Tiger shark encounter - what would you have done?

[Santa]

hmmm... can you shoot that far away (that's about 30 feet, right?)

i thought you have to be within 10, 12 feet, at most, to be able to shoot them?

Weeeell probably not now you mention it but for the sake of argument ...

 

[robbcayman]

Supposedly a Tiger will not attack if eye contact is made between the Tiger and the potential prey...A world renown Marine biologist told me that (Dr Grant Gilmore).

Would you mind testing that out for us?

 

[robo]

We had plenty of eye contact. Actually, eye through mask contact. I didn't get the feeling that he was too intimidated by it however. I thought sharks were almost blind, and relied on scent and vibrations for feeding.

I was mainly looking for comments from folks who have had similar shark encounters, so I might add to my repertoire for the next visit. It is entertaining to read, but folks who don't like to kill fish because of a zen philisophy will not influence my behavior.

I like hunting critters, and it keeps me occupied. I once went on a sight seeing dive in a no-hunt area in the Virgin Islands, and after being shown ...here is a banded shrimp...this is a queen angel... BLAH! I was so bored that I wanted to end my dive immediately! Chasing a half pound wiley snapper around the reef is fun, even if he eludes me!

There is a risk, fully acknowledged, I just want to learn how to better handle different situations, and it doesn't have to involve spearing fish, say if you accidentally get cut and bleed underwater.

Thanks for your tips and benefit of your experience.

 

[sharkbait19912]

Last year on a pre lobster season recon dive in shallow water, 12-15 ft, about a quarter mile off the beach, my friend and I had a hairy encounter. I have seen a few bull sharks and hammerheads, but this was by far the biggest and chunkiest, estimated at 10ft long and about 3-4 feet in diameter.

It went like this: We dropped in and right in front of me was a nice red grouper just looking at me. Bam, pole spear in the head, into the bag he went. A few minutes later, he was joined with his buddy, a few minutes later a nice snapper, followed by a couple of sheepshead.

Looked to the side and about twenty feet to the left was mr. tiger shark, swimming right along with us. I signal my buddy and his eyes about bulged out of his head. Together we looked like a big object, and the shark moved out to about thirty feet away and started circling us. He was keeping his distance and I felt secure on the bottom, but with 700 psi left, it was time to get outta there.

We were about a hundred yards away from my anchored boat with my wife in it, and we needed to surface to get a fix to navigate back. So I signaled my buddy and I surfaced while he watched my back, with a pole spear and a three prong paralyzer gig tip. Located the boat, got a bearing and dropped back down. Shark closing in, now circling at twenty feet.

My dilemna was should i cut loose the fish, or hang on to it until we were ready to board the boat. I figured that the shark would gulp down my fish as an appetizer, and possibly get agressive, and with no more fish to feed it, well you know what would come next. Mind you that in the process of subduing the fish with the pole spear, I was covered in slime and blood, and probably gave off more scent than the bag of fish. So i decided to hold on to the bag and cut it loose at the right moment.

We were tooling along at the course set to the boat, praying we would see the anchor line. Well, we didnt, and it was time to pop up again. So we did, and we passed the boat, now we were thirty yard past, so I yelled to my wife to tie off the anchor line to a life jacket, toss it, fire up the boat, and come get us. I didnt tell her why. By this time the shark was circling about 15 feet away, and was occaisionally coming in a little closer. We saw the boat and it was our time to surface. My buddy signaled for me to go first, so at the surface I opened the bag, and shook the fish towards the shark. The fish slid down right in front of the shark, but he didnt locate them, then in a flash he snatched the bag sinking toward the bottom about ten feet from me, shook it to pieces like a pit bull with a toy poodle, spit it out and zoomed right up to us and stopped. He looked pissed.

I shot out of the water onto the platform like a missile while my friend had the spear inches form the sharks nose. He then launched up, getting his body about half way into the outboard splash well, with his legs flapping at the surface. My wife grabbed his bc and was trying to pull him in. But a hundred pound woman is not going to pull in a big 225lb guy with full gear on. He was screaming for help. I rolled into the boat, grabbed onto him, and pulled him in.

We did not see the shark again, it did not surface.

So, does anyone have any suggestions (besides not spearfishing)? Should I have cut loose the fish at first, poked him in the nose with the Spear? I reckoned that the spear would just piss him off and make things worse.

In retrospect, I was awed by the shark, and was not really afraid. I was heavily concerned however, and just wanted to make the right decision. My buddy is now armed to the teeth with powerheads in case of a similar encounter, but I would not want to kill an awesome, beautiful, magnificent creature like this just because he was curious or a little hungry. Of course if it was me or him, well, shark stakes for everyone.

