Shark Week Phobia

[Fish Wrangler]

Sorry, but that's just silly. I know of exactly one person who was bitten by a Barracuda.

I wouldn't discount it out of hand. I also know of only one person who was bitten by a barracuda. I met a DM in Belize who was spearfishing when an excited barracuda grabbed him above the elbow. He now sports a nice V-shaped scar on his upper arm.

However, I've never met ANYONE who has been bitten by a shark -- I only read about it in the newspapers and see it sensationalized on television. I just don't think the press is all over barracuda bites the way they are shark bites.

 

[OceanObsessed]

I've been speafishing down at the Marquesas Keys (Florida) by Cosgrove light. There are thousands of big barracudas that hover over the reef by the light. Sometimes you can barely see the bottom because of the schooling baracuda. We would free dive down to the bottom and the barracudas would part allowing us to swim through the school. We would spear grouper and then the school of cudas would part again, creating an opening for us to swim through as we surfaced. Even after we speared several grouper right in the middle of thousands of cudas... not one cuda ever took an interest in us or the speared grouper. That was the day I lost respect for them . I have had sharks take my speared fish from me though.

 

[DivingCRNA]

I guess my wife and I got spoiled on sharks. Our first ocean trip was on Blackbeard's in the Bahamas. We saw A LOT of reef sharks. So many that we could not understand why all our friends would suck down their tanks trying to get closer to the 4-5 reef sharks that were hanging out near Palancar Garden when we were in Cozumel....

We had done a shark feed in the Bahamas and had seen several species of shark, so we stuck to the reef in Cuz to check out the cool "little stuff". We also LOVED watching the Sea Turtles in Coz. They are beautiful!

I keep trying to get them to go to the Bahamas for a club trip, but they really like Coz.

BTW-does it bother anyone else that the Discovery Channel took the crazy lion guy and the dirty jobs guy and taught them to scubadive to stick them in the water with sharks? How many of you would SCUBA dive without a cage and WITH Great Whites within a month of getting certified? The one guy even ran out of air at 45 fsw feeding sharks and said he held his breath the whole way up! I am guessing he was exhaling...

Oh well. I am sure the personalities got paid handsomely.

 

[Daylonious]

I wouldn't discount it out of hand. I also know of only one person who was bitten by a barracuda. I met a DM in Belize who was spearfishing when an excited barracuda grabbed him above the elbow. He now sports a nice V-shaped scar on his upper arm.

However, I've never met ANYONE who has been bitten by a shark -- I only read about it in the newspapers and see it sensationalized on television. I just don't think the press is all over barracuda bites the way they are shark bites.

I was on a night dive in the gulf of mexico and a guy with twin strobes on his camera took a picture of a 'cuda. It freaked out and dove right between the strobes - he said it felt like Nolan Ryan threw a fastball into his chest. It was only a small one (like 3-4 feet)... imagine what it would have done to him had it been a full grown male with a good head of steam behind him..

Here's the pic of his chest the next day, anyway..




D.

 

[serambin]

After watching the "it really bites episode," I want the sharks to eat these idiots! They are rubbing chum all over themselves, why?

What's the point? Yes, if you are covered in rotten fish you may get bit?

Give me a break.

Stan

 

[DivingCRNA]

What about Cozumel? Are there sharks there? I wouldnt mind starting off seeing some small one's
Stacy

Some nurse sharks. I hear the reef sharks moved on after Wilma.