Shark diving

[scubaozy]

I don't think anyone is questioning that they are safe. But it is fair to question if they are doing more than is necessary. What may be logical to us may be irrelevant to a shark, who tend to hunt with mechanisms (like electric-field sensors) that care nothing about colors. Are there documented attacks on yellow wetsuits and white fins? More so than on black wetsuits and black fins?

I forgot to mention, on the trip I previously described, a French photographers strobe on a flex arm was bitten off and it was a total loss. In the past I used flexi arms to save travel weight but they are not shark proof, so I do not recommend them . In my experience strong video lights, torches and strobes get way more attention that brightly colored equipment.

 

[mike41799]

Snorkeling with sandbar sharks off Palm Beach, FL

 

[tarponchik]

Snorkeling with sandbar sharks off Palm Beach, FL

Who is running such tours?

 

[Dan]

I had three night dives at Cocos, I understand they are no longer done, For anyone who has recently been there, is that the case?

No more night diving is allowed there since 2018, after a diver got killed by a Tiger Shark. I was there in September 2018 and December 2020.

 

[Dan]

Here’s the safer way of shark diving:

 

[Nemrod]

Sharks in my experience are not interested in divers even during a feed dive. Underwater we are as big or bigger than most of them are. W JMHO

I am not going to name the operator but a few years back I booked a dive with an op in South Florida and being the first I got to pick the dive spot, or so I thought. I picked a place named Shark Reef per their list of dive sites. Well, upon arrival I learned that instead, since I was interested in sharks, we would be going far out into the Gulf Stream with a TV crew!

So, I really like sharks, but I chose Shark Reef just because it sounded like a cool reef dive and not specifically for sharks. Instead of a nice reef dive I was instead dumped into the middle of the ocean with no bottom under me. And let me assure you, the sharks that showed up to the bait were wild creatures who had never seen divers before and were totally unafraid and quite aggressive, especially a Tiger and an Oceanic and they were MUCH bigger than me. IMO it was dangerous. I was hit from behind by the Tiger and pushed forward aways and as he whipped by, not liking the taste of my SCUBA tank I guess, my strobe got caught in his jaw and yanked my camera forward breaking the clamp but it was tethered to me. I got talked to by one of the crew who reminded me afterwards that we had been told if a shark took something to let them have it. Uh, I explained to the mate, uh, no, sorry. N

 

[tarponchik]

There are 2 kinds of diving with sharks. One, it is when you dive in a group with several DMs who feed the sharks and also have aluminum pipes to push away those sharks that get too agitated. And two, it's when you are on a solo dive and a Tiger comes up to check you out and circles you couple times.

 

[johndiver999]

Sharks in my experience are not interested in divers even during a feed dive. Underwater we are as big or bigger than most of them are. l . JMHO

LOL, of course that has been your experience, or you wouldn't take your wife on shark dives.

If you had been bitten would that change your mind?

I know a lot of people who have been bitten by sharks.

Their behavior is not always predictable.

 

[drrich2]

I know a lot of people who have been bitten by sharks.

What were they doing when they got bitten?

I'm not implying they were reckless or at fault. I'm saying context matters. For reference, I've been on 7 shark feeding dives out of Jupiter, FL, and saw 3 different tiger sharks. Nothing over 10 feet long, so not the whoppers sometimes seen in the Bahamas. Plenty of lemon sharks, some bull sharks. It was fun...but deliberately diving with tiger sharks isn't something I intend to make a regular habit of, and the account by @Dan of being approached from out of his view by a possibly 15 foot tiger shark gave me the willies. I've observed some reef shark baiting and feeding out of Belize.

I think a reasonably intermediate recreational diver can participate as an observer in shark-fed dives with reputable operators, watching a professional shark feeder hand out snacks to sharks of species they have experience with, with a reasonable margin of safety. I can't put a number on % risk.

But from what I've read, the risk profile for that professional shark feeder, who may conduct hundreds of these dives with sharks surrounding him/her and approaching from out of sight into close quarters, is a different matter (and bites not so uncommon?). They have a choice whether to take on whatever the added risk is, in other to do what they do (whether for money, pleasure, excitement or?).

The other higher risk group that comes to mind is spear fishermen in some areas. When divers post on Scuba Board desiring to see sharks, a standard non-feeding answer is to go the Bahamas or Turks & Caicos for reef sharks, North Carolina (sand tigers) or Jupiter (lemons in winter) for larger sharks, and for hammerheads Socorros, Cocos Island, the Galapagos or Malpelo. But in my snarky mind, I tend to want to add '...or you could take up spear fishing.' If I understand correctly, at least in some areas (e.g.: coastal Florida), if you spear fish regularly, you're going to encounter sharks.

So when you say you know a lot of people who've been bitten by sharks, my question is, were they spear fishing or shark feeding?

 

[divinh]

Keep in mind, too, that a lot of these feeding dives are on a schedule and the sharks know when the dinner bell is ringing by the sound of the incoming boat. They are very accustomed to divers and I've never seen any aggression during the dive.

When I dove in Moorea, French Polynesia, we weren't feeding, but the Lemon Sharks followed us around til the end of the dive. I was told other shops fed them, so there's definitely an association with divers.