Saw my first Six Gill!! ... or did I??

[Rick Inman]

I was sure it was a six gill, but now I'm having second thoughts.

We were all talking about six gills before the dive. Some people from out of state had come to see GPOs and after many dives had seen none. I had just come up from a dive and saw a nice one and two wolf eels a few feet away.

We were at Sund Rock in the Hood. The GPO was on the north wall, at the far south end at 65'. Easy to find, Go down white buoy line and swim north to the start of the wall at 65'. About 10' in on the west side of the biggest boulder is the octo. Five feet north and three feet west are the two wolfees.

Anyway, I said I'd never seen a six gill and would like to.

My BOC and I headed to the south wall for my second dive. At the far south end of the wall at about 47' deep, a shark slowly swims about six feet in front of me. I flash my buddy and we head after it as it swims up and off to the south of us.

Cool! Six gill - I was sure of it. But I only saw it for about 20 seconds. It did NOT look like a nurse shark to me, but here is why I now question if it was a six gill.

It was only about 5' long.

It was in the Hood Canal, which I thought was not a place you'd find six gills.

It was shallow - 47' and swam off moving up the wall into the 30's.


What do you think??? Possible?

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Cool! Six gill - I was sure of it. But I only saw it for about 20 seconds. It did NOT look like a nurse shark to me, but here is why I now question if it was a six gill.

It was only about 5' long.

It was in the Hood Canal, which I thought was not a place you'd find six gills.

It was shallow - 47' and swam off moving up the wall into the 30's.

What do you think??? Possible?

More than possible ...

1) Six-gills in the 5-6 foot size range are common
2) I've seen six-gills at 40-50 fsw (at Redondo ... twice)
3) There's lots of six-gill sightings in Hood Canal

Cool ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[CustomTech]

Rick

Not to be smart ***** but there are some very large Lings right in that area. That being said there was a 6 gill sited at Mike Beach resort last year on a night dive at 70 feet. It is very possible. If you did i'm going to look for myself, i want to see one.

 

[dlndavid]

What is the definition of "six gill" ?

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

What is the definition of "six gill" ?

http://www.elasmodiver.com/Sharkive Bluntnose sixgill shark.htm

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[dlndavid]

oh... Hexanchus griseus, why didn't you say so. What kind of charactor are they in the order of like GW, Bulls, Tigers?

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

oh... Hexanchus griseus, why didn't you say so. What kind of charactor are they in the order of like GW, Bulls, Tigers?

I've never dived with a GW, bull, or tiger shark ... but six-gills are pretty mellow. They'll approach you slowly ... often getting close enough that you have to resist the urge to put your hand out to keep some separation. And after an "inspection", they veer off and generally ignore you ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Rick Inman]

Not to be smart ***** but there are some very large Lings right in that area.

Funny. No, this was absolutely a shark. As it moved up the wall and turned, it's sharkey profile against the surface light was obvious to both of us.

They'll approach you slowly ... often getting close enough that you have to resist the urge to put your hand out to keep some separation. And after an "inspection", they veer off and generally ignore you ...

A perfect description of what happened.

 

[bwh6]

Could it have been a dogfish?

http://www.seahorsediveclub.com/gallery/critters/pages/dogfish.htm

I was diving in Hood Canal a few weekends back and saw several dogfish in ~20fsw around Pulali Point. I haven't seen any at Sund Rock, but I've only been there twice.

Brian

 

[gcbryan]

Rick, what time of day was it and was the large tail the most distinctive aspect to what you saw?

Unless it was deep and at least dark my guess would be a large dogfish. However sixgills are sighted in Hood Canal but usually at night or at least deep enough to be fairly dark.