Diving with the Bull sharks

[HammerHead05]

porkers? Talking about porkers mr mike? Just tie me a sheepshank, gimme your hands, dogfish? You got a five thousand dollar net, you got two thousand dollars worth of fish in it, and along comes mr. Whitey and by the time he's finished with that net, it looks like kiddes scissor class has cut it up for a paper doll.
You got city hands mr mike you've been counting money all your life

w-t-f?????

 

[HammerHead05]

Good luck with that Doc. Mike is full of a lot of things and facts aren't one of them. He's littered this thread with fake reports, falshoods, myths and exaggerations.

Mike your part of the problem and not the solution when it comes to educating the public on sharks.

Flame away Mike.

I'm beginning to think Mike's not even a diver......

 

[DandyDon]

What's a "service interval"?

In this context...

During our service interval, I decided to go snorkeling

I think he meant "surface interval." Typing skills will vary somewhat, for some of us taking one course of it was a fluke, and some didn't learn until they got a computer. For casual, online conversation tho, it's often easy to overlook a small errors and determine the intended meaning easily. Are you seriously not understanding those...?

 

[HammerHead05]

The amount of money we spend as divers, and the list of accomplishments we have achieved, that go totally unoticed.

I finally figured it out .....

 

[InTheDrink]

check out this video on youtube. you can see the stick in action although this was not quite a bump but close. you get the idea and it has worked with much peskier sharks. my "wingman" is filming with the nice camera, I am wielding the stick and filming the clip with my digital point-and-shoot.

YouTube - Tiger Shark - Bahamas 2008



in the 11 pages that this thread has gone not one person has stated anything coming close to a "rationale of blindly believing since nothing has happened, nothing will happen on these dives." you just keep making things up as you go.

as far as the distance between sharks and humans there are a number of factors that come into play: different species are known to have different comfort zones e.g. bulls or oceanic white tips like to come close while tigers keep their distance. obviously, any shark will come closer than normal when food is involved. also, sharks that are used to divers will be less cautious and come closer. another factor is noise. when snorkeling with bull sharks, I have had them come right up to me on their first approach even when there is no food involved. when someone is blowing bubbles they are much more cautious.

Interestingly, in my experience size is not a factor. one might think that a large shark will feel more confident and come closer. however, if anything I have seen the opposite. larger is also older and maybe smarter.

Clearly, the bulls in playa are pretty comfortable around divers. in a feeding situation you want to make sure that you do not get in their way. if they see you as competing with them for the food you are asking for trouble. the shark will usually approach the food following the scent trail i.e. upcurrent. you do not want to move in the same direction in proximity to an approaching shark.

also, since a bull does not mind coming right up to you when food is involved you will want to watch your back and be particularly mindful of not exposing any skin. with the scent of dead fish in the water, they will often look for fish scraps in the sand. fish scraps are typically light colored and they do not move. the non moving, white, exposed calf of a diver kneeling in the sand or erich ritter standing in shallow water surrounded by fish bits while filming for the discovery channel can invite an investigative bite. that's what got him and also caused the only known fatality on an organized shark dive. as i mentioned in my previous post, this happened last year and it was a bull that took the bite.



that many sharks are curious about electric currents is well documented. professional underwater photographers using high powered strobes know this all too well. Jim Abernathy, who runs shark trips for photo and video professionals, will tell you that it is a fairly normal occurrence for a tiger to take someone's photo rig. usually, the equipment can be recovered since the sharks will typically not carry it too far before dropping it. the sharks will also frequently bump the rigs and try to "bite" them. that can lead to nasty and costly scratches in the dome ports which is why shark photographers usually bring extra dome ports.

Finally, if maybe a moderator could move this thread from the cozumel subforum to mexico since this bull shark dive takes place in playa...

