Maybe We Should Not Be that Afraid of Sharks

[amytom]

Best shark defense ever--- a camera. Whenever the camera is ready there's no sharks around

[robert sailor]

If you want to be bitten by a shark you'll have to try the South Pacific or maybe Australia because it sure is not going to happen in the Baja/Sea of Cortez. Yes it is a breading ground for hammerheads but the odds are so slight that you'd have a better chance of being killed when your mate drops a screwdriver thru your head after you sent her to up the mast.

[a64pilot]

I've had one good, significant run in with a large hammer in the Gulf of Mexico, but I was spearfishing, and had just shot a fish. Two things were odd, first a hammer isn't supposed to be particularly aggressive although this one was and second, he didn't go for the fish, he went for me.
He had been around a little when the whole family had been diving the wreck and had I though left. Hammers don't seem to hang out in one area like Bulls do, they seem to be cruising sharks, on the move. Anyway I always send the family up to the boat, let them get on and then I untie from the wreck and come up the line myself.
Anyway right after I had sent them up, a rather large snapper had to present itself so I took the shot, it swam out of sight to the other side of the wreck, just then that big hammer cruised right over my head coming from behind me, and I though he was going to get my fish, but as soon as his tail got even with my head, he turned and made a run at me. I have Ocean Rhino spearguns which have a "kill spike" on them and was able to fend off his three run ins at me as he kept coming back at me, mouth open.
Only time I was really worried was coming up the anchor line as you have to do that slowly and your vulnerable from every direction, but he didn't come back.
I had my cave diving helmet on with the Gopro on it, but had forgotten to turn the camera on, so no video

[robert sailor]

I've spent a lot of time in the Sea of Cortez snorkeling and spear fishing off the many reefs and I have never seen a shark in over 3 seasons there. Yes the Hammers breed there but they are a deep water shark. On the other hand it was really rare to dive or snorkel in the South Pacific without seeing sharks, many up close and personal so just go and have some fun and put the thought out of your head. Maybe someone can post when the last person was eaten by a shark in the Sea of Cortez.

[Tbrad]

Originally Posted by martinjrichter

According to www.snopes.com/critters/snakes/waterski.asp the water moccosin stories are pretty much that stories not to be believed.

Tell that to a friend of mine who had a Cottonmouth drop out of a tree and land in his seventeen foot Grumman canoe. He didn't die but he had a "s**t Hemorrhage" then make a split second decision as to whether to stay in the canoe with the snake or jump overboard and swim with the alligators.

[SaltyMonkey]

Originally Posted by Tbrad

Tell that to a friend of mine who had a Cottonmouth drop out of a tree and land in his seventeen foot Grumman canoe. He didn't die but he had a "s**t Hemorrhage" then make a split second decision as to whether to stay in the canoe with the snake or jump overboard and swim with the alligators.

Are you gonna keep me in suspense or give the answer?

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by SaltyMonkey

Are you gonna keep me in suspense or give the answer?

He probably did what I did when that happened to me when I was about 12 years old in the Coolawahee swamp, beat the paddle to pieces dealing with the snake, then as it's beginning to get dark, you get to put your hands in the water covered in duckweed and try to paddle back that way.
I still have the canoe BTW, and it still has the dents in it. Good thing I didn't have a gun as I usually did, or I would have probably shot the snake.

You'll have a herpetologist come on here in a minute and tell you cotton mouth water moccasins can't climb a tree too, I've been told it was a brown water snake because cottonmouths can't climb, but trust me it was a moccasin.

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by AKTigger

I understand that fear of sharks may be inflated by what you see & hear on the news and in movies. Given that, I am still interested in hearing from people (particularly those in the Pacific off the coast of California, the Baja, and Sea of Cortez) who swim regularly while cruising. We have yet to begin our cruising days, but swimming is my favorite form of exercise, yet I have an extreme fear of sharks. I grew up swimming in freshwater lakes and swimming pools. I have swam and snorkeled many times in Hawaii, and the only shark I have ever seen there was about 2 ft. long and dead in the water. I don't want to be patted on the head and told everything will be fine, necessarily.....just would like to know if others have dealt with this issue and what experiences or wisdom they have to share. Thank you in advance for not laughing at me.

