What to do when shark approach?

[Scott L]

I would think a blast of exhaust bubbles from an octo would differentiate onesself from normal prey as jupitermaiden stated. I would perfer to keep my primary regulator in my mouth in such situations...

 

[Timoblue]

Still not yet had the pleasure of meeting one up close, if you can call it that.

Nearest i got once was on a local dive. A reef shark was pointed out to me, must have been no more than 15' away. By the time i had to react and focus, he was beating a retreat in about 40' of water.

Highly testosterone induced moment, i decided to get after him. This was a donkey chasing a thoroughbred. Not really sure what i was thinking at the time, other than get a pic without the lunch invite.

Camera was left on the boat - Dive 1




Thal,

Your shark encounters always make for good reads, thanks for sharing.

 

[DMJulie]

Came face to face with a reef shark today. I was doing a swim work out at the time and not diving. This guy was at least 5 -6 feet and came with in 4 feet of me.

It was a surprise that I was not really ready for at 6:30AM.

I know it was just a 'reef shark' but IMO a shark is a shark.

Seeing sharks diving = "COOL, where's my camera?"
Seeing sharks swimming = "Oh Crap"

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

No ... he's one of the most beautiful animals I've ever seen. I've seen him three times now (I think it's the same tiger, if not, there's more 10 to 12 foot tigers there than I want to think about). He's not aggressive, just cruises on by.

Thal, you are right of course, they are beautiful. (I was just kidding about not diving at Ho'okena).

I've seen Tigers on the Hilo side while paddling (just outside the breakwater), but never while diving on the Big Island. The large Tiger I saw while spearfishing (mentioned in a post above) was 25 years ago off Kahoolawe while doing a brief contract job for the military.

Several years ago I witnessed one take what I believe was a large turtle right at the tip of the wall, while I was paddling a surfski. Two years ago, while my wife an I were paddling our one-man canoes, a large dorsal fin appeared between us, close enough to reach out and touch. I'm fairly sure it was a Tiger by the size and shape of the fin, but the water was murky and it could have been something else. We've had sharks follow us while paddling 6-man canoes on a few occasions.

To the OP: Sorry about the thread hijack! Did we figure out how to defend against "Jaws" yet? :shark:

Best wishes.

 

[DandyDon]

Try shooting video. They usually leave before you can get a still focus. They seem to hate it when I exhale.

 

[Doc Harry]

I would thank my lucky stars.

I haven't seen any sharks (except nurse sharks) since I swam with a hammerhead 5 years ago.

Where did all the sharks go?

 

[mgmonk]

I used to love our sunrise dives at Chumporn with the ___ sharks (fill in the blank).

Remember mornings with less than 10 divers in the water and as many sharks. Do almost the whole dive at 20+ m with them schooling around my buddy and I. Sometimes we'd even sit at 30m and watch them circle us at arms length.

That was 2 years ago

!!!!!!!!

But, on the other hand, there's another shark fin soup restaurant in Chinatown, BKK, so that's pretty cool too.

 

[Hoomi]

Don't poke it with your knife. The writer for the Smithsonian article on Great Whites did just that to a medium-sized female Great White. She spun around on him and bared her teeth, as if to say, "You have ONE sharp pointy thing; look how many I have. Don't do that again."

He didn't say in the article if he had to change his wetsuit after that.

 

[JCAT]

What would you do if you are in water and no where to get behind, there is HUGE shark approach toward you and opens its mouth?

Exhaust batteries in camera, fill SD card, bonk buddy on head, take his camera.

 

[adurso]

My experience has always been that my camera acts as large animal repellant. Any time I have my camera with me all creatures great and small will stay far, far away.

Always carry a camera and the sharks will stay away...