Tried to spearfish in sharkland

[Adventure-Ocean]

Many years ago I was going on a awesome dive with a couple of friends. We went to a place called Galvez Banks. It's an underwater mountain about 20 miles south of Guam in the Marianas. We catch a lot of fish there bottom fishing and trolling. We knew it is the home of a lot of sharks so shooting a fish was not the priority. We all had good guns with us. The dive was 90ft deep to the top of the reef. We went down together but they swam off. I pretty much swam in large circles around the anchor line. It was like diving at marine land or some ocean park. Snappers, jacks , sweat lips, you name it they were there. As my time was getting close to ascend I made a stupid decision to shoot a 5 lb Red Snapper. Within moments the area was full of black tip and white tip sharks. I cut the line to the fish and slowly started to ascend while watching several sharks tear the Snapper to bits. When I reached the surface I was about 20 ft. from our trailing safety line. I kicked and swam as hard as I could but the current was keeping me from reaching the rope. I finally freaked out and ditched my gear and gun and swam for the rope. It was just a flash from the time I touched the rope until I was in the boat. It really scared the crap out me. Shortly later my friends surface. They have my gear and gun. They said they didn't see any sharks on they're way back. They never pulled the trigger on their guns. It's pretty clear now that the sound of the speargun and the vibration of the injured fish was like a dinner gong that went far out all around me. I'd like to say I learned my lesson and didn't dive alone again but in those days we often went out together but separated in order to hunt. I never did dive the banks again.

I feel this story points out a couple of interesting points. One is that there is a shark threat if you're speafishing in the ocean whether you can see them or not. Secondly is the difficulty we had in those days maintaining safety with a dive buddy and trying to hunt. It's hard enough to approach a large fish bubbling along with all our gear but to have two people around makes it near impossible. There is also the reality that spearfisherman have been known to shoot (by accident) they're partners.

I'm a retired hunter now but it would be interesting to me to hear how the current scuba hunter deals with these issues. Adventure-Ocean

 

[pocky21]

I'm a retired hunter now but it would be interesting to me to hear how the current scuba hunter deals with these issues.

Not a practice I agree with, as I hate killing sharks, but if it's a shark vs. my leg - the shark loses. Haven't had to use one yet, but there have been a few large bull sharks around here that are just a little too friendly, and a little too dumb to understand what a poke to the gills means.

 

[Doubler]

When I was stationed in Guam we would troll for Tuna on the Bank. Was real hard to boat one with out a shark getting his toll. I remember the day I was hooked up to a monster and had fought the fish for at least 30 minutes when all of a sudden he quit fighting. Boated a 30 lb head. Mahi mahi was great out there. Good memories!

 

[Hank49]

That sounds like a great spot.

We have a spot here, not blue water like that one, that is on the drop off of the reef outside a cut. Like the Bank, it seems every time we shoot a fish there one or more fairly large and bold bull sharks show up.
I still go there occasionally. Either me or my son will shoot one nice fish and it's game over. Time to head to another spot.

There are other spots with as much or more fish, but not the sharks. They own some of the spots.