Tank601
Contributor
Man - I can just imagine ....
Spearfishing with Bull Sharks 04-23-09
- Thread starter MRXRAY
- Start date
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wjefferis
Contributor
They actually make bags that you put your fish inside to keep the blood from going all over the place and atracting sharks. I am sure that either MBT, Dive Pros, or bay breeze scuba could show you one.
OP
MRXRAY
Contributor
I'll be sure to look when I'm in purchasing a new stringer and small lift bag with over inflation valve!
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Geesh MRXRAY! hehehe what a ride! I bet that felt like a horror movie when the vis went to crap just before the shark decided to introduce himself. I'm pretty sure if you had tried it right then, your car wouldn't have started either.
And I thought it was un-nerving when Hetland and I got the stink eye from that big shark we saw on the Miss Louise wreck last summer... I can (thankfully) only imagine how much more air I'd burn actually arm wrestling Jaws like that!
Thanks for the great post/story! Mrs.Fish and I were extremely happy to hear that you didn't get perforated/air-conditioned/chewed-on/etc... during your little game of tug-of-war with a FREAKIN' SHARK!
I think I would have clipped my stringer to a buddy the first time I heard the shark music
-:fish:
And I thought it was un-nerving when Hetland and I got the stink eye from that big shark we saw on the Miss Louise wreck last summer... I can (thankfully) only imagine how much more air I'd burn actually arm wrestling Jaws like that!
Thanks for the great post/story! Mrs.Fish and I were extremely happy to hear that you didn't get perforated/air-conditioned/chewed-on/etc... during your little game of tug-of-war with a FREAKIN' SHARK!
I think I would have clipped my stringer to a buddy the first time I heard the shark music
-:fish:
OP
MRXRAY
Contributor
I looked around for you but you were no where to be found!
Guys this is a good read but it is a bad practice. That shark now knows divers can and will give up food. Its great great that you were calm and collected but many guys are already on the verge of panic attack by just being underwater, heaven forbid a curious shark send one of those new divers over the edge into a full on panic attack.
The established procedure for dealing with sharks is adopt an aggressive posture charging the shark and establishing that it will have to challenge you for the food source. Sharks do not like to fight as it may cause and injury and injured hunters tend to starve to death. It is widely accepted that sharks (bulls, black tips, sandbars and quite a few others) assert dominance through posturing, and even bumping eachother. As a scuba diver wearing a tank fins and a big pokey thing, you are a hell of alot bigger looking than you really are when diving. Add to that the unfamiliar noise of the bubbles you keep emitting and you are quite intimidating which is why few divers see sharks to begin with.
Next time swim at the shark AS SOON AS YOU SEE IT, scream bark or make some other vibration as you rapidly approach and try to jab it with the business end of your gun (finger off the trigger). It works 90% of the time after two approaches.
Also, its not the blood that brings in the sharks its the vibration of the wounded fish, blood is something they encounter as they get closer and are already investigating the speared fish. Dispatch your prey quickly for fewer encounters. Lift bags are great if you are live boating.
I hate to come off completely critical but one other thing that was bothering me is why in the world would a scuba diver carry fish on an actual string instead of a metal hoop stringer? It keeps the fish closer, gives you leverage and offers zero risk of entanglement.
The established procedure for dealing with sharks is adopt an aggressive posture charging the shark and establishing that it will have to challenge you for the food source. Sharks do not like to fight as it may cause and injury and injured hunters tend to starve to death. It is widely accepted that sharks (bulls, black tips, sandbars and quite a few others) assert dominance through posturing, and even bumping eachother. As a scuba diver wearing a tank fins and a big pokey thing, you are a hell of alot bigger looking than you really are when diving. Add to that the unfamiliar noise of the bubbles you keep emitting and you are quite intimidating which is why few divers see sharks to begin with.
Next time swim at the shark AS SOON AS YOU SEE IT, scream bark or make some other vibration as you rapidly approach and try to jab it with the business end of your gun (finger off the trigger). It works 90% of the time after two approaches.
Also, its not the blood that brings in the sharks its the vibration of the wounded fish, blood is something they encounter as they get closer and are already investigating the speared fish. Dispatch your prey quickly for fewer encounters. Lift bags are great if you are live boating.
I hate to come off completely critical but one other thing that was bothering me is why in the world would a scuba diver carry fish on an actual string instead of a metal hoop stringer? It keeps the fish closer, gives you leverage and offers zero risk of entanglement.
Just to qualify my remarks abit, everything I do spearfishing is pretty much passed down from other more experienced guys (not something I came up with or just heard from Uncle Bubba Skeeter), and I have changed my approach alot of the past 7 years. The above advice on sharks is from several different commercial spearfisherman in the Gulf of Mexico, most notably Kevin Bruington, owner of Spearfishing Specialties.
The thing I also forgot to mention is that when shark a is taught to think of divers as potential food sources it is only so long before some macho a$$hole decides that powerheading the "dangerous" animal hanging out around a known public dive site and "harassing" divers is his duty. I loathe this guy but he exists in abundance in the Northern Gulf. So try not to feed them for their own sake too.
The thing I also forgot to mention is that when shark a is taught to think of divers as potential food sources it is only so long before some macho a$$hole decides that powerheading the "dangerous" animal hanging out around a known public dive site and "harassing" divers is his duty. I loathe this guy but he exists in abundance in the Northern Gulf. So try not to feed them for their own sake too.
