We were chased out of the water by sharks!

[DennisW]

Don't worry about sharks in the Keys. Oh, they are there, but you will most likely never see anything except a Nurse Shark. I have made many, many dives in the Keys and have only seen Nurse sharks. There are some areas that I believe are known to have Bull Sharks, but a dive operator will not take you there. Mostly around the bridges I believe.

In any case have a great time, I wish I could be there myself.

 

[Rick Murchison]

Originally posted by scuba-sass
Lets get back to that question of surfacing when you are faced with curious sharks. I too had heard that they attack from below, and that surfers are actually at much greater risk than scuba divers because of that.

Any Comments from the "shark experts"?

Scuba-sass

"Expert?" I wouldn't say that... "Experienced" - yes, I can claim that...
The "attacks from below" mantra comes from those sharks that typically feed on birds and small mammals like otters & baby seals - notably the Great White and Tiger.
But other sharks, especially the Bull, are "oportunistic" feeders and will attack up, down or sideways, including prey on the bottom. (The hammerhead is especially fond of stingray, which it pins to the bottom to eat - luckily hammerheads also hate bubbles...) Bulls in particular often swim in shallow water with poor visibility, and will "taste" anything they run into - hence the vast majority of Bull attacks are on swimmers or waders. With Bulls its best to keep 'em in sight and if the pectorals come down, watch 'em as you get out of the water.
The Galapagos? I have no experience there...
Rick

 

[MSilvia]

I heard about that incident, but recall it having been a porbeagle, not a mako. It was a great suprise to shark folks in the marine biology community, as cold water porbeagles (despite being close "mackrel shark" relatives of makos) are not known to be aggressive toward humans. That may of course simply be because the water they prefer is usually too cold for people to be in.

It would be easy to mistake one for the other though, as they look very similar except for the white coloration at the posterior base of the porbeagle's dorsal fin.

Originally posted by ebbtide
not meny sharks in my aera just the odd blue shark ,and perhaps a mako lurking somewhere out there .
but last fall a sea urchant diver in our aera was surprised when a 7 ft mako grabbed his bag of urchants witch was attched to the diver and wound up being towed arround for a fiew feet .
no report of a diver or any other swimmer in our aera ever been attacked by a shark , so my feer of them are nil at the moment.
once in a lifetime experience arround here .