Etiquette on carrying a knife during dives

[Ana]

I try to have a knife with me at all times. There's a very sharp knife in the console of my car, the kind that also has a hammer-like section at the end of the handle. Several knives and other cutting devices in the boat and for sure I carry a knife on my dives, some may describe my dive knives as BFK.

With that said, if you reason to carry a knife is for shark defense I'm not sure that's the best tool.

Before getting into what I think is the proper tool, I'd like to point out a few things:

-There are always sharks in the water, they may be temporary far from your exact location while diving but I think is only because sharks don't appreciate our company.
-If by any chance you encounter a shark swimming within your field of view, hopefully you'll be able to do whatever it takes to appreciate how special you are to witness that majesty, instead of missing the opportunity by being scare but I understand that fear is something difficult to explain or control, and it is what it is.

That brings me to the proper tool

In the scenario above when you see the shark, hopefully your reaction won't be to actually go and kick his butt. You'll deal with your fear the best you can and the shark most likely go about his business, ready to tell his buddies..."yep I saw another human acting weird, wonder was wrong with them, at least this one didn't try to kill me".
So you don't try to attack the shark, he will either keep going most likely outcome. Or as in your fear driven logic, he'll try to eat you. OK it will be immediately obvious what are his intentions, I've had encountered the peaceful ones that you just want to hug and kiss, and the punk ones that require some type of action. So if they behave aggressively the best course of action is to hit them as hard as possible on the nose-face-eyes area, at that point you're not going to be picky about the exact location. A baseball bat is good maybe not practical, the butt of a spear gun also works, I've seen this heavy sticks that have a handle and look like a short baseball bat, like something a police will use to beat people up. I believe that type of tool would be much more efficient, and as you'll find out many dive charters discourage or plain ban knives in their boats, I doubt they will have a problem with a blunt stick.

And not to fuel your fear but I'm sure you are aware that the only shark that is truly dangerous is the one that comes at you from no where super fast, if that ever happens to me I hope to have the presence of mind to swiftly punch him repeatedly while hoping for the best. Not that I spend a minute of my life worrying about it, driving a car to the boat or even the boat to the dive site have higher risk of harm, as well as other boaters in the area. Living in Florida and working outdoors I bet I should worry more about lightning than sharks.

Enjoy diving and don't harass the poor sharks.

 

[RainPilot]

I would think that the risk of cutting yourself and turning a “wow! Beautiful!” encounter into something less pleasant would be a good reason not to carry a stabby knife.

 

[Bubblesong]

Shark attacks are insanely rare, ....Think of seeing a shark like seeing a bear in Yellowstone, you are getting to see an apex predator in its natural setting. ... If it gets too close, punch it in the nose.

I have actually punched a bear in the nose, true story. I was four, bear was a wandering cub. Bear ran off looking for its mom, and if my family hadn't have jumped in car and fled, that "insanely rare" moment in history would have been our last.
My suggestion is the @Vuk Milicevic get an electronic shark repellant expensive device to dive with until he has seen enough sharks not bother him.

 

[stuartv]

Am I being too scared here or is this a valid question? I am fully aware that when we're down below, we're in their world and need to accept the potential consequences. My theory behind this is the same theory I apply to conceal carrying a firearm during every day life. I do not do so because I want to feel "tough", show off or feed my ego. I simply do so in the event that if something were to happen and I'd need to defend myself or my family, I would be able to do so and not be begging for my life at someone else's mercy.

I hear you. I carry and for the same reason.

But, the only cutting devices I normally carry in the water are trauma shears and a Sharp Cut. And I go to NC and dive with schools of sharks as often as I can.

Different species of sharks are like different species of dogs. Some are totally docile and some are more likely to show aggression. The kinds of sharks you are likely to see, depending on where you dive, are ones like reef sharks, nurse sharks, sand tiger sharks, and maybe a few other pretty common ones that are all totally docile. If you don't mess with them, they are dang sure not going to mess with you. You would pretty much have to purposely look for a dive site that is known for aggressive sharks and then go dive there on purpose to have ANYTHING to be worried about.