I have found sharks prevalent after about 3:30 pm or early in the am. This seems to be their feeding/activity time around land anyway. So I usually started trying to end my snorkeling/hunting by 4 pm. I have not run into agressive sharks while in the water, but have been surprised by them a few times. It's disconcerting when you have just passed a spot while snorkeling and when you return back by that spot there is a bull shark feeding on something in the coral chomping away making a cloud of debris! You just passed there 5 mins earlier... where did he come from? Once a shark came up to me as I was near the dingy at the surface, probably curious, I bumped him on the nose with my Hawaiian Sling and he took off.
and yes... regarding the Sea of Cortez, I saw very few sharks there compared with the Carribean. I do suspect they followed the boat a lot though, I could see the big shapes at night from the phosphorescence.

[Tbrad]

Originally Posted by SaltyMonkey

Are you gonna keep me in suspense or give the answer?

Well, he took a Giant stroke of the paddle and as he was only twenty five feet from shore, he gave the canoe to the water moccasin and leapt out onto terra firma. At some point the moccasin abandoned ship and Randy reclaimed the canoe.

[Downline]

Originally Posted by DennisM

This is one of the few subjects that will prompt me to get up on my soapbox. I have been a scuba diver for over 40 years and have developed a great fondness and admiration for sharks. They are beautiful animals, graceful and powerful, and not the mindless killing machines that Hollywood would have us believe.

I have traveled to South Africa on three separate occasions, specifically to dive with various species of sharks without using a cage. I have been up close and personal with Blues, Makos, Tigers, Hammerheads and Great Whites (not to mention a wide variety of reef sharks), and have never once felt threatened by any of them.

The finning of sharks is killing tens of millions of them each year, and it is an abomination that should be halted immediately. If I could join Greenpeace just to go and stop shark finning, I would. If you ever enter a restaurant that serves shark fin soup, I ask you to please turn around and walk out.

I agree with this. I'm a commercial diver when I work and back home in South Africa I do a lot of freediving and spearfishing. We can only do spearfishing on freediving in SA. I've probably seen more than my share of sharks. Lost numerous fish to them as well. They are stunning animals and not stupid at all. Divers are also not their staple diet.
I've also got a couple of friends that got bitten by sharks. You can read about some of them in Terry Maas's book about Freediving. Those guys are all still diving and does not hate sharks. All the divers that I know has got a healthy respect for them but it does not keep them out of the water. When the water is clean it is possible to swim with them fairly safely. (Maybe not next to Seal Island in False Bay)

[IdoraKeeper]

Really, I am most concerned about "Sharknato" attacks. There you are out mowing the grass and you are attacked by sharks falling from the sky. Sharks that are sucked up by water spouts and brought to dry land. They wreak havoc!

[Downline]

This is the sort of encounter that you can expect on our East Coast.

[xymotic]

Sharks are not the scarriest things: What devoured this great white shark? - CNN.com

But why's it gotta be a zero sum game? Can't be a little afraid of all the things that might kill us?

[Astrid]

"The question that not only came to my mind but everyone's mind who was involved was, 'What did that?' It was obviously eaten. What's going to eat a shark that big? What could kill a 3-meter (9-foot) great white?"

I do not know the habits of predators down that way, but up here in Northern British Columbia, we have some off shore Orcas pods that seem to specialize in hunting some of the larger sharks such as 4m sleeper and 3m blue sharks.

[Sailor g]

QUOTE=Cheechako;1521377]
.. regarding the Sea of Cortez, I saw very few sharks there compared with the Carribean. I do suspect they followed the boat a lot though, I could see the big shapes at night from the phosphorescence.

I didn't see any sharks in the Sea of Cortez either & I was in the water daily for at least an hour and more in a kayak. I did see something big and long (though seemed not thick enough for a shark) when diving to see the anchor. Never even big shapes.

[QUOTE=Downline;1559654]
"They are stunning animals and not stupid at all. Divers are also not their staple diet."
We have Great Whites off the islands off California. I've never seen one but had the hairs on the back of my neck stand up while on a night dive. The instinct said we were not alone. It didn't help that back then, you got out of the water onto large flat(ish) boulders in a Shamu move. I may not been their target but did not wait for the taste test to tell! LOL.