Spiegel Grove - Special Visitor Earlier This Week

[Divin'Papaw]

Can anyone explain the logic behind wanting to dive with a GWS? It's like backpacking in Alaska and intentionally trying to have Grizzly encounters.

No, the non brain damaged backpackers are trying to avoid encounters with Grizzly Bears.

Now when I dove the Speigel a few weeks ago we saw a big Reef Shark but I don't want to see a GWS.

They’re not man eating killing machines. Same with Grizzlies. Hikers & backpackers see them regularly and live to talk about it.

 

[Scuba-74]

Diving the Spiegel about a week from now. Will keep an eye out.

 

[drrich2]

Can anyone explain the logic behind wanting to dive with a GWS?

We probably need to quantify that a bit. The issue is cageless diving. I think a lot of divers, if they were on a dive boat and a big great white were sighted under the boat, cruising around the dive site, would not jump in. And for just the reason you allude to; that it's dangerous.

But...what if you were on a routine dive, and a nice one came cruising by, didn't attack, you got a good look, enjoyed seeing a majestic animal and could now say you had, and ideally got a nice snap shot of it before it swam off?

That...would be magic.

Cageless shark diving with some species is accepted, and while controversial, shark-feeding dives to bait them in is fairly common; tiger, bull, lemon and great hammerhead sharks come to mind. I don't know how people get oceanic white-tips in, but cageless diving with them is a 'thing,' too.

Premeditated cageless diving with a great white seems far more a minority niche...but it does happen. I don't think that's quite what most of us are wishing for, though.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

I am super jealous. A buddy and I did the Guadalupe trip a couple of years ago, and by the third day of seeing Great Whites, we'd become somewhat desensitized to them. However, encountering one in the open would be quite another thing. I'll never forget the first time I encountered a big momma tiger shark on a solo dive in Kona. But even then, I was diving in a place known for tigers, and actively looking for them. I've rarely encountered sharks when I wasn't looking for them -- much less a GWS!

I came away from Guadalupe Island with the same feeling - I wouldn't say it was so much being "desensitized" as feeling like "hands and feet inside the ride at all times." It's the difference between filming lions from a Land Rover and walking on the savanna; that sense you're actually in the environment with the animals and have to show them respect.

It seems like most of the white sharks moving through South Florida waters are passing through en route to other destinations; even when the shark dive charters off Jupiter see them they tend to fly right by without even stopping to investigate. Spotting one down here is an exceptional bit of luck.

 

[chillyinCanada]

You never know what ocean creature you will encounter while under the surface!

That was wild. It was as if the barracuda were chasing it away.

 

[nippurmagnum]

Can anyone explain the logic behind wanting to dive with a GWS? It's like backpacking in Alaska and intentionally trying to have Grizzly encounters.
.

Louis Armstrong famously said “If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know.” But that’s not quite fair in this case. I used to think that divers who intentionally sought out sharks were jerks who had a death wish and/or a sad need to demonstrate their machismo. I got into diving with sharks gradually, after many years of seeing them by chance, and developing an appreciation for them. But you either experience it for yourself, or you don’t. Just like many people say “I could never get into diving, I’d be afraid of getting trapped.” You learn to dive, and discover what a thrill it is. But you can’t really explain the logic of it to someone who pleads claustrophobia.

 

[Scuba-74]

Can anyone explain the logic behind wanting to dive with a GWS? It's like backpacking in Alaska and intentionally trying to have Grizzly encounters.

I think there is a rational explanation, and a "herd mentality" explanation.

The rational explanation is that it is well established that a chance for a diver to be attacked by a GW is extremely low. Off the top of my head I don't remember reading about a diver being attacked by a GW. It usually happens to people making erratic motions on the surface. So, this is probably the safest way to observe an apex predator in its natural habitat, much safer than grizzly bears, lions, wolves, etc.

The "herd mentality" explanation is that unfortunately in our society there are "popular" opinions, that are readily shared my many, and there are "frowned upon" opinions, that people prefer to keep to themselves. In theory, one is entitled to his/her opinion, and has a right to share it. In practice, they know that they may get a new one torn if they voiced it out.

This happened to me a year or two ago in a discussion about the GW infested Cape Cod. There was a report of a GW coming very close to shore on a presumably safe bay side, right next to a popular shore dive spot. There are also seals in the area. When I pointed out that that site was no longer safe (which in low visibility and amongst seals I believe it certainly was not), I was subjected to a barrage of mockery and humiliation. Being "shark cautions" or in any way opposed to uncontrolled growth of their population is just not a position our "tolerant" society is ready accept.

 

[kelemvor]

Wow! What a sight that must have been. Those barracuda on the other hand would make me very nervous. I do not like those things one bit, they're like politicians in that you can't trust 'em.