That said, if you are still concerned enough to want to carry something to defend yourself, leave the knife at home and get yourself a GoPro selfie stick. Something that is long and you can use to poke at the shark's nose with, to deflect them away, is no guarantee but I personally would MUCH rather have that than any kind of dive knife. If, by some amazing stroke of bad luck you do end up with a shark that wants to check your pockets for treats, close quarters with a knife does not seem like the best strategy for defense.

Also, if you do buy an actual knife, I would strongly suggest that you give some consideration to one with a blunt tip. First, you are much less likely to poke a hole in something by accident (like, for example, yourself) when you are trying to put it away. And second, of the potential uses for a knife during a dive, I think a flat, blunt tip is more likely to be useful than a sharp point. But, if you dive with the (good) attitude of "look but don't touch" you probably won't ever have any use for an actual knife (assuming you have shears and/or a line cutter).

Everyone should dive with a cutting device or two. I like these because they are both very effective and very inexpensive:

Sharp Cut - $18 (ceramic blades, so they won't rust)
DGX Sharp Cut w/ Sheath

Ti-coated Trauma shears - $8 (my main ones are over 2 years old and are still in great shape)
DGX Titanium EMT Shears

Trauma shear pouch - $8 (pouch with velcro retention strap - works great)
MSM Shear Pouch - MIL-SPEC MONKEY STORE

 

[tridacna]

Sharp Cut - $18 (ceramic blades, so they won't rust)
DGX Sharp Cut w/ Sheath

Agree with you about the blades not rusting. It's those damn small screws that end up rusting. Now if they made those in titanium...

 

[PatW]

I have nearly 800 dives and nearly every one on Caribbean reefs. Even seeing sharks is a rare event. Nurse sharks sort of.don't count. They seem to just sit on the bottom and snooze. Most of the pelagic sharks I have seen have been reef sharks. Reef sharks generally are not that big, 8' is a big one. And they generally don't let divers get close. I am a photographer and I very rarely get close enough to a shark to get a decent image. I have seen one bull shark, a potentially dangerous species. Shark attacks on divers are extremely rare excepting situations of divers feeding sharks or similar situations.

But hey, fear is often not rational. Anyone with fear of flying or heights knows that. So if taking a big honking knife with you will make you feel better, do it. It will likely not even provoke comment. I see divers with knives almost size of short swords pretty often. I carry a very small knife and only needed to use it once. That was to cut off a string on a ring on my BCD put there to secure a tag that a DM put on it.

 

[Skeptic14]

@PatW brings up a valid point, the best repellent of most shark species is to take on uw photography and bring along thousands of dollars of equipment to try and capture a good photo of one.

 

[2airishuman]

I want to know what the etiquette is of carrying a knife underwater simply to have as a resource to defend myself should the need ever arise. From talking to a friend at work, who has been ocean diving for 15 years, he told me that he never carries a knife on him and that certain places won't even let you dive with one. We plan on diving in places that are not known for having sharks in waters but no one will ever be able to guarantee that.

I do not believe a dive knife is useful for shark defense. People who spearfish encounter sharks routinely, and carry kill knives, and overall don't seem to treat them as an effective tool for dealing with sharks.

Some divers do carry dive knives or "dive tools" (knife without a pointed end) for a variety of reasons. It is perhaps more common to carry a linecutter or scissors. Entanglement is considered the primary risk.

Many popular tropical dive destinations disallow dive knives. Enforcement is uneven but larger knives in novice hands are typically not permitted because of the risk of damage to the reef.

I have never carried a knife on a dive, but I routinely carry a safety linecutter. I have thought about bringing a knife mainly to mitigate the risk of sources of entanglement that are too large to fit in the aperture of a safety linecutter, such as weed masses and abandoned pieces of rope.

Am I being too scared here or is this a valid question? I am fully aware that when we're down below, we're in their world and need to accept the potential consequences. My theory behind this is the same theory I apply to conceal carrying a firearm during every day life. I do not do so because I want to feel "tough", show off or feed my ego. I simply do so in the event that if something were to happen and I'd need to defend myself or my family, I would be able to do so and not be begging for my life at someone else's mercy.

Can the same mentality be applied to diving? I want to say in advance that if this post offends anyone, I apologize. I do not want to come across as egotistical, I'm simply new and don't understand how this is perceived by the general community.

