First shark sighting!

[Mr. Willoughby]

Glad you had a great dive. Kind of sad that sharks are a rare sight in most areas today. I remember the thrilling days of yesteryear when we might see up to several dozen either underwater or from the dive boat on our way to the next dive site.

Being a cold water diver I don't get to see many sharks, especially during lake dives , but are things really that bad with the decline in shark population? I hear about it but never first hand. I really hope it's not as bad as you say but again, I have no first hand experience on the matter.

To the OP: Sweet dive and congrats on the sighting!

 

[NAM001]

My first encounter with a shark was at the Flower Gardens on a night dive around 10pm. I had just lost my first light and switched to my first backup and there below me about 6 ft or so slothed a perhaps 5-6 ft shark on the floor. The thought processes that started was immence. If there is one then there how many more. What kind was it. Do i really want to know? Well such goes first encounters. I was told onboard that it ws a nurse shark.

 

[SDiverJim]

I had my first real shark experience last February in St Croix. We dove through a nice channel about 10 feet wide with rock formation about 20 feet high on each side. The DM had killed two lion fish and left them. As we were making our slow accent above the channel to a separate reef a few individuals started point down and making the shark hand sign. There was a nice 6 -8 foot shark swimming through the channel. We tried to quickly swim to the end of the channel to see it but it did not appear. I had seen some faint shark silhouettes on dives in Thailand and Grand Cayman but nothing to speak of.

 

[drbill]

Being a cold water diver I don't get to see many sharks, especially during lake dives , but are things really that bad with the decline in shark population? I hear about it but never first hand. I really hope it's not as bad as you say but again, I have no first hand experience on the matter.

I've been diving for 50 years now, although only 43 of that in the ocean waters off Catalina. When I first arrived on the island in 1969 to teach marine biology on SCUBA, it was not unusual to see literally dozens of sharks (mostly blues) from our dive boat as we traveled to a dive site. During crossings to and from the mainland on our commercial passenger boats, we would often count the sharks we saw to ease the boredom.

In the past 12 years I think I've seen a grand total of ONE blue shark while traveling on board the local dive boats. Underwater shark dives used to bring a few dozen sharks in. A few years ago shark dives were canceled because we were lucky to bring in 3-5 sharks while chumming all day.

Yes, it is as bad as I wrote (at least in our waters) although some species ARE making a comeback. They include the soupfin shark (fished extensively during WWII for the vitamin content in their liver and for soup fins), the great white (targeted following the "Jaws" hysteria in the mid-70s) and the angel shark (also fished to low numbers in years past). Shark populations are slow to recover due to late maturity and low fecundity.

Of course there are areas where you can still see numerous sharks. Tahiti was one of the best places I've dived for shark encounters and the Bahamas have good opportunities as well. South Africa is noted for their sharks too. Had plenty of leopard sharks on the Great Barrier Reef too (actually did a giant stride on top of one on a night dive... it swam from beneath the boat into my downward path).

 

[Comstockfire]

I saw my first shark during one of my OW training dives in Playa del Carmen, MX. It was a fairly large Bull shark and it followed us for about 10 minutes. That is something that you don't forget!

 

[Tigerman]

Heck yeah..
Like one of my buddies who saw a bloody big manta on his first ever OW dive - as in first time he got into anything but the pool.
You get ruined for life you know..

 

[Rogersea]

Congratulations on your first shark sighting, I hope you have many more....

My first was many years ago, When on Guam I used to often come nose to nose with some Reef Sharks while exploring difficult to get to portions of the reef. Now living in the Philippines most of them have been caught and harvested for food. So, I rarely see any thing but whale sharks now(which I dont mind).



Keep diving and I hope you see more soon!!!!!

Cheers,
Roger

 

[drrich2]

Glad you got to see sharks; hope I do someday.

I think I'd be cool with seeing most sharks, although a great white would be outright frightening, a decent-size tiger shark at least intimidating, and a big bull shark cause for some concern.

Richard.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Thousands of Sharks off Palm Beach Today - YouTube

Come to Palm beach in the winter you will see many sharks. We commonly see bullsharks, reef sharks, sometimes aggregations of spawning Lemon sharks, nurse sharks don't count... and we also have maybe dusky sharks and a rare sighting of tiger, Hammerhead, whale shark and some people even claim to have seen a GWS. It would be surprising NOT to see several sharks in many locations off Palm beach county in the winter. I have seen many dozens on a single dive.

 

[Reck Diver]

Thousands of Sharks off Palm Beach Today - YouTube

Come to Palm beach in the winter you will see many sharks. We commonly see bullsharks, reef sharks, sometimes aggregations of spawning Lemon sharks, nurse sharks don't count... and we also have maybe dusky sharks and a rare sighting of tiger, Hammerhead, whale shark and some people even claim to have seen a GWS. It would be surprising NOT to see several sharks in many locations off Palm beach county in the winter. I have seen many dozens on a single dive.

You are 100% Correct.

We did have a pretty good size hammerhead around the boat while sailfishing the other day. He stayed around as long as we kept a live bait out in front of him.

In a couple more weeks the Spinner Sharks will be in town until late march-early april. They will be in huge numbers (thousands) cruising the shoreline from McArthur Park to the Lake Worth Pier. And I do mean the shoreline. They are very skittish and boat shy; not to mention there are some big bulls lurking around that will feed on them. I can tell you that is some thing to see!