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OP
MRXRAY
Contributor
Pat, Thanks for the advice. Believe me it is taken to heart. My fish were on a metal Stringer which I had on a 6 foot length of rope to keep it away from me (Mainly because of Nipping Triggerfish) during spearing. I keep the stringer on a "D" Ring on my hip while fishing and move it to my chest "D" Ring on the way to the surface to make it easier to move to the boat crew once on the surface. This arrangement has helped me minimize entanglement with mono or shock cords when I dive as well. I had with both AJ's I shot on this day killed the fish with my knife at the bottom to eliminate as much "Vibration" as possible and prevent more blood from pumping out, but it appeared it me that the Shark had made up his mind that he was going to take this meal, no ifs/ands/or buts!
In regards to aggressive posturing toward a Shark, I appreciate your stand but swimming at a charging Bull Shark in my eyes is like running at an attacking Lion, in theory the Shark will turn but after 4 aggressive advances by the shark I felt it was time to give up the fish. The key factor in the whole event that no one has discussed is how a Shark can "Smell" in-trepidation and fear, and I won't lie that my heart was in overdrive and my Butt Cheeks were puckered into a cramp, I did my best to remain calm and never saw my life flash before my eyes or anything, but I did think to myself that I wasn't really hungry for Amberjack and no lie I was huffin' down the air!
Pat, If you had or have been in that same boat and won the day with fish in hand then my hat goes off to you! Me, I'll rethink how I spear and will not be left in this situation again without a better understanding of a game plan. Had I not had to free ascend from depth due to an idiot in my group and not knowing how long of a surface swim I had with fish in hand I may have tried to hold onto my fish a bit longer but with the thought of a surface swim ahead and a bull below, it seemed a task I did not want to endure! No disrespect intended, but in the same situation, the fish are gone again!
In regards to aggressive posturing toward a Shark, I appreciate your stand but swimming at a charging Bull Shark in my eyes is like running at an attacking Lion, in theory the Shark will turn but after 4 aggressive advances by the shark I felt it was time to give up the fish. The key factor in the whole event that no one has discussed is how a Shark can "Smell" in-trepidation and fear, and I won't lie that my heart was in overdrive and my Butt Cheeks were puckered into a cramp, I did my best to remain calm and never saw my life flash before my eyes or anything, but I did think to myself that I wasn't really hungry for Amberjack and no lie I was huffin' down the air!
Pat, If you had or have been in that same boat and won the day with fish in hand then my hat goes off to you! Me, I'll rethink how I spear and will not be left in this situation again without a better understanding of a game plan. Had I not had to free ascend from depth due to an idiot in my group and not knowing how long of a surface swim I had with fish in hand I may have tried to hold onto my fish a bit longer but with the thought of a surface swim ahead and a bull below, it seemed a task I did not want to endure! No disrespect intended, but in the same situation, the fish are gone again!
OP
MRXRAY
Contributor
And who's to say that the Bull in my encounter had not already learnt the Diver=Food lesson?
I strongly suspect that the shark had probably already learned this lesson by your description of the site.... and brother believe me I know how counter intuitive it sounds to charge headfirst at an aggressive shark, sheer lunacy right? The thing is it works consistently! All that heart thumping comes off as you being pissed instead of you pissing. Not everytime, and there is no way for me to further armchair quarter back your situation and say it would have worked for you.
In my experience, it is hands down the most effective way to deal with them. One last reason to avoid feeding the sharks is that they tend to become more "erratic" once they have begun feeding and that is when the few spearing divers that I have heard of ended up getting "nipped."
We (my core group of spearing friends) tend to average one overly curious shark in every 10 dives requiring a poke or two to get rid of. About 1/5 of those are aggressive (fins down back arched and swimming with rapid jerky movements). Collectively the 5 of us do more than 700 spearfishing dives every year. I have been tail slapped, skin scraped and once rammed full on in the ribs from an 8' bull I never saw that blasted the wind from my lungs and bruised me for weeks. The shark hit me above where my mostly full fish hoop was, mouth closed, and showed no more interest after that, I very clearly did not back it down and have never been so scared before or since.
The point of these forums is to generate discussion,and I saw a great opportunity in this thread to bring in a different point of view on how to handle sharks, ideally so that someone else may have the benefit of knowing this is a situation that is not unusual nor is it without an advised course of action from the guys that have far more experience than those of us in the rec sector who do it for fun. I meant no disrespect and apologize if any came off in my post, I'm told I'm not the best at communicating face to face so limitations of internet posts make me come off even further from my intended message. Obviously, you exercised your best judgment and no one is in a better position than you to make the call about how to handle that situation at that time.
In my experience, it is hands down the most effective way to deal with them. One last reason to avoid feeding the sharks is that they tend to become more "erratic" once they have begun feeding and that is when the few spearing divers that I have heard of ended up getting "nipped."
We (my core group of spearing friends) tend to average one overly curious shark in every 10 dives requiring a poke or two to get rid of. About 1/5 of those are aggressive (fins down back arched and swimming with rapid jerky movements). Collectively the 5 of us do more than 700 spearfishing dives every year. I have been tail slapped, skin scraped and once rammed full on in the ribs from an 8' bull I never saw that blasted the wind from my lungs and bruised me for weeks. The shark hit me above where my mostly full fish hoop was, mouth closed, and showed no more interest after that, I very clearly did not back it down and have never been so scared before or since.
The point of these forums is to generate discussion,and I saw a great opportunity in this thread to bring in a different point of view on how to handle sharks, ideally so that someone else may have the benefit of knowing this is a situation that is not unusual nor is it without an advised course of action from the guys that have far more experience than those of us in the rec sector who do it for fun. I meant no disrespect and apologize if any came off in my post, I'm told I'm not the best at communicating face to face so limitations of internet posts make me come off even further from my intended message. Obviously, you exercised your best judgment and no one is in a better position than you to make the call about how to handle that situation at that time.
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