Diving with the Bull sharks

[mtamborra]

wow, how scary was it to dive with them? Aren't they the most aggressive sharks? I was just in Cozumel in September and didn't even know they had bullsharks there

 

[halocline]

The article is from November 23, 2012.

So does that mean that you wrote it and posted it as a joke? Or did you just pass it off as 'real' news.

Sorry, I don't really get it.

 

[PARADISE HUNTER]

wow, how scary was it to dive with them? Aren't they the most aggressive sharks? I was just in Cozumel in September and didn't even know they had bullsharks there

The bull shark dive is in Playa, across the channel from Coz.

It's not scary, but exciting. Your max depth is 90', on a sandy bottom with good vis. The sharks come to check you out and circle you for a while. Different ones come and go. They get with in 10 meters of you, but are not aggresive. After they determine you're not a food source, they swim away. Both dives we did were short (30 - 40 minutes), someone is usually sucking down their air fast.

I look at it as a safe and rare opportunity to dive with these powerful animals.

Throw chum in the water and it is a whole different scene.

 

[Mike]

I like this part of the dive equation:

They get with in 10 meters of you, but are not aggresive. After they determine you're not a food source, they swim away.

When this is what is thought about them:

They seem not to view humans as prey under normal conditions, but will bite out of curiosity or when threatened, or in water where visibility is poor and a human might easily be mistaken for a prey animal. Despite their apparent docility at times, they are capable of surprising bursts of speed, and can be highly aggressive. Their aggression is fueled by testosterone. The bull shark has one of the highest testosterone levels of all animals. Like all sharks, their behavior is poorly understood and can seem unpredictable.

So again - what is the dive plan if one of these gentle little kitties suddenly turns aggressive, suddenly starts paying more attention to you then you bargained for all of a sudden? Hide under a conch shell? Dig a hole in that sandy bottom? Swim to your safety stop and hang out for 5 minutes while you tell the shark - "hey, time out."

Bull sharks have been known to use the 'bump-and-bite' technique to attack their prey. Relatively calm bull sharks can suddenly become violent and begin to bump divers

They are extremely territorial and attack animals that enter their territory. Along with the great white and tiger sharks, bull sharks are among the three species most likely to attack humans.

They are, due to their habits, probably responsible for the majority of attacks on humans that take place near shore

At any other times bull sharks are very territorial, and although they travel widely, they will not tolerate other bull sharks, or other large sharks for that matter in their immediate vicinity.

The Bull Shark is an omnivorous animal. It routinely preys upon fish, sharks (especially young sandbar sharks), rays, turtles, echinoderms, birds, mollusks, dolphins, and almost anything else it can find. Remains of everything from humans to hippopotami have been found in Bull Sharks' stomachs.

The Bull Shark is considered by many people to be the most dangerous shark alive. Its close proximity to populated shoreline areas and its aggressive behavior makes it extremely dangerous to humans. Despite the notoriety of other sharks such as the Great White and the Tiger Shark, the fact that they live in deeper ocean waters makes them less dangerous.

So you have a shark commonly agreed upon to be the most dangerous one in the ocean, who is territorial, bumps and bites to test you to see if you are food, usually won't bother you unless you are close to the shore line and in shallower water, and to add to the fun is known to be unpredictable and we throw in aggresive just to top it all off.

Then to stir up the danger level, you dive close to shore in shallower water in it's territory with Zero defenses, zero plan B should the shark just do what it has been programmed by nature to do.

My pretend article might get written sooner then we think.

 

[PARADISE HUNTER]

Oh Mike, you've been busy.

It's getting hard to tell which parts you made up and which you didn't. Short on sources and long on sensationalizing.

For those who have some interest, this is a link to one of the older dive shops in Playa who has an excellent reputaion. It takes you to there blog about diving with the bulls. They combine an educational class along with the dive.

