Shark takes Jamaican Free Diver

[danvolker]

For this news to even be reported, it needs to reflect the overwhelming certainty that this guy was spearfishing.....he was referred to as a "fisherman", and other fisherman heard the commotion during the attack.

Spearing will cause a shark that would otherwise be docile, to become dangerous. This is analogous to the black Lab as a safe family pet, right up until a moron tries to pull a steak out of it's mouth while it is eating....it goes from loving pet to shredding an arm or hand, in seconds.

Shark behavior is altered radically by spearing or fishing--the struggling fish on a line.....Shark attack victims are typically either ignorant of this, or they chose to disregard it. Spearfisherman typically disregard this, at their own peril....Had he been diving with another buddy that could have been watching his back, it should have been easy enough to interceed....solo spearfishing, in an area many other people are actively fishing in, sounds to me like an exercise in Darwinian Selection....

We have kids in bad neighborhoods in South Florida that run into traffic at night, to see if they can get across without being hit....sort of a game with them....You may feel sorry for the families when one gets splattered, but they brought this on themselves--just like this spearfishing freediver.

 

[ScubaSteve1962]

For this news to even be reported, it needs to reflect the overwhelming certainty that this guy was spearfishing.....he was referred to as a "fisherman", and other fisherman heard the commotion during the attack.

Spearing will cause a shark that would otherwise be docile, to become dangerous. This is analogous to the black Lab as a safe family pet, right up until a moron tries to pull a steak out of it's mouth while it is eating....it goes from loving pet to shredding an arm or hand, in seconds.

Shark behavior is altered radically by spearing or fishing--the struggling fish on a line.....Shark attack victims are typically either ignorant of this, or they chose to disregard it. Spearfisherman typically disregard this, at their own peril....Had he been diving with another buddy that could have been watching his back, it should have been easy enough to interceed....solo spearfishing, in an area many other people are actively fishing in, sounds to me like an exercise in Darwinian Selection....

We have kids in bad neighborhoods in South Florida that run into traffic at night, to see if they can get across without being hit....sort of a game with them....You may feel sorry for the families when one gets splattered, but they brought this on themselves--just like this spearfishing freediver.

The times I've dove in Jamaica, it's not uncommon to see a lone fisherman out in the ocean free diving to check his traps. the traps in the pictures were about 40' to 60' down, the boats are the ones they commonly use with just an outboard motor. these were abandoned, had fish skeletons along with some live sea life, the good thing was the last 2 pics had a lot of lionfish in them

Do you think free-divers are more vulnerable to shark attacks? Most people I know believe they are.

Don't know about the shark attacks

 

[Tigerman]

Do you think free-divers are more vulnerable to shark attacks? Most people I know believe they are.

Dont know about freedivers as such, but spearfishers Im sure is more vulnerable, as well as snorklers (fish blood and spalshing around on the surface is two things that sharks like to see)

 

[manni-yunk]

For this news to even be reported, it needs to reflect the overwhelming certainty that this guy was spearfishing.....he was referred to as a "fisherman", and other fisherman heard the commotion during the attack.

Spearing will cause a shark that would otherwise be docile, to become dangerous. This is analogous to the black Lab as a safe family pet, right up until a moron tries to pull a steak out of it's mouth while it is eating....it goes from loving pet to shredding an arm or hand, in seconds.

Shark behavior is altered radically by spearing or fishing--the struggling fish on a line.....Shark attack victims are typically either ignorant of this, or they chose to disregard it. Spearfisherman typically disregard this, at their own peril....Had he been diving with another buddy that could have been watching his back, it should have been easy enough to interceed....solo spearfishing, in an area many other people are actively fishing in, sounds to me like an exercise in Darwinian Selection....

We have kids in bad neighborhoods in South Florida that run into traffic at night, to see if they can get across without being hit....sort of a game with them....You may feel sorry for the families when one gets splattered, but they brought this on themselves--just like this spearfishing freediver.

I agree with almost everything - EXCEPT the analogy to a dog. Well - I should say, a proper dog.