Thanks for the post Doc - most interesting. The vid was great too, looks like you had some curious critters to play with and I completely understand the motivation for an innocuous stick (and not a club) when filming with a point and shoot. Those big fancy cameras must lend a fair extra degree of comfort to those divers wielding them. There's a fair amount of hardened plastic and metal to get through before the neoprene begins. The minuscule point and click affords no such comfort zone.

All your points about sharks I agree with, with whatever limited knowledge I have. My general feeling is that if you observe fairly widely recognised 'rules' and local advice you will not have an accident when diving with sharks. My exception to this statement is in regard to diving with sharks whilst chumming, something which I have never done and as such cannot make any meaningful comment on.

Cheers,
J

 

[ggunn]

What's a "service interval"?

Um, the period of time spent in a house of ill repute, maybe?

 

[AndyMurch]

Completely agree, especially with such an aggressive species of shark. The shark will be vilified when the inevitable happens. That being said I would love to dive with an op in Playa that sees them too without chumming.

Interesting attitude but flawed logic. The reason that the original thread post described such a great experience of being circled by sharks is because Phantom Divers feeds them. If it were not for that, they wouldn't want anything to do with divers and you wouldn't see them.

 

[diverken374]

Interesting attitude but flawed logic. The reason that the original thread post described such a great experience of being circled by sharks is because Phantom Divers feeds them. If it were not for that, they wouldn't want anything to do with divers and you wouldn't see them.

No chumming, no sharks? This is the first time that I have heard this and not in keeping what I have been told by the dive ops that don't believe in chumming. I would appreciate it if you would provide more info that supports this statement. Thx

 

[Mike]

Big beefy bull sharks! Sometimes just a handful but normally a dozen or so large female bull sharks attend the feed which takes place in 80 feet of water just a five minute boat ride away from Playa Del Carmen's main beach. The record number of bull sharks stands at 26 which must have been a chaotic encounter for the feeder.
Divers follow the feeder down to the sandy sea floor and secure themselves to whatever rocks they can find to avoid being bowled over by the strong currents which are prevalent in this area. The feeder carries a bucket filled with fish scraps and hand feeds the bull sharks without the use of chainmail or any other protection.
The sharks are reliably present between November and March but they seem to be staying a little longer each year. The visibility in the area is generally good and compared to other bull shark feeds like the one in Fiji, there are fewer baitfish to wreck your photos.
This is a great feed; easy to get too, action packed and guaranteed unless the weather kicks up.

Operators: The bull shark feed was pioneered by Jorge Loria aka 'Chino'. Chino is a very friendly guy and a true sharkoholic. He is the owner/operator of Phantom Divers in down town Playa del Carmen. He is in the process of developing a program that will employ satellite tags to find out more about where the bull sharks go between April and October. www.phantomdivers.com

The dive takes place in Playa del Carmen right in the middle of Riviera Maya, we take the boat from the
beach and is only a 10 minute ride to arrive to the bull shark spot.
Our Shark guide prepares a bucket with food to attracts the sharks so he goes in the water at the end of
the group. Once all the group is on the bottom, our guide swims away from the group to release some
food to attract the sharks.
Our procedures and standards are the safest and the most exciting to have a great shark dive.
Shark sights are guaranteed, during bull shark season which is from December to March.

Underwater excurtions Mexico

For many years we have bean diving in Playa del Carmen each year on different occasions where we had encounters with bull sharks but these were not very common, these meetings have recently become more common within the period of the months of January and February turning to Playa del Carmen one of the world's best places to watch these powerful fish. This shark is characterized by its rugged appearance, attain a length of 3.5 meters and weigh 230 kilograms.

We attract to us through the technique of feeding them by hand to ensure a close encounter

. : DIVE ENCOUNTERS : . WEB OFICIAL

 

[deco_martini]

Our procedures and standards are the safest and the most exciting to have a great shark dive.

LOL. The safest procedures involve feeding? And in the pic, the guy feeding isn't even wearing a chain. That's delusional marketing.