Sharks vs Lightning

[boulderjohn]

Besides the Red Sea Cases and Shark feeding cases, the only fatality of a diver under water that I can remember reading about on SB was off of Africa somewhere during the sardine run. The diver was in the thick of it, et voila mistaken for the largest sardine ever.

If you have ever seen predators attack a bait ball, it is quite a sight. All the large predators work together like cowboys herding cattle. They get the bait ball all in one mass near the surface, and then the fun begins. Predator birds plunge down from the sky. The large predators swim through the bait ball with their mouths open taking in whatever gets in their way. Dolphins, sharks, sailfish--everyone works together to keep it going as long as they can.

It is not a good idea to get in the middle of one.

 

[Tigerman]

But its DAMN FUN to meet hunting sailfish when youre diving, I can tell you THAT much

 

[FuzzyNutz]

During Discovery's Shark Week last week, they had a show where 3 divers TRIED... HARD, to get bitten by a shark, for a WEEK, but were pretty much unsuccessful. They splashed frantically on a surfboard over top of sharks, they didn't do anything. Put fish on a spear (although already dead...) and swam all around sharks and even put the fish in the sharks face.... they didn't do anything. Swam along the shoreline at dusk until the swimmer got too bored to continue, the sharks never showed up. Desperate to get a bite, they went back down with a bucket of chum again and put dead fish ON a diver, and you'd be suprised at how many sharks clearly avoided him and how long it took to get just a small nibble.

I did a bull-shark feeding dive with about 15 sharks and only 3 divers (the feeder, a dm, and myself), and I never even saw their teeth! They swam pretty slowly and they took turns taking the bait, and they did so VERY gently and in a very distinguished order - I was SHOCKED when I observed this. I admit, I signed up for the adrenaline rush, but there was no adrenaline - it had to be the most surreal and calming thing I ever witnessed.

There are divers diving with large sharks EVERY day around the world, yet we never hear any horror stories. The TV shows that show how dangerous sharks are... have a TEAM of videographers in the chummed water with them, and again, we don't hear any horror stories. And what about all the people who go down and attach tags and transmitters to them by hand?

It's important to understand and respect what they're capable of, but I believe the risks are highly mitigated if you educate yourself about them.

I say bring on the whites and leave the cages at home! I hope to have this opportunity in my lifetime!!

 

[farsidefan1]

I don't have statistics involving divers but of course a xouple stories come to mind. There is a book which includes the story of a diver whose buddy was killed by a pair of oceanic white tips, the Sharm stories of course, a utube showing a tiger make a grab at a divers foot (missed but no thanks to the shark, he tried). Also the guy who started the zen diving site had a close call involving a tiger that made what he considered a definite attack when he "felt something", turned and was looking into the mouth of the tiger shark. As I remember he felt his life was saved by his large camera strobes which he fired instinctively. I did see a diver where a reef shark took an unusual interest in his fin and bit it several times with him trying to kick it away. Finally the shark lost interest but it was a near thing. The only other thing I remember from a book written by an underwater photographer who was "charged by a shark" on 2 occasions both times after he took a picture and his strobes were making that high pitched sound as they recharged. He made the connection the second time.

That sums up all the diver/shark attacks I'm familiar with. I'm very carefull not to appear like shark food (ie. stay close to my buddy, get verticle in the water rather than horizontal, make plenty of bubbles, when I find myself near a tiger or bull shark and if I knew in advance there were those guys, or great whites or oceanic white tips in the area I would pass on the dive. Anything else is just a great photo op and I love them. Those 4 sharks I admit, make me a bit nervous. That is a very short list given the number of divers that encounter sharks. They are simply not something to worry about for virtually all divers. Lightning or hornets on the other hand, yikes.

Just a note regarding Peter Benchley. He has indeed spent a considerable portion of his gains in an attempt to make up for the damage to the shark world for which he feels personal responsibility. He has participated in a number of interviews about the subject.

 

[Tigerman]

The incidents in Sharm El Sheikh did NOT involve scubadivers (atleast not while in scuba gear) - it was all people on the surface.

 

[koozemani]

I am reminded of a story involving a friend of mine. He was free diving with his spear gun off of puerto rico. As he was swimming back to his boat with his catch, a shark came up behind him a nibbled at his fins. He dropped his catch and hightailed it back to the boat. But again, on the surface not on scuba.

 

[miked]

An appropriate question, given the title of this thread:
A few years ago, I read a short article in the paper, to summarize:
"During a dive (Possibly off South Africa), some local sharks appeared and began to exhibit aggressive behavior. The divers called the dive, and headed back to where their boat was anchored. When the firdt diver ascended the ladder and stepped on deck, he was struck by a bolt of lightning."
I checked the date of the article-NOT Apr. 1, but I can't find any reference to the story. I'm thinking hoax/urban legend/prank.
My question: Has anybody else heard of this story??

 

[lozadora]

Some statistics I found: FLMNH Ichthyology Department: International Shark Attack File Statistics of Shark Attacks

---------- Post Merged at 10:45 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 10:42 PM ----------

http://sharkattackfile.info/

This one amused me for the use of the word "nip" in relation to a bite and the damage to water ski...

 

[adurso]

Dolphins, I tell you...

Walter, a poster on Scubaboard posted his experience with a bull shark a couple of years ago.

Thalassamania also posted his experiences with bulls.

My wife and I were charged by a couple of dolphins last year, we inadvertently surfaced where they were feeding and apparently appeared to be competition.

Other divers in Venice have had this happen also.

 

[boulderjohn]

During the Discovery Channel Shark shark Week I watched a show that looked into incidents of shark attacks, most of them on divers. This was not their point, but I noticed that in every case, the diver was either on the surface or very near the surface when it happened.

There have been many cases in which sharks have approached divers at depth and appeared to be aggressive and even threatening. I have read Thalassamania's description of his incident as an example. I have also read Richard Pyle's lengthy description of his second serious DCS experience, which was in part caused by his decision to end a deco stop early because of his concern about the behavior of the Galapagos sharks around him. In these cases, I get the sense that there was either a territorial dispute being contested, curiosity, an apparent attraction between shark sensory organs and camera mechanics (particularly strobes), or a dispute about captured and stressed fish being carried by the diver (spearfishers or, in Pyle's case, an ichthyologist carrying samples).

While I hear these stories, I don't hear stories about divers being killed at depth. These are pretty much all stories of survival. In most cases, sharks that had the ability to kill did not do so and were apparently satisfied when the diver left. The statistics for shark attack fatalities on divers linked to above do not say where those divers were at the time of the attack. As I mentioned above, the attacks on divers examined in the Shark Week episode were all on or very near the surface.