Tales of the Blue

Keep in mind this isn't a new dive in Playa. Hundreds of people have done this over the past few years, with and without chum. NO ONE has been bitten. I'm not saying it can't and won't happen and it's not for everyone. But it also is not ticking time bomb some are making it out to be. If you go, be sure to support one of the dive shops that don't chum.

O.k. I think I gave Mike enough time to find some JAWS movie clips. Probably post them as a National Geographic special.

 

[Byte Me]

I dove with Scuba 10 last week to see the Bull sharks. Excellent experience, no chumming, just observation in their natural environment. Please don't dive with shops that chum. It is a stupid stupid thing to do and will only lead to someone dying and reinforcement of the idea that sharks pose a threat to people. The biggest threat to people is other people.

Oldman's remarks here seem to reflect those of some others as well and I'm not trying to call anyone out but what I don't understand is - if you dive with a shop that chums consensus is that shouldn't be supported correct?

Ok, so given that, now that the sharks are USED TO BEING FED - what's the difference is you go with a shop that feeds them or not? You're going to the same spot right? 1/4 or 1/2 mile off the SE side of the old north ferry pier which is occasionally still used. A bit further east than Mo Che Shallow and Jardines. So because you go to a site where some shops regularly chum or feed, but at a different time to take advantage of the fact that these sharks are there - how or why is that different?

I was down there for the last 5 days, didn't get to go to this site with the Bulls but the guy I dive with was there. Told the story of them being VERY curious getting quite close and not at 90' but shortly after rolling in.

Personally, I fall into the camp of believing that "shark wrangling" dives can help further their cause. Provide a glimpse at the oceans top predator in a very unique way. I did Cara a Cara in Roatan - Cara a Cara - Roatan, Honduras on Vimeo - and loved it. Have renewed respect for them and like OP saw a couple with hooks in their mouths trailed by leaders. They were also pretty scarred up from breeding.

On top of the eventuality that there may be an incident with a diver I'd also not be surprised one bit if there was an incident between dive shops - not dissimilar from what happened in Roatan.

"over the years, some dive instructors, oftentimes working without their dive shop's knowledge or approval, would bring a group of dive clients to piggy-back on the Waihuka's group.
In one such incident on January 14, dive instructor Willie DeBeer took a group of Sueño del Mar tourists to the shark site, following a group of Waihuka clients who were already there. Mirabella saw the group coming and attempted to shut the diver's oxygen tank off. An underwater scuffle ensued between Mirabella and DeBeer, and charges of attempted murder were filed with the Roatan fiscal office.
The incident highlighted tensions and competition over the shark resource. "

While the FACTS of that incident are murky at best does Playa really need this kind of story or worse yet a diver incident story?

 

[Mike]

Oh Mike, you've been busy.

It's getting hard to tell which parts you made up and which you didn't. Short on sources and long on sensationalizing.

For those who have some interest, this is a link to one of the older dive shops in Playa who has an excellent reputaion. It takes you to there blog about diving with the bulls. They combine an educational class along with the dive.

Tales of the Blue

Keep in mind this isn't a new dive in Playa. Hundreds of people have done this over the past few years, with and without chum. NO ONE has been bitten. I'm not saying it can't and won't happen and it's not for everyone. But it also is not ticking time bomb some are making it out to be. If you go, be sure to support one of the dive shops that don't chum.

O.k. I think I gave Mike enough time to find some JAWS movie clips. Probably post them as a National Geographic special.

I applaud you for developing a sense of humor of maybe for at least just letting out the one you already had.

(Hey a friendly tip - if you ever want to research a quote, just cut and paste it into the google search box and you'll be taken right to the page it comes from.)

I was down there for the last 5 days, didn't get to go to this site with the Bulls but the guy I dive with was there. Told the story of them being VERY curious getting quite close and not at 90' but shortly after rolling in.

