Shark behavior

[scubadada]

Does anyone know the significance or reason for the gill activity about 23 seconds into the video? It was reasonably dramatic close up. The video was shot at Boat Cove, West Caicos, about 2 weeks ago. Thanks in advance for your comments.

YouTube - Old Shark and Big Shark

Good diving, Craig

 

[ScubaSteve]

I look forward to the answer but wanted to say....what an encounter. If I had seen that when I was in Turks & Caicos, I would have enjoyed the diving more. Very cool.

 

[ocbeachbum]

I'm not sure but I have a guess. They could be blowing parasites out of the gills the same way a person would blow their nose. The shark takes a big jet of water to forcibly remove some irritant clinging to the blood-rich membranes of the gills. Little nasties get blown out. Were you near a known "cleaning station" when you shot this? Very good video by the way. It looks like you had a great dive.

 

[scubadada]

I look forward to the answer but wanted to say....what an encounter. If I had seen that when I was in Turks & Caicos, I would have enjoyed the diving more. Very cool.

Hey ScubaSteve,

My son and I had a rather charmed dive trip. We saw Reef Sharks on nearly all dives though this last dive at Boat Cove was easily the best. The two sharks in the video circled and did figure 8s around us for 10 or so minutes at the end of the dive. There were many Hawksbill turtles, numerous Queen Triggerfish, and many Lionfish. The latter was a treat for divers who had never seen any but we were very dismayed at their tremendous numbers. We dived with a great operator, Caicos Adventures, fantastic staff and really great boat. We had the freedom to dive our own plan and our 13 wall dives off West Caicos ranged in duration from 59-70 minutes on 32% nitrox with average depths of 52-63 feet. We would return for a repeat visit in a heartbeat.

I'm not sure but I have a guess. They could be blowing parasites out of the gills the same way a person would blow their nose. The shark takes a big jet of water to forcibly remove some irritant clinging to the blood-rich membranes of the gills. Little nasties get blown out. Were you near a known "cleaning station" when you shot this? Very good video by the way. It looks like you had a great dive.

Hi ocbeachbum,

That's a great hypothesis, embarassingly, I never thought of it. I look forward to additional comments. I don't think I would recognize a shark cleaning station if it hit me over the head though I'm very aware of the concept for other fish. The video was shot in the cut on the wall reasonably close to the boat mooring and the sharks kept moving at a pretty constant rate the entire time they were with us.

Good diving, Craig