Does crunching plastic bottle attract sharks?

[ccredifo]

I was diving in the Cayman Islands years ago and our Divemaster brought a plastic bottle on our dive. As we got to 80 feet the bottle was partially collapsed. He was moving it back and forth between his hands which produced a loud, crunching noise. After a few minutes a shark came swimming by us.

We thought it was a joke but the DM said it works everytime. I was channel flipping last night and saw a brief discussion about this very topic. I didn't get to see whether it produced the same results.

I'm going to Maui in February and going to give it a shot. Has anyone else tried this trick?

 

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

interesting . . .

 

[porbeagle]

Hi CC.....
Most any sound will attract sharks,as they are very curious.
Trick is to keep them in the area without feeding them or
chumming. I find that my remaining horizontal in the water column
helps them to be more relaxed, a stick banged on your tank works as well as
a plastic bottle.Every shark within every species will act differently.
You might want to be aware of threat posture positions of the species you are
most likely to encounter in the area you shall be diving. But above all, just relax
and enjoy them. They know when you are relaxed and are as curious as you are.
PORBEAGLE

 

[Parso]

I tried this at a local dive site here in Sydney, where I new there were young Dusky Whalers present, and believe me, the trick worked quite well. The sharks came a lot closer than normal and they seemed to find me rather quickly.
I must tell you though, I tried the same thing the week later and did not see one shark. Maybe the first time was a coincidence or maybe there were no sharks around on the second attempt.

 

[spt29970]

Last week I was at Guadalupe Island and now that the rules for interacting with the Great White Sharks have changed (no chumming or wrangling), people are very interested in whether noise will attract the sharks. Several people banged on the cages to get their attention. My observation is mixed, sometimes it seemed that they reacted the noise, other times they seemed to ignore it. I suspect that it would be hard to prove either way. I have some images at: Guadalupe Shark Diving - a set on Flickr

 

[c. carcharias]

Not so much the noise, its the vibration against the latteral line. Light, irratic vibrations will simulate an injured fish. Too strong and will be uncomfortable and they will leave. I have seen a few things work as long as a shark is in the area.
water bottle filled halfway with water.
two coconuts on a large hoop banging from the surface
some fishing flashers make a baby rattle too attract fish

 

[c. carcharias]

Its important that a shark is in immediate area, chum works alot better for attracting long distant sharks

 

[archman]

They'll use hearing for picking up bottle crunching. The lateral line system has a pretty short range.

 

[wedivebc]

I have seen it work in Thailand. Very effective.

 

[c-dog]

Yes, I think this techique works very well but it depends on the species. Low frequency vibrations can travel great distances underwater. some curious sharks, like blue sharks, are attracted other more timid speceis can be scared off. Unless you are free diving or doing the rebreather thing, divers tend to make alot noise underwater anyway.