Sharks and what do you think of them?

[LIVES4SHARKS]

My last shark that made an appearance on a dive was in Panama City on the Acokeek wreck. She was about 8' and she allowed me to swim with her! It was a great treat! I am going one step further and will be doing a shark dive expedition with Shark Diver Magazine in Nov. On that trip, I hope to be diving side by side with Tigers, Giant Hammerheads, and a few other species of shark! I think sharks are the "new crack" for me!
http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/99082
Sharks, the best addiction!
Carolyn:sharks:

 

[garyfotodiver]

So you're saying they won't attack you out of professional courtesy?

I would agree with this EXCEPT that a poor Dutch advocate was recently attacked in the Bahamas.

 

[HateCheese]

I was scared s**tless the first time I saw one. Large bull, approximately 8-9ft in murky water. Looked back on it post-dive and wished I'd gotten a better view.

Sometimes you get what you wish for....

I've been spearfishing in NW FL for the past few years. 'Encounters' are going up to the point that you expect to get harrassed. What is worse, is that we are seeing bulls come in PRIOR to spearing, not even the sound of a speargun firing to pull them in.

I hear from people every week about close encounters. Stories are plentiful. Everyone spearing is getting sick of it. Sharks are incredibly interesting to watch, and I love to see them when I don't have a stringer, but..... it is getting to be too much.

Yep, I know I am diving in their domain. Just seems like they are a little over abundant around here... and a little over aggressive...

 

[DRsharky]

I love sharks, and I respect them, I can watch them for ever.

 

[Rhone Man]

So you're saying they won't attack you out of professional courtesy?

Yes - for the same reason we never have to worry about ticks or leeches.

 

[Code Monkey]

I absolutely love sharks. I'm all stoked about having seen 13 species of shark so far including whites, tigers, and bulls. It's not once been scary. Beautiful, majestic creatures.

I'm hoping, eventually, to do another Australia trip to see wobbegons (sp?), bamboo, and epelette (sp?) sharks.

 

[Captain Morgan]

I think they're among the most beautiful, graceful, charismatic, fascinating, ancient and mysterious of all Earth's creatures. Some sharks have elegant lines and move with the liquid evenness of creatures perfectly at home with their place in the Universe. Others, by their spectacular and elusive natures, achieve fame and capture our collective imaginations in a way usually reserved for human celebrities. Biologically sharks are exquisite examples of evolutionary perfection, featuring adaptations of stunning sophistication and economical elegance. They inhabit an alien liquid universe in which they go about secret lives and enjoy a freedom we can only imagine. Sharks are also one of Nature's most durable success stories, having endured and flourished through at least 425 million years of profound environmental change. In a world in which there be no more dragons, sharks fill a deeply tribal need for an overwhelming primal force that - despite our technological artifice - puts our human frailty in stark perspective. Sharks are thus the perfect mythological beasts for our times.

 

[Bottomfeeder Brodie]

They serve a purpose

 

[Theunis]

Sharks are great. No dive compares with a shark dive for me. I did many shark dives at the South Coast of Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa and saw tigers, bulls, sand tigers, hammerheads and blacktips.

I never had any real problems during those shark dives.

Earlier this year I did an unbaited shark dive on the Protea Banks, Kwa Zulu Natal. We descended to 38 m (approximately 118 feet) and saw one bull shark. This bull was circling us for a while and disappeared. We started a slow ascend to look for sharks in midwater and suddenly the bull was back circling us on our level but mostly from underneath us. While circling from underneath the bull went into slow 45 degree positions towards us. This continued on for about 30 minutes right through our dive and during our deco and safety stop with the bull appearing and disappearing

I must say that I was very foccussed on that particular dive!!

 

[Hoomi]

In a world in which there be no more dragons, sharks fill a deeply tribal need for an overwhelming primal force that - despite our technological artifice - puts our human frailty in stark perspective. Sharks are thus the perfect mythological beasts for our times.

You may have hit the nail on the head.

It becomes even more amusing when I think about the Mythbusters guy wearing what looked like plate armor on a shark dive. We have the classic illustrations of knights in armor riding off to face dragons, and now we have a guy in armor diving to face sharks.

It also makes me think about just how many parallels can be drawn between the movie Jaws and the movie Dragonslayer, including that in both, the creatures were killed by carrying something exploded remotely by the hero...