A well trained and PROPERLY socialized dog - will give up the steak. I have a 145 lb Bullmastiff that is VERY protective of the family - AND, my 4 and 5 year old daughters can take food from his mouth at any time and he doesnt care........

 

[Tigerman]

As he shouldnt. If you cant do that imo you have a potential problem as it considers itself your boss..

 

[John from the burg]

I realize that I'm late to the discussion but i have some personal insight to the topic that i feel is warrants stating.

First and foremost, nothing i say is meant to insinuate that spearfishing is safe, its dangerous and requires a person and his equipment to be top notch.

When we are down there with the suits shooting AND carrying around 1-10 dead fish in 15 ft of vis we are in direct competition. We want the same thing and sharks are not used to "giving up food" to an ape w a stick. Its unnatural for them to not get what they want, especially the bigger bitches so this gets them jittery w backs arched and fins down (about to bite for those who don't know shark body language).

When big mama the 8 ft bull sees/hears/feels (yes all three) you with a dead fish, your options are limited and people often do the worst thing you can do, feed them your fish. Soon as that shark gets fed a switch flips in their mind and a very obvious change happens, aggression turns up, speed turns up, distance between food and predator drops, fear drops, and buddys come to see what all the commotion is. This is the most dangerous situation one can get themselves in while shooting, the shark that was fed now knows you can produce food and they want more. The other shark buds who didn't get fed now want to be fed and they key on whatever the other sharks are keyed on, your ass. All you can do here is go for the boat and kicking off the sand in short vis with teeth around is always hard to do. Maintain control of your fish or even better, control and get it out of sight, Ive heard of guys stuffing fish in their bcs and wet suits just to get them out of view, Ive surface kicked 100 yards back to the boat (out of air) holding fish over my head to get it out of the water. I carry a trash bag in my bc at all times now just in case, if I'm kicking along and big mama shows up i just put the whole stinger in the bag and bail, they think you ate it and will sometimes calm down. If that doesn't work i growl, scream, make charges and generally act like i want to put her in the trash bag next. Alot of the time these two tactics works wonders, even for multiple sharks who are always way more amped than a single.

Pokes are something i don't enjoy doing, last thing i want to do is injure one of these amazing animals for just doing what they do... but... if i feel like my blood could spill them I'm doing it first and i wont apologize to anyone for it. Not one person in that circumstance would do different, maybe you wouldn't be there but i want fish and HATE the way our commercial boats do work so i will get my own, you keep contributing to the people raping our oceans, ill deal w suits.

Shooting fish in a lift bag is a popular method (especially in se fl) but over here in the gulf we don't do much live boating so its not going to help us really, just trash some lift bags and loose you fish. No thanks.

Solo spearfishing... This is a hard point w most people, your pounded buddy protocols all through every type of dive cert but it just plain doesn't work in spearfishing. I'm not out for a dive, I'm out for fish, the rules are different and if you don't do it then you don't know. You can stand on your box and call me a dumb ass all you want but driving everyday has a way better chance of cutting a life short. Were not rookies, we know what to do, we carry redundant air, redundant time keeping and even redundant dive plans. I'm sober, rested, hydrated and experienced, if i cant solo then no one should... PADI still has a solo cert right??? Lol.

Freediving beyond surface shooting is something fairly new to me but i am learning, taking a fii class and hunting w pros is helping w my learning curve but i do have freedivers on the boat from time to time and i agree they are more exposed. If for no other fact than they swim farther from the anchored boat than scuba guys do. More time to get to the boat means more time in the suck if you are getting stalked. On the other hand solo freediving is even more taboo than scuba because of the shallow water blackout issue. So alot of times while freediving your buddy is there to watch your back while you watch his, this calms you both down, lowers your heartbeat and doesn't gives the teeth a freaked out target to pursue.


I rambled on way longer than i expected, props to anyone who made it all the way through my post lol.

 

[Oldbear]

I realize that I'm late to the discussion but i have some personal insight to the topic that i feel is warrants stating.

First and foremost, nothing i say is meant to insinuate that spearfishing is safe, its dangerous and requires a person and his equipment to be top notch.

