Monterey...Is it really a "shark net?"

[luvspoodles]

Its me again, the wannabe California diver girl that can't wait to get into California diving. To make a long story short, I love diving, I love tropical diving, but I am afraid of California diving.My husband and I are getting our AOW on August 7th and 8th in Monterey. I posted a thread wanting info about why Califonia diving is so good and I got lots of wonderful responses. I looked at some Monterey websights and one thing led to another and suddenly I am flooded with articles about Monterey being part of the "red triangle," a 120 mile stretch of water in which 45% of all great white attacks have happened. I read that Monterey is a "shark net" and that this is where lots of the Great Whites are. IS THIS REALLY TRUE? HAS ANYONE SEEN OR HEARD OF THIS BEING A HUGE PROBLEM? My husband and I are kind of freaked out about this, especially since we were already apprehensive about California diving. Please let us know if we should be ready to be shark bait!!!

 

[Dryglove]

I have about 100 dives in monterey and carmel and have yet to see a great white or any type of threatening shark for that matter....not that i would want to see one A lot of times when the water is really murky the thought does cross my mind every so often :11:

 

[paulwlee]

The red triangle is Ano Nuevo - Farallon Islands - Bodega Bay.
Ano Nuevo is slightly north of Santa Cruz, so Monterey is relatively far from it.

It would be reasonable to assume that Great Whites do regularly patrol the waters. However, there are very few (if any) people among the hundreds of divers that regularly dive Monterey/Carmel who have ever seen a Great White shark in those waters. There were a handful of shark attacks during the past 100 years. A couple were swimmers, and I think there was a surfer, too, and maybe one freediver. The only attack on a SCUBA diver I know of was in 1995, where a person was scootering mid-water in relatively deep water. The person was unhurt due to being sandwitched between his tank and a device he was wearing in front.

So you can safely assume that it will be extremely unlikely that you will see a Great White, let alone be attacked by one. I would say you would be thousands of times more likely to get hurt in a traffic accident driving to Monterey than be attacked by a shark.

 

[coreypenrose]

I would say you would be thousands of times more likely to get hurt in a traffic accident driving to Monterey than be attacked by a shark.

Some things are worth worrying about when diving Monterey. Being bitten by a shark isn't one of them.

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

I've got almost 1000 Monterey dives. Never seen a
GWS.

The attack in 1995 was on Marco Flagg. He was not
unhurt, but had a few tens of stitches. Do some Googling
and see if you can find the shark's side of the story ;-)
It will put a smile on your face.

I too worry more about the traffic than the sharks.

 

[mossym]

never seen a shark in monterey either..some great white scuba divers from too much time in wet suits, but never a great white shark

 

[lee3]

there have only been two attacks on divers, neither of which was fatal and one is questionable about great white, and both attacks were down in carmel. As another poster mentioned, monterey is quite a bit south of ano nuevo (the southern end of the red triangle.) I've done significant reading on the subject too as I have a lot of respect for any wild animal that can eat me. I'm encouraged by the data and there is no site in monterey or carmel that i fear diving. In fact, once you get under the water and are astonished at what lies beneath, I'll bet you'll gravitate towards diving there more often.

One other point worth mentioning from various sources is that the great white seal feeding high season in the red triangle is late august through mid november with the largest concentration of attacks on surfers at the begining of the season. You are more likely to get attacked on a surf board than in in dive gear though the odds of either are remote. The frequency of attacks at the begining of the season is guessed to occur because that is when the whites are the most hungry as some travel from a great distance away. Interesting side note, we've lived in san fran for about 7 years and have heard the seals near the wharf at night from our appartment in north beach and never thought anything of it. We happened to be strolling down there a couple of weeks ago and read that those seals showed up less than 10 years ago perhaps searching from a safe haven from the whites that patrol the farallon's.

you can read about the 6 or 7 great white attacks (2 of which are divers) that have occured over the past 50+ years near carmel at the following link...

http://darwin.bio.uci.edu/~rvilla/attack.html

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

Here's Marco's Story:
http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~bz050/HomePage.gwsattack.html

I couldn't find the shark's version in spite of a fair amoun
of Googling. ;-(

 

[divenut2001]

Stop worrying and just go diving! The only encounters we get in Monterey are with Harbor Seals, Sea Lions and Sea Otters. If you're "lucky", you will too! When I was getting certified in Monterey we had a visit from an Otter. I looked at that as a sign of good luck. Go dive.)

 

[JustinW]

For 10 years I fished for sharks in monterey bay. Every weekend we would go out and chum with mulched up fish parts, I have seen hundreds of blue sharks, but not once did we ever see a white shark, and we tried our best to find a place that had white sharks. I wouldn't worry about seing a white shark or having one bother you, and the blue sharks are very skittish, at the right time of the year you are likely to see leopard sharks, which are terrifying if you are a small crab or a clam, but they wouldn't hurt a human, even if their mouth was big enough to try