Personally, I fall into the camp of believing that "shark wrangling" dives can help further their cause. Provide a glimpse at the oceans top predator in a very unique way. I did Cara a Cara in Roatan - Cara a Cara - Roatan, Honduras on Vimeo - and loved it. Have renewed respect for them and like OP saw a couple with hooks in their mouths trailed by leaders. They were also pretty scarred up from breeding.

On top of the eventuality that there may be an incident with a diver I'd also not be surprised one bit if there was an incident between dive shops - not dissimilar from what happened in Roatan.

"over the years, some dive instructors, oftentimes working without their dive shop's knowledge or approval, would bring a group of dive clients to piggy-back on the Waihuka's group.
In one such incident on January 14, dive instructor Willie DeBeer took a group of Sueño del Mar tourists to the shark site, following a group of Waihuka clients who were already there. Mirabella saw the group coming and attempted to shut the diver's oxygen tank off. An underwater scuffle ensued between Mirabella and DeBeer, and charges of attempted murder were filed with the Roatan fiscal office.
The incident highlighted tensions and competition over the shark resource. "

While the FACTS of that incident are murky at best does Playa really need this kind of story or worse yet a diver incident story?

We bailed on that dive this year. 4 of us all came to the same consensus at the same time and all of us walked off the boat due to not being comfortable with the op nor the conditions that day, nor what was going on which to all of us appeared to be forcing a bad situation. I won't go into the details to slam the op, but it's pretty obvious what that ops motivations are.

Some background so you can get an idea where I'm coming from and not some crazy anti-shark dude.

I've done the shark dive with Stuart Coves in the Bahamas, wanted to do the shark dive in Roatan but aborted that dive, as I stated. I have plans to do the great white dives off of Guadalupe island in the future.

I'm not anti shark dive. I'm anti-bone headedness, follow the fins in front of you without stopping and considering what you are doing before you do it.

The differences I see on these 4 different shark dives -

Both the Bahamas and Roatan dives are with reef sharks
The Great White dives are done in cages

These dives off Playa are with Bull Sharks and no cages, no continguencies, no plan B, no nothing with what I see as a very fledgling, figure it out as you go along dive situation.

I like sharks, but I also like living with all my body parts.

Paradise Hunter - this one is for you --- Oops, that had to hurt!

 

[tight rope walker]

I just have a quick question. And in the words of Hooper," I just don't want to get beat up here". Everything I've read or seen states that of all the shark species, the bull is the worst. I don't want to waste anybodys time here, but, if you get in a cadge when a great whites in the water, and the bull sharks the worst, shouldn't you get in a cadge when a bulls in the water?

you go in the cadge
cadge goes in the water
you go in the water
sharks in the water, our shark

 

[Dave Dillehay]

We did the bull shark dive once--won't do it again. Down below is bad enough but when they follow you up to the boat? But if you must I suggest that you use Diveshopmexico.com. The owner, Manuel Acuna is an ex Aldora DM and does things as safe and as professionally as can be--but I'm not going back.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

 

[diverken374]

Wow!!!!
I just wanted to share a great dive experience and a great picture of a bull shark. I was not expecting such a "lively" discussion.
I chose to dive because I wanted to see sealife in its own natural environment not in a Seaquarium, Sea World, dolphin pen etc. etc.
Thanks Mike for your info on the bull sharks however prior to this dive I was well aware of the nature of bull sharks. We did a refresher search on the internet that only heightened my anxiety level.
I assessed the risks based on my own research and info provided by much more experienced divers than myself and yes the opinions were divided.
I dove with divemasters that I know and trust and are aware of my diving ability.
Yes, we dove according to a set predive plan that was reviewed and understood by us all.
No, we did not have a plan B or C as pointed out there probably is not one if things go sour.
I dive, while others choose to snorkel or sea the fishes from a glass bottom boat. It is a matter of your comfort/risk level or..... your stupidity level depending on which side of the fence you are sitting.
A great dive with some awesome creatures that I will now have a greater appreciation for as a result of this dive adventure.
Many more dive experiences to be had!!!