, bull sharks are opportunists themselves. They will eat anything that is in front of them if they feel it is an easy meal. Most attacks are in very poor visibility water, where they use only their sense of electrical fields to find their food. If they bump into something, and cant see it, they bite it to see if its food. If it struggles and tastes good, they eat it. If not they move on.


On the rest of the thread....

I am a huge shark fan. They completely fascinate me. I can understand protecting yourself from a shark attack, if unprovoked, but as soon as you put yourself into a bad situation from your own actions, and knowing that they can cause problems, well at that point you get what you deserve. Still though, we go into the ocean where the shark is the top predator, we are not on the top of the food chain there unless we are in boats, and expect them to leave us alone because we have bigger brains? We go into their world, and expect them to play by our rules? I am fine with some things, but there is a bit of ignorance being displayed here.

Sharks have a very, very slow gestation. Most sharks only produce offspring every 2-3 years. Most of the time only a small few are actually born (1-2) for most species. This isnt the case for all but you can see what kind of problems this can cause.