Misconceptions and Fallacies

[Midnight Star]

thanks mike, so much for my bright idea. ugh. so now i just need to find a decaying shark fin and strap it onto my tank. heheehe. that would work well unless i was snorkling on the surface!

Anytime

The idea I had was to modify a stun gun, and wrap the electrodes outside my wetsuit. Then put the voltage control on my wrist (wired back to the suit). When they get too close, shock em' (and probably me too!) - I can adjust the zap manually to send them flying and still not "see stars". Wiping dead shark goo all over me wasn't my first choice either. :shakehead

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Mike.

 

[Midnight Star]

Well does that mean peeing in my wetsuit makes me shark bait?

Well then I KNOW what area is going to get chomped first! :11:

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Mike.

 

[Charlie59]

I think it is a misconception that many divers really know what real misconceptions are about diving.

 

[NJMike]

I heard many years ago that if you get inside of a garbage (plastic?) bag on the surface, that that would deter shark attacks.

Fact or fiction?

 

[Hank49]

I've thought about this one and mentioned it once before.... intense shivering under water or on the surface draws sharks the same way a quivering, dying fish does....fact or fiction...

 

[Rick Murchison]

Isn't it wonderful to live in a world with so many things left to learn? Some even suggest sharks might be attracted not only to human blood, but to human urine and sweat as well.

When the Navy was looking into shark repellants, the researchers concluded that at least some sharks were more attracted to urine than to blood. What really, really shocked them was that the repellant qualities assumed for octopus ink, on which they'd based the shark repellant we all carried when I started flying for the Navy, was bogus, and that if inything sharks had some attraction to it!

I heard many years ago that if you get inside of a garbage (plastic?) bag on the surface, that that would deter shark attacks.

The last I heard they were looking at the garbage bag solution... basically you fill a great big black plastic bag with water and then get in it, keeping any blood or urine confined in it with you, so you neither look nor smell like anything edible. It doesn't "repel" them - they're just not interested.

I've thought about this one and mentioned it once before.... intense shivering under water or on the surface draws sharks the same way a quivering, dying fish does....fact or fiction...

I don't think shivering could be characterized as attracting them "the same way" a quivering dying fish does, but sharks can certainly detect shivering, and from quite a distance, and may well be attracted to the shiverer to at least see what's making the disturbance...
Rick

 

[WesTexDiver]

I heard many years ago that if you get inside of a garbage (plastic?) bag on the surface, that that would deter shark attacks.

Fact or fiction?

During my time in the Navy while working galley duty aboard the USS Nimitz I learned somethin. Sharks loved the bags we threw off the ship! Ok so maby they were full of scraps and stuff that people did not eat, but when we started throwing them off the side of the ship sharks would come and tear through them. Probably when you are inside a plastic bag it makes you look like anything but food.

 

[Rick Murchison]

Sharks are not stupid mindless feeding machines. ...
Telling somebody blanketly that human blood attracts sharks translates in a persons head to sharks want to eat humans and just feeds the myth that they are mindless eating machines and to be feared.

I fear them - or, more accurately, I don't trust some of them, particularly Bulls, Oceanic White Tips (not to be confused with reef white tips) and Whites, and I'm not exactly comfortable around Tigers. You are correct... they aren't "mindless" by any means.
But they are pretty damn good "eating machines."
Rick

 

[Rick Murchison]

During my time in the Navy while working galley duty aboard the USS Nimitz I learned somethin. Sharks loved the bags we threw off the ship! Ok so maby they were full of scraps and stuff that people did not eat, but when we started throwing them off the side of the ship sharks would come and tear through them. Probably when you are inside a plastic bag it makes you look like anything but food.

Garbage bags are punctured to sink. They smell... Once again, sharks aren't mindless, and they learn to follow ships around looking for handouts.
Rick

 

[MikeFerrara]

I fear them - or, more accurately, I don't trust some of them, particularly Bulls, Oceanic White Tips (not to be confused with reef white tips) and Whites, and I'm not exactly comfortable around Tigers. You are correct... they aren't "mindless" by any means.
But they are pretty damn good "eating machines."
Rick

The dive industry has tried to turn them into some kind of aquatic teddy bear or something. LOL. As far as I'm concerned they can bite and they sometimes do.

You heard the racoon story and they don't usually eat people either. I've been bitten by horses too and they don't usually eat any kind of meat...sometimes they just want to bite.

When I was a kid we used to go to the garbage dump to watch the bears that came in to eat at night. I stayed in the car but I remember seeing some people get out to get a closer look or snap a picture or two. Bears don't usually eat people but once in a while they make an exception for special people. People who trust sharks remind me of those people who used to get out of their cars in a garbage dump full of bears.

You know what they say? Sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you. You think that holds true for sharks too?