First ever shark encounter

[Janko]

So I'm still 'wet' behind the ears (hehe), but I just went on my first shark dive.

Now, I must say I originally imagined a 'shark dive' as going down and seeing an ominous, pitch black cave filled with conniving mastermind carnivores, hearing creepy horror film music in my head and being all scared as packs of underwater man-eaters lured me into their death jaws. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

Once I got down there, I realised diving with sharks was just like any other dive - and that sharks are just like any other fish, that is, equally intriguing and docile. I came across a Grey Nurse chilling out under a rock outcropping, and later, a large group of 6-8 Port Jacksons swimming around like they owned the place.

 

[Albion]

Nice one, cant be beat.

I was leading some novice divers recently and found a couple of tiny bamboo sharks under some coral. Showed the first diver, then the second, gave em a 'you see it ok' sign, second one gives a yes, first one gives a what is it shrug, so i show her the shark fin salute, next thing all i can see is a mass of bubbles and her set of fins disapear into distance.

 

[Wildcard]

They are cool! Always look foreword to seeing them.

 

[montyb]

I was hunting in Ensenada Mx. back in 1991. Had a stringer full of pinto bass hung from my weight belt and glanced over toward deepwater. Vis at least 75' below the thermocline and saw at least a 8 - 10 ft Shark (don't know what make or model) but it was a shark 25' away swimming abreast of me. I decided to exit to my boat asap and unload the bleeding fish. That certainly got my heart pumping. Went back in but no sign of it.
montyb

 

[jiveturkey]

My first shark was a leapord. One of the most graceful animals I've ever seen. We were coming around a wall when it just floated down from above and swam off into the blue. Very peaceful and much different than what the movies would lead you to believe.

 

[DeputyDan]

My first shark was on the City of Washington in the upper keys... it was to cool to worry about anything.

My 12 year old spotted it first and latter said that - that was worth going through all that quarry mess for.

 

[divenut2001]

My first shark encounter was on the Duane off Key Largo. On the way out to the wreck the DM says, "oh by the way there is a resident "Bull" shark that lives by the wreck and if you tap on your tank with your knife, he might come out".

My first thoughts were "WHAT, a bull shark, like the one that just bit some kids arm off recently"!!! (An incident involving a young boy who had his arm bitten off by a bull shark while swimming had just recently occured). Yeah, that's what I want to do, wake up the shark and piss him off, good idea. "Hmmm, maybe I'll skip this dive".

The DM says, "don't worry, this shark has seen more divers and has not bothered a single one".

OK, I'm in, and so was every other diver. Down the anchor line we went. And there he was, big as life, cruising over the sand bottom off the starboard side of the wreck. And there we were, in the midst of one of the most dangerous sharks in the ocean, and he could "care less" that we were there.

Don't think I even saw any of the wreck because my eyes were glued to the bull shark the whole dive. I too lost my fear of sharks that day, which has allowed me to respect and appreciate those beautiful creatures.)