Wobbegong Sharks

[roughwater]

Hi,

I was wondering if there are some people here that are familiar with this shark species that would care to share some information on what they have observed about these sharks.

I'm particular interested in their mood with divers and snorkelers nearby, how likely (or unlikely) bite attacks are from these creatures (and whether provoking is necessary or whether it will happen at random), and what sort of damage is normally done if one is attacked, but any information on them in general would also be handy.

If you meet one in a sea-cave for instance are you in trouble, or do you need to grab them or provoke them before they become aggressive?

And... how close can I get my camera to one until I'm being foolish?

Cheers

 

[Doc]

They are opportunistic bottom feeders, less physical than say- a Nurse Shark. Unless you go all Steve Irwin on them, they will ignore you.

How close can you get? With slow and careful movements, you can likely get within inches. Touching them is ill advised- why would one do this, anyway? They can turn 360° in their own shadow and instantly try to eat your hand tugging at their tail. This is more of an aggressive clamp-down (from local stories), but their teeth are substantially more aggressive than a Nurse Shark (which specializes in crushing shells and exoskeletons).

They will react to your presence in ways you can not see, at first. Until they are sure that you are not a threat (by detecting large areas of movement), they simply will not feed. I have seen videos of them done by remote drone cameras (placed pointed at one, then retrieved later) where, after several minutes left alone, they did exhibit some minor movements exhibiting predatory behavior. They lay in wait and then lunge and grab. I think they shared some tricks with the Toadfish.

They are a fairly common sight in the Philippines, although overfished as they have a lot of desirable meat and leather. There are many documented stories of these critters clamping down on humans, but please refer to the Irwin Method for details.

 

[roughwater]

Thanks for the info Roatanman. Looks like I've been a little over cautious with these creatures.

Cheers

Adam.

 

[almitywife]

we have lots of wobbes here and i ALWAYS leave them alone

from my OW i have always been told wobbes are the only shark that can turn completely around so if youre holding their tail (not that i would do this!) they can bite you plus when feeding they are lightening quick and they dont like to let go

ive never heard of a injured diver or swimmer from wobbes and last month a wobbe breeding program released their first batch of sharks at Shelley Beach/Manly

cheers

 

[pengwe]

There are a few stories of divers being bitten by them. In the stories, it is usually the diver who initiates contact. Sometimes that is by accident, since they are well camouflaged. I kicked one by accident once. It did the turn on its tail thing, but it didn't bite me.

 

[TSandM]

We saw a lot of them in Australia, and they were all busy lying on something and doing as much nothing as possible.

We were also told that they're the perpetrator in most shark bites in Australia, simply because they are so docile-appearing that dive guides will tease them by pulling their tails, and also because they are so well camouflaged that people sit on them.

 

[*Ag*]

Hi,

If you meet one in a sea-cave for instance are you in trouble, or do you need to grab them or provoke them before they become aggressive?

And... how close can I get my camera to one until I'm being foolish?

Cheers

Typically they are pretty chilled out, you can get pretty close up for example: wobbie 1 wobbie 2

You just need to approach them slowly and be slow and don't be too jumpy around them, so they don't feel threatened. Leave them plenty of space to swim away too, so they don't feel blocked in.
On the other hand, they are wild animals and are unpredictable, so if one of them is having a bad day and you annoy it, it might be the last straw... in which case it will hurt. So do be careful...

 

[SparticleBrane]

[Garrison Keillor]

"Where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average."

[/Garrison Keillor]



...please tell me I'm not the only one to think of this after reading the thread title.