drrich2
Contributor
Hi:
General interest topic. With people debunking the stigma some animals bear, whether reasonable advances based on experience (e.g.: diving off North Carolina wrecks surrounded by sand tiger sharks, safe and not worried...assuming nobody's spearfishing, anyway) or to the extreme (e.g.: a woman free-diving and 'riding' pulled through the water on the dorsal fin of a great white shark), a question many divers face at some point...what will you knowingly get in the water with? What won't you?
Seems like a decent topic for discussion. So far, I've been fine with big green moray eels, large barracuda, scorpionfish and lion fish, reef sharks, nurse sharks and sand tiger sharks. I believe that I would be okay with group diving observing bull, tiger or hammerhead shark feeds - but I haven't got to do those things yet.
On the other hand, I saw a video of a guy jump in the water with a giant squid (it was in a shallow area by shore, I'm guessing sick, but still alive). Uh, no. Even during the day, with no food in the water, I'd want to talk about getting in the water around humboldt squid. Can hardly imagine cageless great white diving. On my California trip last summer, 3 of us did a short night dive in the general area of the Rookery off Santa Barbara. I was down at night, in a wetsuit so I resembled a fat sea lion, off a sea lion rookery, in a region where great whites hunt seals & sea lions. I know people do this sort of thing a lot, I went ahead and did it, but I kept thinking if one had gotten me, I could imagine someone in Heaven going 'Hey, you're early. Why are...huh? You were doing what?!?!?' You can do oceanic white-tip diving off Cat Island, but the way I read they behave in reports, too rich for my blood at this point.
So, where do you draw the line? Any shark? Bull sharks? Tiger sharks? Oceanic white-tips? Big barracuda? Anaconda snakes? Alligators okay? Nesting titan triggerfish? Some people snorkel with orcas - cannot see myself doing that. Humboldt Squid? Why do (live-aboard) loads of people dive cageless with tiger sharks off Grand Bahama's Tiger Beach but cageless great white diving is still mostly taboo? Is it just because whites are scarier looking, or is it something else?
Richard.
P.S.: The above assume good viz. and conditions. If it's real murky and you know a big barracuda or an 8 foot bull shark's close by, I imagine a lot of people would leave the water.
General interest topic. With people debunking the stigma some animals bear, whether reasonable advances based on experience (e.g.: diving off North Carolina wrecks surrounded by sand tiger sharks, safe and not worried...assuming nobody's spearfishing, anyway) or to the extreme (e.g.: a woman free-diving and 'riding' pulled through the water on the dorsal fin of a great white shark), a question many divers face at some point...what will you knowingly get in the water with? What won't you?
Seems like a decent topic for discussion. So far, I've been fine with big green moray eels, large barracuda, scorpionfish and lion fish, reef sharks, nurse sharks and sand tiger sharks. I believe that I would be okay with group diving observing bull, tiger or hammerhead shark feeds - but I haven't got to do those things yet.
On the other hand, I saw a video of a guy jump in the water with a giant squid (it was in a shallow area by shore, I'm guessing sick, but still alive). Uh, no. Even during the day, with no food in the water, I'd want to talk about getting in the water around humboldt squid. Can hardly imagine cageless great white diving. On my California trip last summer, 3 of us did a short night dive in the general area of the Rookery off Santa Barbara. I was down at night, in a wetsuit so I resembled a fat sea lion, off a sea lion rookery, in a region where great whites hunt seals & sea lions. I know people do this sort of thing a lot, I went ahead and did it, but I kept thinking if one had gotten me, I could imagine someone in Heaven going 'Hey, you're early. Why are...huh? You were doing what?!?!?' You can do oceanic white-tip diving off Cat Island, but the way I read they behave in reports, too rich for my blood at this point.
So, where do you draw the line? Any shark? Bull sharks? Tiger sharks? Oceanic white-tips? Big barracuda? Anaconda snakes? Alligators okay? Nesting titan triggerfish? Some people snorkel with orcas - cannot see myself doing that. Humboldt Squid? Why do (live-aboard) loads of people dive cageless with tiger sharks off Grand Bahama's Tiger Beach but cageless great white diving is still mostly taboo? Is it just because whites are scarier looking, or is it something else?
Richard.
P.S.: The above assume good viz. and conditions. If it's real murky and you know a big barracuda or an 8 foot bull shark's close by, I imagine a lot of people would leave the water.