When we are down there with the suits shooting AND carrying around 1-10 dead fish in 15 ft of vis we are in direct competition. We want the same thing and sharks are not used to "giving up food" to an ape w a stick. Its unnatural for them to not get what they want, especially the bigger bitches so this gets them jittery w backs arched and fins down (about to bite for those who don't know shark body language).

When big mama the 8 ft bull sees/hears/feels (yes all three) you with a dead fish, your options are limited and people often do the worst thing you can do, feed them your fish. Soon as that shark gets fed a switch flips in their mind and a very obvious change happens, aggression turns up, speed turns up, distance between food and predator drops, fear drops, and buddys come to see what all the commotion is. This is the most dangerous situation one can get themselves in while shooting, the shark that was fed now knows you can produce food and they want more. The other shark buds who didn't get fed now want to be fed and they key on whatever the other sharks are keyed on, your ass. All you can do here is go for the boat and kicking off the sand in short vis with teeth around is always hard to do. Maintain control of your fish or even better, control and get it out of sight, Ive heard of guys stuffing fish in their bcs and wet suits just to get them out of view, Ive surface kicked 100 yards back to the boat (out of air) holding fish over my head to get it out of the water. I carry a trash bag in my bc at all times now just in case, if I'm kicking along and big mama shows up i just put the whole stinger in the bag and bail, they think you ate it and will sometimes calm down. If that doesn't work i growl, scream, make charges and generally act like i want to put her in the trash bag next. Alot of the time these two tactics works wonders, even for multiple sharks who are always way more amped than a single.

Pokes are something i don't enjoy doing, last thing i want to do is injure one of these amazing animals for just doing what they do... but... if i feel like my blood could spill them I'm doing it first and i wont apologize to anyone for it. Not one person in that circumstance would do different, maybe you wouldn't be there but i want fish and HATE the way our commercial boats do work so i will get my own, you keep contributing to the people raping our oceans, ill deal w suits.

Shooting fish in a lift bag is a popular method (especially in se fl) but over here in the gulf we don't do much live boating so its not going to help us really, just trash some lift bags and loose you fish. No thanks.

Solo spearfishing... This is a hard point w most people, your pounded buddy protocols all through every type of dive cert but it just plain doesn't work in spearfishing. I'm not out for a dive, I'm out for fish, the rules are different and if you don't do it then you don't know. You can stand on your box and call me a dumb ass all you want but driving everyday has a way better chance of cutting a life short. Were not rookies, we know what to do, we carry redundant air, redundant time keeping and even redundant dive plans. I'm sober, rested, hydrated and experienced, if i cant solo then no one should... PADI still has a solo cert right??? Lol.

Freediving beyond surface shooting is something fairly new to me but i am learning, taking a fii class and hunting w pros is helping w my learning curve but i do have freedivers on the boat from time to time and i agree they are more exposed. If for no other fact than they swim farther from the anchored boat than scuba guys do. More time to get to the boat means more time in the suck if you are getting stalked. On the other hand solo freediving is even more taboo than scuba because of the shallow water blackout issue. So alot of times while freediving your buddy is there to watch your back while you watch his, this calms you both down, lowers your heartbeat and doesn't gives the teeth a freaked out target to pursue.


I rambled on way longer than i expected, props to anyone who made it all the way through my post lol.

John,

You make some thought provoking arguments...your logic makes sense. By feeding them your are creating a false learned behavior. An extreme version of this were the black bears of Yellowstone in the 50's & 60's.

 

[John from the burg]

Thank you sir, i believe we can all coexist, no need for anger or animosity.

Wanna see ****ing crazy? Running of the Bulls - YouTube

The logic i have is that this is positive interaction... Let that sink in for a second.

The sharks are bad because people give them their fish, so, skilled spearos shooting fish then tag teaming them to the boat means the sharks are involved in a spearfishing situation but don't get fed. This breaks the pattern of speargun = food for mister gray suit, with people who know what they are doing a speargun = poke, not food. Every single time they get a poke and not fed we take one tiny step in the right direction.

Save the world, boycott net/long line acquired fish, go spearfishing.