Sand Tiger Shark

[langs15]

WOw, just watched the video, how fast was your heart pumping when it was the closest to you?

 

[BKP]

If anyone has the book Deep, Dark, and Dangerous by Gary Gentile, see page 18. He was diving off North Carolina. Doesn't say what wreck or anything else regarding location. He says the Sand Tiger Shark actually bit his strobe and that the strobe was the reason for the attack. I have 3 battery packs on my video but the cycling of Gary's strobe would be different as my lights are always on so the attraction may have been the electical field or the video camera in action.

Great video! Congrats on keeping the cam going and steady.

The electroreception angle is *very* possible. The ampullea receptors can apparently detect not only electrical, but electromagnetic fields (which the always-on strobe would still create).

He looked more curious then posturing (but, then again I wasn't the one watching a 10' mouthful of ragged tooth meat in my face)...

...and... I agree with Spartacle... Shark Week went out of it's way to sensationalize quite a few of the segments... I guess it's a rating thing...

 

[james croft]

Cool video. I have dove NC and been around a couple of sand tigers. Never came that close. I would definitely had a rush of adreneline from that unexpected close approach. But I also get scared of close encounters with carp. Glad you got it on film.

 

[divekraz]

WOw, just watched the video, how fast was your heart pumping when it was the closest to you?

Surprisingly I was pretty calm, I couldn't get away and just hoped for the best. I knew that a actual attack was suppose to be very unlikely by everything I've read but didn't know if the shark had read the same books. All I could think of at the time was can I keep the camera betweed me and those teeth and had all of 3 seconds before it was over. We did continue the dive, a little more wary of surroundings. My wife was really freaked out as after 300 dives, nothing has ever came at us like that, or got that close.

 

[Technology_Shark]

He was just curious, he was not in an aggressive posturing stance. That had to be cool though, I'm soo jealous. They never come that close to me.

 

[packman]

I've been diving with quite a few sand tigers off the coast of NC. A few were in the 10+ ft range. I've been very close to many of them. The last time was a few weeks ago when I was in a room on a shipwreck with a half dozen smallish sharks (~6 ft) swimming around in it. Not once have I felt threatened. They can get very curious and (as others have noted) will swim right up to you before turning at the last minute.

Cool video, though.

 

[rawls]

If anyone has the book Deep, Dark, and Dangerous by Gary Gentile, see page 18. He was diving off North Carolina. Doesn't say what wreck or anything else regarding location. He says the Sand Tiger Shark actually bit his strobe and that the strobe was the reason for the attack. I have 3 battery packs on my video but the cycling of Gary's strobe would be different as my lights are always on so the attraction may have been the electical field or the video camera in action.

Nah...The shark just realized it was Gentile