Oceanic whitetips

[Bill Fisher]

Check out this link, you'll love these pictures

http://echeng.com/travel/bahamas2006-2/

 

[Jcsgt]

Bill, thanks for sharing the link. Those images were beyond belief!

 

[DutchDown]

I encountered two while diving Elphinestone Reef. Depending on the season, there are often OWTs resident at the southern end of the reef. Sometimes as many as 20. The two I saw stayed close to our group and swam through it several times. The only thing I found a bit unnerving was that they stayed far enough from each other that you couldn't see both of them at the same time. These two didn't display aggressive behavior but they certainly weren't frightened either.

Phil

 

[voucher76]

Just got home fra the Red Sea. Me and my group had a couple of encounters with the oceanic whitetip at Brothers.

The first encounter was at shallow water about 5-10 meters. The shark showed a little aggression with some jerky movements, then turned away after 30 seconds.
I was at about 15-20 meters, so I watched it from below as the shark approached a couple of divers in my group.

The second encounter was more interesting. Me and my group(about 6 persons) had just seen two thresher sharks in the blue at about 30 meters, when someone pointed at the surface. I looked like a dive bomber coming at us. Then it slowed down and approached my group. My buddy turned on his U/W cam,(so did I, but I forgot to push the REC button )

This is the second encounter, the Longimanus was not very large, but enough to make me swallow 30 Bar very quickly.
The diveguide said that the using the Octopus is a good way to keep them at a distance. Don't know if it works though.

YouTube - Longimanus - Brother Islands Red Sea

Anyway I hope to come back next year, cause they are really fantastic creatures.

 

[Jimmer]

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/marine-life-ecosystems/27499-shark-attack-stories-3.html read post #25 by Bret Gilliam.

 

[deeper thoughts]

3+ years ago my wife and I did an "adventure" dive trip of the coast off the big Island.

As we were heading down the coast about 5 miles offshore, we saw some Pilot Whales, we go ahead of them and jumped in an hoped they would come by while we were snorkeling. No luck with the whales, but this shark that was trailing the pod was quite interested in our small group circling us for 15 minutes.

Not great shots but I think you can feel how close I was.

Taken with a Nikon 4300 in a Fantasea housing

We actually tried to get in front of the whales again - but the shark was still tracking us and even came a bit to close for comfort so we made are way (pretty quickly) out of the water. Thinking back it wasn't my brightest move - but a live time experience for sure.

amazing

 

[deeper thoughts]

Just got home fra the Red Sea. Me and my group had a couple of encounters with the oceanic whitetip at Brothers.

The first encounter was at shallow water about 5-10 meters. The shark showed a little aggression with some jerky movements, then turned away after 30 seconds.
I was at about 15-20 meters, so I watched it from below as the shark approached a couple of divers in my group.

The second encounter was more interesting. Me and my group(about 6 persons) had just seen two thresher sharks in the blue at about 30 meters, when someone pointed at the surface. I looked like a dive bomber coming at us. Then it slowed down and approached my group. My buddy turned on his U/W cam,(so did I, but I forgot to push the REC button )

This is the second encounter, the Longimanus was not very large, but enough to make me swallow 30 Bar very quickly.
The diveguide said that the using the Octopus is a good way to keep them at a distance. Don't know if it works though.

YouTube - Longimanus - Brother Islands Red Sea

Anyway I hope to come back next year, cause they are really fantastic creatures.

Did I hear somebody yelp (lol)

 

[voucher76]

It certainly sounds like it (at 00:36)never noticed before..

 

[Damselfish]

3+ years ago my wife and I did an "adventure" dive trip of the coast off the big Island.

As we were heading down the coast about 5 miles offshore, we saw some Pilot Whales, we go ahead of them and jumped in an hoped they would come by while we were snorkeling. No luck with the whales, but this shark that was trailing the pod was quite interested in our small group circling us for 15 minutes.

Not great shots but I think you can feel how close I was.


We actually tried to get in front of the whales again - but the shark was still tracking us and even came a bit to close for comfort so we made are way (pretty quickly) out of the water. Thinking back it wasn't my brightest move - but a live time experience for sure.

We had the same experience on an adventure dive trip off the Big Island. They were way too curious and close for my taste, though we didn't know until later what kind of sharks they were, or their reputation.

We did at least get to see a pilot whale while we were in the water. Very cool.

 

[mrlipis]

I saw a show recently on Discover and the oceanic was said to be responsible for more human deaths than any other shark. Reason being, they are very sensitive to temperture change and follow the edges of ocean currents, which happen to be in deeper and open water. Their food source is very limited. When they encounter ANYTHING they have no fear and are very aggresive. They may go a month without eating. The cameraman in this clip was constantly having to use his camera as a shield. Apparently these documented attacks were more common in world war 2 when boats were sunk and men were left in the water. In any case, not a fish to hang around with. Number 2 on their list was the Bull shark... bad attitude.