A Critical Error Leads To A Dicey Situation And An Education For This New Diver...

[CuzzA]

Nice write up. A side question:
why not ditch your fishes? is it possible that the sharks were after your fishes because they smell the blood?

Thank you. Well, eventually I did. It was a 15 minute battle I was having in my mind... Those are my fish. I earned them. But, at the end of the day I'm an alien in their environment and fish aren't worth dying for. I needed to focus on getting the boats attention.

I don't believe it's as much the blood as it is the still pulsing nerves in the fish. Despite the fish being essentially dead, they still twitch for some time unless you sever the spinal cord with your shot. Some guys brain the fish which will create more blood, but I believe it stops the twitch. I've never done it.

The whole "a shark can smell a drop of blood a mile away" is silly. But they can sense the electrical pulses and sense an injured fish, school of bait, a heart beat, etc. from a great distance. It's pretty remarkable really. Whenever I read about it reminds me of the character Neo in the movie The Matrix. I envision sharks seeing the ocean in a electrical and magnetic picture. They also use their lateral line as well to size up prey and threats. Notice the shark paused as it turned and gave me a broad side of his lateral line after I threw the butt of my gun down toward it. He was sizing me up. And of course their eyes. Put it all together and you have a perfect navigating predator with sharp teeth.

Ampullae of Lorenzini - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lateral line - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[KathyV]

Thank you for taking the time to explain. It is still difficult for me but I will try to understand.

 

[lv2dive]

This has been a great thread - thanks to CuzzA for posting the story and for being open to constructive feedback, and to everyone who has provided it!

 

[BertStevens]

:lolabove: What he said! Good thread.

 

[lv2dive]

Appreciate the concurrence, minor point of clarification, "he" is a "she"

:lolabove: What he said! Good thread.

 

[Joneill]

I don't believe it's as much the blood as it is the still pulsing nerves in the fish. Despite the fish being essentially dead, they still twitch for some time unless you sever the spinal cord with your shot. Some guys brain the fish which will create more blood, but I believe it stops the twitch. I've never done it.

The whole "a shark can smell a drop of blood a mile away" is silly. But they can sense the electrical pulses and sense an injured fish, school of bait, a heart beat, etc. from a great distance. It's pretty remarkable really. .

Ampullae of Lorenzini - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lateral line - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

But when sharks do detect blood, it often indicates there is wounded prey they can likely easily overpower - so having bleeding fish hanging off of you is a bad idea if there is a hungry shark nearby.

 

[Jax]

Thank you for taking the time to explain. It is still difficult for me but I will try to understand.

I wonder if this isn't pure instinct of the spear-fisher. Any place in nature, once the predator has made a kill, they often do their damnedest to keep it.

Divers would need to recognize this, as did CuzzA, and know to fight the urge to keep the kill.

 

[The Chairman]

Yes, it has been a great thread so far.

The atavistic thrill of hunting has been described by many a scholar and scientist. In fact, it's an accepted fact that our hunting imperative has greatly influenced our special evolution. In general, man is truly an omnivore: we eat everything. Some have repressed this impulse societally and that's OK. Others may even be experiencing an evolutional repression, which is also OK. A number of us give in to our desire to hunt. Some discover that they have a latent desire that gets released with their first Lionfish kill. It's all OK. It's a huge ocean and I can assure you that spearos are not the ones pushing any particular organism to extinction. We care. Most of us play by the rules. We like to catch our dinner and love to hear about others doing the same. It's all good.

 

[CuzzA]

Yes, it has been a great thread so far.

The atavistic thrill of hunting has been described by many a scholar and scientist. In fact, it's an accepted fact that our hunting imperative has greatly influenced our special evolution. In general, man is truly an omnivore: we eat everything. Some have repressed this impulse societally and that's OK. Others may even be experiencing an evolutional repression, which is also OK. A number of us give in to our desire to hunt. Some discover that they have a latent desire that gets released with their first Lionfish kill. It's all OK. It's a huge ocean and I can assure you that spearos are not the ones pushing any particular organism to extinction. We care. Most of us play by the rules. We like to catch our dinner and love to hear about others doing the same. It's all good.

 

[wico6768]

The whole "a shark can smell a drop of blood a mile away" is silly.

Lateral line - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

They actually can, it's how we call them in when we get to splurge on an over water bungalow in an atoll.

I won't expand more, but we DO throw in fish and they DO come in eventually, like about 30 or so. The only reason would be the blood/smell of food. Not twitching, the food is very much dead and not moving. I'm not arguing whether we should do it, it's ,maybe once every 2 to 3 years for one night, but man is it fun to have all those sharks around. Sometimes rays as well. I don't think our bungalow mates would like it but we only do it at night. And then, only once every 2 to 3 years anyway. This last time it was chicken, and there were about 25 that eventually came in. The chicken was dead dead dead. Lag time is maybe 10 minutes, depending how far out they are. They come in gradually until there is a large amount. It doesn't take long.

Otherwise, kudos for your story and glad you made it out safely.