Shark takes Jamaican Free Diver

[danvolker]

From the Movie Avatar.....the shark issue is a PARALLEL OF human ignorance about how we should be acting..in this case, in the water....

Neytiri: All this is your fault. They did not need to die.
Jake Sully: My fault? They attacked me! How am I the bad guy?
Neytiri: Your fault! Your fault.
Jake Sully: Easy. Easy...
Neytiri: You are like a baby. Making noise, don't know what to do.

When I saw that movie, the similarity was pretty striking.... When you understand what you should and should not be doing in the ocean, the chances of a Shark attack go from small, to almost impossible.

Spearfishing is like hanging some fresh meat around a child's neck, and sending him into a room with several starving Rottweilers....

I spearfish, but if I was ever to be bitten, it would be my fault, not the shark's. And there are many ways to make spearfishing less behaviorally foolish for the local sharks....Boat the catch immediately after spearing, send the fish up on a float for the boat to get asap....Don't shoot fish when there are sharks in the immediate vicinity....spearfish with several divers staying fairly close together during the hunt, so if sharks do come in, you can be a large group rather than a lone and relatively helpless single diver. ETC.

 

[peterbj7]

OTOH a friend was diving in the Red Sea and was last to get back on the boat. He'd seen a Tiger and once he was alone in the water the Tiger came in for him. Beat it off with his (full size) camera housing and was able to get on the boat. No-one had done any of the "wrong things".

 

[danvolker]

OTOH a friend was diving in the Red Sea and was last to get back on the boat. He'd seen a Tiger and once he was alone in the water the Tiger came in for him. Beat it off with his (full size) camera housing and was able to get on the boat. No-one had done any of the "wrong things".

There is also the curiosity issue sometimes with sharks.....when you are curious, you might try and take something in your hand..touch it...feel it....the shark version of this is a light test bite....

Humans that get bitten are typically test bites.....if the shark wanted to eat us, a human body would disappear as easy as a seal or a big fish.

 

[supergaijin]

Big sharks can and do eat humans. We're not normally on the menu but it happens. Same goes for lions, bears etc. Even leopard seals were attacking the men of Shakleton's ill-fated expedition to Antarctica. Nature can be wild and try as we might, we are still a part of it. Your iphone version 15.4 does not take you out of the food chain.

IMO, rushing attacks from underneath can be said to be 'mistaken identity'. The shark sees the outline of a body on the surface and makes the decisions to attack from deep underwater.

Other attacks occur midwater.

Tigers in certain areas are dangerous. Tigers regularly swim in shallow lagoons in Polynesia. Same shark swims up to Hawaii and becomes a dangerous predator for turtles (main food) and rarely surfers/swimmers there. Time and Place. Same goes for the GW's that regularly migrate from South Australia to NZ. Time and Place.

 

[billt4sf]

Big sharks can and do eat humans. We're not normally on the menu but it happens. Same goes for lions, bears etc. Even leopard seals were attacking the men of Shakleton's ill-fated expedition to Antarctica. Nature can be wild and try as we might, we are still a part of it.

And don't you think that the increasing prevalence of humans in the water, particularly diving with sharks, increases the shark's comfort with humans and therefore increases the chance of a bite, perhaps not at the time but perhaps later?

I liken this to the activity of bears. Bears in the forest who have never seen a human almost immediately run away when they see us -- as if "what is that strange thing?" But bears that get used to humans - those are the dangerous bears.

I have to believe that the more popular that diving with sharks gets, the greater the chances of test bites and the like, simply because some sharks are getting used to us.

- Bill

 

[AfterDark]

OK, so are tiger sharks and sand tiger sharks different species?

The ones in North Carolina are very docile, they or not Tiger sharks. The amount of Sand tiger sharks seen some days out there if they were Tiger Sharks I think the pool would be closed!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WvQ6X04Hks&feature=player_embedded

 

[supergaijin]

And don't you think that the increasing prevalence of humans in the water, particularly diving with sharks, increases the shark's comfort with humans and therefore increases the chance of a bite, perhaps not at the time but perhaps later?

I liken this to the activity of bears. Bears in the forest who have never seen a human almost immediately run away when they see us -- as if "what is that strange thing?" But bears that get used to humans - those are the dangerous bears.

I have to believe that the more popular that diving with sharks gets, the greater the chances of test bites and the like, simply because some sharks are getting used to us.

- Bill

IMO it really depends on the activity. Peter Benchly had an interesting experience with his family after jumping in after a shark feeding session.

Just being in the water with sharks doesn't condition them to do anything out of the norm. Interactive diving does however IMO.

Sharks are not as developed as mammals such as bears which have a reasoning ability to get food.

 

[Doubler]

I keep waiting for someone to be bitten during one of those deep water night dives done in Hawaii. Oceanic Whitetips frequent the area and I have a theory about charging camera strobes and sharks.

 

[InTheDrink]

Yeah Oceanics do seem to like (charging) strobes.

 

[bbarnett51]

Don't have much to add. If I die from a shark im alright with that. It's their environment and I'm just visiting. However, I feel for anyone that dies prematurely.