Diving with the Bull sharks

[Divingdogdr]

Put a white piece of meat in the water like that and eventually they will want a taste. I don't think its the same as diving with them. And I sure wouldn't dive with sharks with exposed skin like that. Like doc said, wear full wet suit, booties etc.

 

[tight rope walker]

I joined Scubaboard because I felt it was a good place to exchange ideas and to enter into healthy, positive debate. My invovement in this forum is a result of a desire I have to swim with sharks. But after everything I have read, some positive and some not, I know have to question my own motives. For myself, after having been in the water my whole life, diving, for me, has become alittle.........dull. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy diving. It just doesn't hold the same excitement it did as when I was younger. May be this is the natural progression of life, I don't know.

As I stated earlier, on our recent trip to Saba, we saw a hammerhead shark, and I can honestly say that up until that point, I was bored. But at that point diving regained it's excitement for me. We did not seek it out nor did we encourage it's arrival. It came and went. And as I look back on a trip we took in May, that encounter was the high light. I think a disstinction has to be made between random encounters, paid encounters, and those that for a matter of research or science put themselves in close proximity of sharks.

I have learned alot on this forum about sharks, but I have also learned alot about myself and my motives. And it is now my motives that I question.

 

[InTheDrink]

Hey Tight Rope Walker.

If the clue is in the name then so be it. Diving with sharks is amazing and yes, the adrenalin rush is hard to surpass. I'm only new to this kind of diving so please understand I'm no expert.

Sharks are beautiful animals, and dangerous. My father, an avid climber who has taken his risks over the years, cannot understand my love of diving with them. He thinks it's dangerous. But it's actually not, or in the vast majority of times, it's not. Observe the rules/guidelines and there's little to be worried about. We're not on their menu. Shark attacks are extremely rare. On my second to last trip we had an idiot diver who was begging, absolutely begging to get bitten by the oceanics and even he couldn't manage it. He flapped. He flailed. He made himself look like prey like you couldn't believe. He went up. He went down. He was essentially the equivalent of a McDonalds ad for sharks. Yet nothing bit him. One followed him down and looked like she was going to bite him but didn't.

My knowledge and experience with sharks is limited so I'm not like some of the other people on this board who really know what they're talking about, but I've dived with white tip reef sharks, black tip reef sharks, grey reef sharks, scalloped hammerhead sharks, thresher sharks, oceanic white tip sharks, leopard sharks, Galapagos sharks, black tip sharks, silky sharks, silvertip sharks. None were even vaguely concerning apart from the oceanics and they were just exhilarating.

We are killing sharks in huge numbers, mainly to serve the Chinese appetite for shark fin soup. Please, enjoy and love the company of sharks on your dives now while there are any still to see. They are beautiful, graceful, intriguing creatures. It is a pleasure to share the water with them. And it's damned exciting

J

 

[tight rope walker]

Hey InTheDrink, Tightrope walker refers to a famous wreck in these parts. I noticed you havn't dove with bull sharks. It's the bull that has me rethinking my motives. As far as sharks being wiped out I could not agree with you more. I donot know how to dissuade a country from this awful practice that we owe billons of dollars to. As I stated earlier a hammerhead visited us on vacation, and to be quite honest I was surprised that he just went his merry way. My question was what happens when he doesn't go his merry way. What happens when you become part of his agenda. Up until this vacation I have seen more sharks in Rhode Island waters than any place else. I think a chanch encounter would be better than drawimg them to you. What are your thoughts on that?

 

[InTheDrink]

Hey InTheDrink, Tightrope walker refers to a famous wreck in these parts. I noticed you havn't dove with bull sharks. It's the bull that has me rethinking my motives. As far as sharks being wiped out I could not agree with you more. I donot know how to dissuade a country from this awful practice that we owe billons of dollars to. As I stated earlier a hammerhead visited us on vacation, and to be quite honest I was surprised that he just went his merry way. My question was what happens when he doesn't go his merry way. What happens when you become part of his agenda. Up until this vacation I have seen more sharks in Rhode Island waters than any place else. I think a chanch encounter would be better than drawimg them to you. What are your thoughts on that?