What would you have done?

My two cents worth on that one.
It definetly would have been a bad idea to poke at the shark, and poke is about all a pole spear could do against a ten foot tiger. I think I would have used the blunt end of the spear to deter him when he got to close. I would also say ditch the bag with fish still in it sooner than you did. Although honestly, I would have been stubborn about giving up my dinner till it was me or the fish. In the future perhaps carrying a "club" such as a piece of PVC. This can be helpful in deterring a shark that is more curious than aggressive by bumping him to get him to change direction. As a last resort, I don't like to see sharks killed, but a powerhead might be a good investment if saved until a last resort.

 

[Jeff Toorish]

First of all, I'm glad you survived the encounter.

It also sounds as if, based on the circumstances, your actions and decisions were correct.

But I have to say, and I don't mean to start a flame, that it sounds as if you are romanticizing the indicent. Sharks don't "think" in the way we humans do. In your writing about this, I get the idea that you viewed this as some sort of contest between the shark and you and your dive buddy. That really isn't an accurate way to view it, in my opinion.

I respect sharks and I respect divers who encounter potentially lethal sharks and survive. And I certainly respect what you went through. I also have a concern about divers who survive this type of ordeal and see it as a 'win.' It isn't.

Again, I don't mean this as a flame. But in any real battle between a diver and a shark who do you think will win?

Personally, I am not interested in killing any animal. It's not that I can't, or won't under the right circumstances, just that I prefer not to.

Safe diving.

JT

 

[Diver Dennis]

Wasn't Rodney Fox in a spearfishing competion in Australia with a fish bag trailing behind him when he took that horrible hit from a White?

 

[wetrat]

In retrospect, I was awed by the shark, and was not really afraid. I was heavily concerned however...

Heavily concerned? I would have FREAKED! :11:

 

[Kevrumbo]

Always wanted to see an "Apex Predator"; after this past encounter, I don't care to ever see one again in the open water. Simply stated: saw the "Resident 9-footer" outside Honokohau Harbor in Kona, The Big Island. It just so happened I was doing my last checkout dive for my Advanced Trimix Cert., in 150 feet of water --with a significant and mandatory Deco Obligation to clear. My Instructor and I found shelter in a nearby upsloping reef as we made our gas switch at 70 feet. The Tiger Shark only reappeared once, and then swam off into the blue-- my Instructor & I then doing continuous Helicopter Turns guarding each other's back side, as we completed our Deco Stops. Longest 20 minutes in my lifetime, never ever been that terrified before in my entire Diving Experience. Upon getting back on the boat, the Instructor says, "Wow that was cool! --too bad we didn't get to see the 14-footer as well . . .!!!"

 

[shooter226]

<<It's their turf!! We are the invaders. To be so arrogant to state that we are at the top of the food chain is nonsense. Maybe in the city. But in the oceans they are at the top just as in africa on the open savannah it's the lion, or the tiger in India. No they are the apex predators, safe divers remember and respect that. And plan accordingly. Once in awhile a person is going to get taken out. That is a price we must realize may be paid for entering an alien environment.>>

When we eat them (and we eat a lot more of them than they of us) that makes us top predator.

<<hmmm... can you shoot that far away (that's about 30 feet, right?)
i thought you have to be within 10, 12 feet, at most, to be able to shoot them?>>

This depends on the gun. A 30 foot shot is not unheard of.


<<If you shoot a shark at 10 metres however my guess is it may not even realize that the pain is connected to you but react to the total situation in a much more general or primitive way.
Maybe I'm just hoping for safety where none can be found ;0) Anyone know anything about this?>>

This depends on what you shoot it with. A 12 ga powerhead will stop it right now.

 

[Santa]

<<

<<If you shoot a shark at 10 metres however my guess is it may not even realize that the pain is connected to you but react to the total situation in a much more general or primitive way.
Maybe I'm just hoping for safety where none can be found ;0) Anyone know anything about this?>>

This depends on what you shoot it with. A 12 ga powerhead will stop it right now.

The point I was trying to make had more to do with the sharks ability to "reason" than whether it would be deterred or not, I guess.

"Whoa! The neoprene ******* shot me - now I'm really gonna chew him up good!"

I just don't think most animals think like that. I think the lines they actively draw between point A. and B. are very few and that instinct and 'repertoire' reactions are much more the order of the day.

Safety then, would be - in a rather mechanical way - mostly about not triggering unwanted behaviuor patterns - or somehow breaking a set pattern already in progress.

Not about reading emotions or chains of reasoning.