Any shark encounters out there?

Stone · Oct 18, 2001

I bought my wife a Hawaiian Sling for her birthday a couple of weeks ago. On her first dive with it, she had just speared a nice flounder (and was about to spear a second one) when a 5 ft Bullshark cruised in (vis was about 20 ft). I had to keep my speargun darn near up his nose while we got the flounder off Candy's pole.

Who says you can't Shark feed in Florida anymore?

Needless to say, we didn't bother to spear any more fish on that dive.

Hocky · Oct 18, 2001

We have one dive location here in Sydney, just 50m from a very popular surf beach, where there is a Grey Nurse Shark hangout.
I've been diving there for two years and there has always been between 10 and 30 (depending on the time of year) sharks just hanging around.
Its an awesome dive, and as Grey Nurse Sharks are non-agressive its a great dive to introduce newbies to shark diving.

The only dangerous shark that I have seen up close was a 4m Tiger and to be honest he didn't seem that interested in me at all. A little curious maybe, but that was all.

Hocky

King_Neptune · Oct 18, 2001

Unfortunately in this line of work, I come across Lawyers from time to time ... Really now, they aren't that rare!

:mission:

Belushi · Oct 19, 2001

Hey KN,
dont forget about the instructors as well!!

SubMariner · Oct 19, 2001

But, lawyers (and fellow Instructors like Mr. B aside) when we lived aboard our sailboat in the Bahamas, sharks were not uncommon. Anything from nurse to black tip to reef.

Generally they tend to shy away from people. You are too noisy with all that bubbling & finger-pointing!

Of course, as Stone said, once you spear something you have to get out of the water fast, or one of them may come to dinner! (Those & the 'cudas.)

~SubMariner~

Stone · Oct 19, 2001

In general, a bullshark won't end our dive, just the spearfishing. We do tend to look over our shoulders a bit more.

There seems to be a spearfishing corolary to Murphy's Law:

If there is a shark on the reef, you will see the biggest Grouper and Black Snapper of the year (and they will swim up to your face and laugh).

kelpmermaid · Oct 19, 2001

I saw a soupfin shark recently for the first time --- well, actually, I only saw part of it. I noticed a sheepshead swimming away very quickly, and that's when I saw the gray tail disappearing into the kelp. It must have been watching us. I did not know what type of shark it was it was when I saw it, but that was obviously the tail of a large shark. We waited to see where it went, but it did not return, so we continued on back to the boat. Needless to say, no safety stop was completed on that dive. Later, I heard that someone else had seen it and identified it as a soupfin.

Zellet · Oct 19, 2001

I would like to see a shark,needles to say I would not want it to eat me! I think that Hammer Head sharks are the coolest,because they have a head shaped like a hammer,so I would like to see one of them.It would be hard to see a reef shark because they have good camoufalge, anyway even if they didn't have camoufalge I would not want to see one,because they are small and I like big sharrks.

Bob · Oct 19, 2001

Stone,
Was spearfishing in the gulf with some buddy's about two weeks ago. I had already shot a snapper and my buddy Joe had just shot a nice hogfish and was busy getting the fish on his stringer when a five ft. bull came cruising by. I gave Joe a heads up and we started watching him as he was watching us. Like your encounter I wound up sticking him in the nose with my spear. He left real fast and so did we. As agressive as he was, we decided to end our dive there and move to another location.:tree:Bob

caymancase · Oct 19, 2001

My boyfriend and I had to move our boat to a marina for some work so we decided to slip in a quick dive on the way.... what a treat! As soon as we got down to depth we saw a 5-6 ft. black tip. With video camera in hand (thank goodness we thought to bring it!)we saw a second black tip swim up with the first. They proceeded to swim around together in a "dance" that lasted for clear on 20 minutes! Me thinks it was love? Either way, they completely ignored us and we had a great time watching them ignore us!
As an added treat, on the trip back through the shallow waters of the sound we spotted a fin and stopped the boat. We must have churned up a tasty tid bit for a baby hammerhead (3ft.) who decided to stick his head out of the water to say HI! and thank us for his "churned up snack".
Casey

Any shark encounters out there?

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Stone

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Hocky

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King_Neptune

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Belushi

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SubMariner

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Stone

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Zellet

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Bob

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