It's hard to get reliable statistics, but based on the DAN reports, the number of scuba divers who are seriously or fatally injured by sharks varies from year to year between zero and the low single digits. Typically these accidents occur in one of two scenarios:

1) as an inherent risk when spearfishing
2) when shore diving, near the surface, in areas where sharks are known to be a problem, when visibility is poor.

Most beginning divers do not have the situational awareness, buoyancy control, trim control, and swimming skills necessary to write on a slate, let alone to use a knife to kill a fish. It takes dozens of dives to develop these sorts of skills. It is harder than shooting a pistol.

For sharks, I would characterize your concerns as being misplaced and your solution as being poorly chosen. Whether that is true of your land-based approach to safety I cannot say. For myself, with apologies to the writer of the motion picture "Unforgiven," I rely on the good will of my fellow man and the forbearance of reptiles.

 

[stuartv]

Agree with you about the blades not rusting. It's those damn small screws that end up rusting. Now if they made those in titanium...

I've read posts about the rivet that holds them together rusting out. I've done a decent amount of salt water diving with mine and so far, so good. I do take them out of the pouch and soak them in fresh water whenever I get home from a salt water trip.

I have seen one bull shark, a potentially dangerous species. Shark attacks on divers are extremely rare excepting situations of divers feeding sharks or similar situations.

But hey, fear is often not rational. Anyone with fear of flying or heights knows that. So if taking a big honking knife with you will make you feel better, do it. It will likely not even provoke comment. I see divers with knives almost size of short swords pretty often. I carry a very small knife and only needed to use it once. That was to cut off a string on a ring on my BCD put there to secure a tag that a DM put on it.

I dived off Cozumel once. My dive buddy was not allowed to carry his BFK in the water. The boat captain said knives aren't allowed there.

I dived out of Hatteras, NC, last month. I took my camera rig on the first dive. When we hit the bottom, I immediately saw a nice-sized shark sort of swimming in my general direction, so I hurried through getting my camera ready to shoot, spreading out the strobes, taking some test shots to check exposure, etc.. Then I was trying to take pictures of the sharks, as there ended up being a few around. My camera wasn't working right (I was right at the depth limit for the housing and I think multiple buttons were being pressed by the water pressure). I was futzing with my camera continually and only paying enough attention to the sharks to note when there was one close enough to try and take a picture.

Normally, down there all I ever see are sand tiger sharks and, once, a big sand bar shark. The sharks all swam off and disappeared and I gave up on taking pictures. Went on to have a nice, long dive on the Tarpon. After we got out, some of the other guys were talking about the sharks and the bull shark that was down there. HUH?? LOL I guess I swam right up and stuck my camera in his face and never realized it was a bull and not a sand tiger.

So, yeah. If you're scared of sharks, just carry an expensive camera rig in the water with you. Point it at them and they will take off for sure!

 

[Ana]

I have nearly 800 dives and nearly every one on Caribbean reefs. Even seeing sharks is a rare event. Nurse sharks sort of.don't count. They seem to just sit on the bottom and snooze. Most of the pelagic sharks I have seen have been reef sharks. Reef sharks generally are not that big, 8' is a big one. And they generally don't let divers get close. I am a photographer and I very rarely get close enough to a shark to get a decent image. I have seen one bull shark, a potentially dangerous species. Shark attacks on divers are extremely rare excepting situations of divers feeding sharks or similar situations.

But hey, fear is often not rational. Anyone with fear of flying or heights knows that. So if taking a big honking knife with you will make you feel better, do it. It will likely not even provoke comment. I see divers with knives almost size of short swords pretty often. I carry a very small knife and only needed to use it once. That was to cut off a string on a ring on my BCD put there to secure a tag that a DM put on it.

That's kind of funny about trying to photograph sharks, I'm a bad photographer top side so you'd think I should know better than to try underwater, but I had to try. On this particular dive I got tired of getting fish tales because the instant I aim at a fish they would turn away, so I decide to start with baby steps, will photograph my husband.. ok I get his attention, aim... and this guy swims between my husband and I. At that point I put the camera away and opted for mindless video with a Go-Pro.