Swimming/ diving with sharks

[DanPHudson]

Has anyone heard any info on the 7 foot hammerhead pulled in off Sharkey's Pier at venice beach? I'm relatively new to diving (under 50 dives) and have never dove or swam with sharks. How often are we diving with sharks and not even aware of it?

 

[Quarrior]

Sharks don't eat scuba divers, just swimmers, surfers, and spear fishers. Of course they eat ohter fish too.

 

[Dragon2115]

Has anyone heard any info on the 7 foot hammerhead pulled in off Sharkey's Pier at venice beach? I'm relatively new to diving (under 50 dives) and have never dove or swam with sharks. How often are we diving with sharks and not even aware of it?

All the time.

This was the last we saw of this poor bugger.

http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/49056/cat/1631

Just kidding, it swam by to see if he had any food. He didn't so it left.

Count yourself lucky if you get to see a shark in open water.

 

[Cacia]

I heard a statistic once and I can't remember exactly, but it was like every time you are in the ocean, you have a shark within 100 ft....or something like that....

 

[kensuguro]

I've had a couple of close encounters with nurse sharks. They're not aggressive at all, and seem very uninterested in our kind.. From my experience, there's only 1 or two people who get to see a shark from a dive boat because usually they see the shark, and the shark runs away.

I guess I'd worry if a certain kind of shark is known to be aggressive against any moving creature, but otherwise, I'd consider the encounter as if hitting a jackpot.

 

[Skeeter1097]

I have 32 dives of West Palm and the Keys and have never seen a shark. I am steel looking tho and Cary my camera.

 

[ReefGuy]

Unless you've never been to a beach in Florida swimming, you've swam with sharks. I'd rather encounter one diving than swimming.

What time of day did they catch the shark?

I'm relatively new to diving (under 50 dives) and have never dove or swam with sharks. How often are we diving with sharks and not even aware of it?

 

[herman]

It depends. In warm waters, it's very common to see nurse sharks. We saw them on almost every dive last weekend in the Keys. Most sharks shy away from divers and we rarely see them.
Here in the Carolinas, sand tigers are a totally different matter. We very commonly see them on the wrecks and they are not shy of (or aggressive to) divers. I had a 7-8fter join my buddy group last summer. He took a position 3 or 4 ft beside my buddy and swam with us for several minutes, way cool. For a few minutes my other buddy had a somewhat different opinion of the experience If you want to see a big shark up close and personal and not being enticed in by food, come dive our wrecks.

 

[kensuguro]

herman-> that's way cool!

 

[herman]

I thought so, to make the story even better, my buddy had expressed some concern about diving with the sharks before the dive. He wanted to see them but was unsure he wanted them up close. He had no idea the shark was almost in arm reach of him until I pointed it out to him. He looked to his side, looked very quickly back at me, then turned to watched the shark CLOSELY few several minutes. He turned back to me and gave me the "oh well, guess he is not going to eat me" sign. It made the entire 3 hr boat ride worth it.
Stories like that are pretty common here. We had one diver in our club jab a sand tiger in the mouth with his snorkel. The shark was swimming just over the diver (who had no idea he was there) and when he looked up to see what everyone was pointing at, he stuck his snorkel in the sharks mouth. We are not too sure who was more suprized the shark or the diver but both hauled butt in opposite directions.