Aha - that's the reason for your name. Splendid, I love finding our rationales for names. I won't even ask to you to guess at mine's.

You're correct, I haven't dived with Bulls. I can't imagine they're any scarier or riskier than oceanics. Maybe I'm wrong. As long as you're not spear fishing I think you're going to be ok as long as you observe the basic tenets (i.e. don't look like prey, don't stay on the surface, avoid diving with them in the early morning or night time when they're feeding).

Hammerheads are harmless and extremely skittish. If you can get close enough to one where it could actually bite you, you will have achieved what many have not over many years of diving with them. So don't worry about hammers.

If another shark gets too curious with you (and remember, this is pretty unlikely) there are various strategies to employ. Blast your octo being one. Shout. Make sure you're vertical in the water (so you look big). Keep your hands and fingers to yourself. Keep eye contact. Don't flap or flee. Stay in or near your group. Avoid contrasting colours. Try not to ascend or descent. Stay where you are.

In most cases the risk reward for a shark attacking a human doesn't make sense. We're too big and might injure them. So as long as you don't run they are unlikely to attack. The key advice is to never appear like prey.

But the big take away is LOVE any opportunity you get to dive with sharks. They are not going to bite you if you observe the rules. If one decides to check you out rather than legging it, just count your lucky stars. Recently I ended up diving solo by accident, with a small deco obligation, with lots of sharks around. Which of three variables do you think concerned me? I'll give you a head start - it wasn't the large sharks: they didn't even occur to me as anything to be worried about even though one was a 3.5m Galapogos shark)...

J

 

[tight rope walker]

If it were me it would be my deco obligation. But that's just me. I'd be watching my time and depth, and watching my computor off gas. Hey wait aminute, are you trying to trick me in not watching the sharks? Or somthing?

 

[InTheDrink]

It was suddenly finding myself alone that was a concern.

It worked out quite well as the hammers came in really close now there was only one of me.

But I'd not recommend that scenario. I was around 25m (83ft) and being completely alone wasn't what I had planned for. Diving with sharks was.

J

 

[tight rope walker]

oops, Since I dive alone alot of times that would not have been an issue. Had I started out with a partner, that suddenly disappearded, then of corse that would have changed things. Then I would have been eyeballing any fat sharks that swam by.

 

[InTheDrink]

Well quite. I'd never been deep and alone before so it made me quite anxious. Much more so than the sharks around. I'd also not been trained for deco diving so that was something else I wasn't completely comfortable with.

The sharks, however, I was very comfortable to be around. I work mainly in airline board rooms around the world so I guess I was used to it.

J

 

[tight rope walker]

The problem is, I believe, some divers suffer from a sydrome wich I call ,have to, or had to idess. In pilots I am told it's called get there idess, where they are in such a hurry to get somwhere they forget the basic rules of flying. In diving, like flying, forgetting the basic rules can lead to disaster. So prior to diving, I have to question, why I am getting wet. I imagine everybody reading this has a c card from one agency or another. Some have mulible cards. After you put your time in the water, you develop a style that is unique to your style of diving. I am no differant. My style requires alot of planning, and my being here after all my years of diving is a testament to my adhereing to those rules.
But by my own addmisson in April of this year, I broke my own rule by not questioning why I wanted to get wet. I just HAD TO GET WET. So I contacted my tender, and off to Rhode Island we went. Had I been paying attention, and not been suffering from HAD TO IDESS, I would have noticed I was starting to get a cold. Hey, but what the Hell, I got a drysuit, I got a full face mask, I have to get wet. I know better than that, but when you are suffering from have to idess, you don't think straight. At the end of the dive, I couldn't talk as I was that congested. But hey I got wet, and I had the next 4 weeks to think about that as I was getting over pnuemonia.

My stlye of diving requires alot of planning, and part of that planning is to ask alot of questions. If, while in the performance of my duties I come across a shark, or sharks, I hope that what I have learned here will seve me well. To seek them out is another question...that I still need to answer. So I have learned to never reduce anything to, had to or have to, because in our zeal to achieve these goals we sometimes forget some very basic rules. I would imagine this sydrome can apply to shark encounters as well.