Shark etiquette

[Rick L]

You have to remember that shark sightings are very rare here!!
My first instructor told me I would be lucky to see one(I didn't agree ) I havn't seen a real shark in the water yet. only dogfish
but there was hundreds of them!!
Rick L

 

[caymaniac]

I was at Little Cayman diving Bloody Bay Wall when my wife who was ahead of me gave me the shark sign. I then saw a 6 ft. black tip come around the corner of the reef and he headed straight at me. I backed up to the wall, my tank hit the wall and he kept on coming. About two feet away I used my camera as a buffer and made the strobe fire. When I did this it was like the shark woke up and spun around to get away. I had been close enough to see his spicules. I think because I was taking pics he was following the sound of my recharging strobe, not using his eye sight. After the shark spun around he did not swim away very fast and I was able to get close enough to take a pic but my batteies were down and the strobe wouldnt fire - no pic!
Stories like this make diving worth it for me.
Dive Safe,
Caymaniac

 

[DivingDoc]

Jack R once bubbled...
I have seen thousands of sharks all over the world including schooling hammerheads. I have never had any trouble but if I did have trouble, I would just take out my knife and cut my buddy!

I have heard that a scream may frighten them away. It would be very very odd for a shark to attack a 6' neoprene and metal object. They mostly go for the sick or old.

Seriously, since you have great experience here, enlighten us on what shark behaviors to observe/be aware of and what you do to make them ignore you. According to the Discovery Channel, the most dangerous/most aggressive sharks are not Great Whites, but Bull Sharks. Great Whites are second, Tigers third.

I think it was a Bull Shark that took the arm off the little boy in Pensicola, FL last summer, and also a Bull Shark that took the life of a boy in Virginia Beach the same summer.

ET

 

[WreckWriter]

DivingDoc once bubbled...
According to the Discovery Channel, the most dangerous/most aggressive sharks are not Great Whites, but Bull Sharks. Great Whites are second, Tigers third.

I think that's based on number of attacks. Keep in mind that while whites are rare, tigers uncommon, bulls are downright thick. they're definately dangerous but the stats may be mostly due to how common they are. We saw 4 on one dive last week...

Tom

 

[Jack R]

I have had a run in with a bull shark in the blue hole in Belize. It got very close but by the time that I got my camera ready it bugged out. I have seen others but never that close. THere are others like silky sharks that have a bad rep too.

You know mostly it is common sense. I have done some stupid things but never had any real issues. I trapped a pregnant white tip under a ledge in order to take her picture. She didnt like it. She put down her pectral fin (dont know if I spelled that right) and I knew to back off.

Sharks just cruising the reef almost never pose a threat. I have been in hundreds of schooling hammerheads but they were so timid that the bubbles scared them away. I got rebreather certified on my way out to cocos so that I could get real close but both the rebreathers on board broke. So I never got to use them.

The scariest was a feeding frenzy of white tips that I witnessed. I knew not to get to close to that one. I think that if I would have gotten bit it would have been an accident.

I may have experiance seeing and diving with sharks but I have no experiance seeing too much aggressive behavior.

I see sharks on almost every dive I make here in Florida but I have done a bunch of diving in micronesia and the red sea and there are tons of sharks there.

 

[Rick Murchison]

There's a lot of misinformation and disinformation about sharks floating 'round out there...
Aside from feeding (and if you've speared a fish a shark will figure you did it as a favor) situations, most sharks will try to avoid you, and most of the rest will pretty much ignore you... But... Bull sharks are untrustworthy and unreliable. They can become agitated and dangerous for no apparent reason. Signs of agitation are jerky swimming, sudden reversals, arched back and lowered pectorals. If you see this behavior in a Bull shark, it's time to back out of the territory, keeping a close eye on him.
I don't have any experience with Whites or Tigers or Oceanic Whitetips, which I understand shouldn't be trusted either.
Rick

 

[Tavi]

I try to get a better picture .

Each year I try to get a better shark pic.
My first one is still my best one.

Usually Caribean Reef Sharks, I don't care if I ever see a Great White.

 

[FredT]

Agressive sharks are best handled on a grill!

I heard a report that a group of Bulls in the gulf that have been fed enough they have associated divers with lunch! It's gotten so that they'll bump divers looking for a handout, or a hand. This is about like having a an alaskan brown bear consider you a lunch source. Eventually he won't take NO for an answer and someone gets hurt or dead. I expect these critters won't last year out.

FT

 

[Dee]

How about posting your favorite shark pic? I would like to see it.

 

[Tavi]

This was taken on my very first dive with an underwater camera. I've been trying to get a better pic ever since.
There are some others on our website, look around.

http://groups.msn.com/RickandDebsSite/divinggrandbahamaspring2001.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=43