Horn Sharks- why are they attracted to me?

[shoupart]

So I was diving here in SoCal the other night on a shallow reef and I must have run into 12-15 nice, big adult horn sharks, around 3 feet long and up. Some seemed to be a bit fat, and some were curious, swimming right at me, bumping into me. Others would follow me when I passed by, and I'm trying to figure why there were so many sharks present and why they seemed to be attracted to me.
Does anybody know if it's horn shark mating season? Or laying egg cases? Some of the sharks did look big, as if they might be pregnant. Or are they senstive/curious to strong electrical lights, etc? I'm intrigued! Anybody have an answer? Or another theory?

 

[Scubakevdm]

So I was diving here in SoCal the other night on a shallow reef and I must have run into 12-15 nice, big adult horn sharks, around 3 feet long and up. Some seemed to be a bit fat, and some were curious, swimming right at me, bumping into me. Others would follow me when I passed by, and I'm trying to figure why there were so many sharks present and why they seemed to be attracted to me.
Does anybody know if it's horn shark mating season? Or laying egg cases? Some of the sharks did look big, as if they might be pregnant. Or are they senstive/curious to strong electrical lights, etc? I'm intrigued! Anybody have an answer? Or another theory?

Someone played the old fish guts in the BC pocket trick on you maybe? Some sharks are attracted to urine, maybe someone played the old pee in your wetsuit trick on you!

 

[mike_s]

So I was diving here in SoCal the other night on a shallow reef and I must have run into 12-15 nice, big adult horn sharks, around 3 feet long and up. Some seemed to be a bit fat, and some were curious, swimming right at me, bumping into me. Others would follow me when I passed by, and I'm trying to figure why there were so many sharks present and why they seemed to be attracted to me.
Does anybody know if it's horn shark mating season? Or laying egg cases? Some of the sharks did look big, as if they might be pregnant. Or are they senstive/curious to strong electrical lights, etc? I'm intrigued! Anybody have an answer? Or another theory?

Are you a Lawyer? could have been a professional courtsey.

 

[drbill]

Cherck out my newspaper column on horn sharks at:

http://www.starthrower.org/products/DDDB/DDDB_100-149/DDDB_104 horn sharks.htm

According to my sources larger horn sharks should be in deeper water this time of year. Especially interesting since water temperatures here on Catalina are "abnormally" warm for this time of year./.. don't know about the mainland, haven't dived it since 1969.

Dr. Bill

 

[shoupart]

Interesting... Well, I will say I had urinated in the suit at the beginning of the dive, so maybe that was attracting the sharks. Nah, I'm not a lawyer! Haha!
But these were fairly big horn sharks- I use the Hydrooptix mask so I don't get the size distortion most other masks have, and I'd say that nearly all the sharks I ran into were at least 2.5 feet and larger. I also covered a lot of ground so I'm sure I wasn't seeing the same one over and over. In fact, at one point I was staying still and one shark came out of the reef, slowly swimming right at me, and then settled down beneath me. About 10 seconds later, another shark of the same size followed the same path as the previous and stopped next to the other one.
Seriously, it was like moths drawn to a flame! But what, if anything, could the flame be?

 

[caymaniac]

Interesting... Well, I will say I had urinated in the suit at the beginning of the dive, so maybe that was attracting the sharks. Nah, I'm not a lawyer! Haha!
But these were fairly big horn sharks- I use the Hydrooptix mask so I don't get the size distortion most other masks have, and I'd say that nearly all the sharks I ran into were at least 2.5 feet and larger. I also covered a lot of ground so I'm sure I wasn't seeing the same one over and over. In fact, at one point I was staying still and one shark came out of the reef, slowly swimming right at me, and then settled down beneath me. About 10 seconds later, another shark of the same size followed the same path as the previous and stopped next to the other one.
Seriously, it was like moths drawn to a flame! But what, if anything, could the flame be?

Could it possibly be your ...horns?

 

[shoupart]

Could it possibly be your ...horns?

Hmm. I'm going to guess you know nothing about horn sharks, right? (lol)
Just playing... but I really do want to figure out the answer!

 

[Mike Veitch]

Bring a camera with you, they will never get close again...

 

[divercooke]

i've seen a lot more big horn sharks . on beach dives in the past week too
anyone have any idea why?