I saw a shark!

flamehawk

flamehawk

Active Member
Just saw my first reef shark while snorkeling/diving in Key Largo at carries fort coral reef! Intimidating but exillerating at the same time. He was by himself but then again I didn't stick around long enough to see others. Saw allot of great french, grey and rock beauty angels as well as rather large barracudas , parrots and huge schools of blue tangs. It was a quite a rush! Always thought you had to go to Caymans or Hawaii to see great specimens but this spot has nothing to be ashamed of. Really enjoyed it and would recommend it to all. Water a bit chilly(73) but used wet suit which helped. Also allot of jelly fish stingers in the water. Nothing that a little vinegar and water didn't cure.
I make my plea again....Leave sensitve fish like rock beauty angels in the ocean where they can be enjoyed by all. Their poor survival rate in captivity has their numbers dwindling. Area divers say thet 5-7 years ago they would have seen 100-150 rock beauties at this reef. I saw about 5. Sad state of affairs.
Has anyone else been confronted with a shark while diving?snorkeling? Opinions about sensitive specimens also welcomed. JWT gave a great response on this topic under fish discussion board.
 
grouperhead

grouperhead

Active Member
While snorkeling the Alabama coastline and Florida panhandle, I've seen a few sharks. Most were small black tips, no more than 3'. You ignore them, they ignore you. Sharks don't bother me while snorkling, I'm more afraid I'll step on a stingray.....Bo
 
stacyt

stacyt

Active Member
Normally most sharks will not bother divers. I've come close to several horn sharks when diving in Catalina. Most of the time they would just swim away whenever we got to close.
 
nate_j

nate_j

Member
i am an avid diver with a coupple of my buddies who also have salt water tanks and we see sharks all the time...this is os sarasota/bradenton fla. there arent very intimidating but you always have to remember that there out there and be careful who you mess with.. about the keys reef shark thats awesome..im going to the keys this spring break for about a week 3 dive days in beutiful marathon (or key largo) who cares its all the same!!!:) :) ;) ;)
 
smokinstarfish

smokinstarfish

Member
If that's the case, I say Coral Beauty angels should left in the ocean and protected. How's that for a delayed response? I found this thread in searches for the bull shark, my interest sparked by the arrival of Discovery's Shark Week tonight.
Are the Coral Beauty's numbers dwindling everywhere they inhabit? What about other species? That's sad. Doesn't anyone feel bad about taking from the wild? I do. More research must be put into breeding these creatures in captivity.
I've made a pact with myself; any wild-caught fish that dies in my hands, I have to donate 10 times the animals’ price to WWF. So far, that hasn't happened. And it's not ever going to! Hurrah! I donate to WWF anyway, but still.
 
lobstergrabber

lobstergrabber

Member
THey were referring to Rock Beauty Angels not coral beauties. I think the coral beauties have a good success rate. I think people have problems getting the Rock Beauty to eat in captivity but not real sure. As far as Bull Sharks I have done a bit of diving here on the Florida Panhandle out of Destin and we have quite a few of them. I have actually never seen one myself but others in the water with me have noticed them. I always seem to have my head under a rock looking for a lobster I guess. Several friends of mine have had to feed them what they were able to

[hr]
when the shark decided to get a little frisky and a couple of times havent to go as far as to push it off by hand and one actually had to poke one with his

[hr]
gun which it then proceeded to swim off with. I think bottom line is act like you don't even notice them(meaning don't get nervous) and they will swim off, but if you have a stringer full of fish you had better just give it to them because the Bull's can be highly aggressive.
Rich
 
bullshark

bullshark

Member
I used to teach SCUBA in Ft. Lauderdale. Twice a year I would take 10 students on a dive vacation somewhere in the world. One trip in particular we went to Nassau. We dove with Stuart Coves dive operation. They offer 'Shark Experience'. It is two dives, one is a reef/wall dive with 20 or 30 reef sharks that swim all around. The next dive, much shallower, is the shark feed! We were all arrainged in a semi-circle on the bottom. The feeder was in the middle. There were 50+ reef sharks, most around 5 feet long. Awesome. They were very calm around the feeder taking turns and almost waiting in line. After 20 minutes of this the sharks start to disapate a bit.
I was bumped, rubbed up against and nudged around.
COOL. I would go back in a second......
 
timsedwards

timsedwards

Active Member
Hi Guys,
I have just come from the atols in the Maldives (Indian ocean), and went diving there. Swam (unwittingly) with 5 foot white/black tip reef sharks. they are peaceful and wont (apparently) attack you, but still, once you see the choppers on them (teeth - sorry british slang!) all logic leaves!
Awesome fish though...
Tim.
 
attml

attml

Active Member
My Wife & I saw what looked like a small Leaopard Shark while snorkeling a reef south of Cancun. Very cool!
 
terminus est

terminus est

Member
Thats funny you mention that oh person with no name. When I did my open water cert in panama city we had the same thing happen near a wreck we dove on. If we are talking the same sunk ship then its probably that sharks territory.
 
caillou

caillou

Member
I was diving Sombrero Reef off of Marathon Key about 10 years ago and getting ready to come up when (what I swear was a 20 foot :) )Hammerhead came in. After much debate with my father about length. I've finally accepted the fact that it was only about 10' but it was by far one of the coolest things I've ever experienced. There's a long drawn out story that goes along with this but I won't bore you all with it! By the way that was in addition to numerous nurse sightings the prior days.
 
mishka

mishka

Member
On my first snorkling experience, I saw a nurse shark. It was in Key Largo, and I was bust looking at the Jesus Underwater Statue. My husband pointed it out to me. It freaked me out at first, then I calmed down, and thought it was cool! It was doing it's own thing. I also saw barracuda, but didn't realize it until I was back on board and talking about everything I saw! I love snorkling now, and always look forward to going to the Keys.
 
smokinstarfish

smokinstarfish

Member
After I saw Discovery’s "Anatomy of a Shark Bite", where a bull shark bites off a researcher's calf muscle, as mentioned, I won't go in any water with a shark big enough to take any size bite out of me!!!
That includes almost all sharks I’m scared to share water with! Apparently, it's worse to be bitten by a Tiger shark than a Great White!
Yuck! I wouldn't even get into the water with my Black piranha. It could take half my nut off! Ouuuccch!!!
(I write this with the knowledge that I’d sooner be decapitated in a car wreck than have that happen... but I love driving more than diving, if you catch my drift...)
:eek:
Did you all see the UNCENSORED version of that Discovery shark bite? The guy's skin was hanging off his leg like window blinds it was so tattered. The water was red. I was surprised there were no more bites after that one, with all the splashing, panic, blood... and the hordes of 4-foot-plus sharks!
:eek: :eek:
 
lobstergrabber

lobstergrabber

Member
I have always had a love for sharks but point in hand if you are in there house you better play by their rules. Fact of the matter is that the ocean is the one place the human is not on top of the food chain. That said many people interact with them all the time and never even have the sharks get aggressive. I still welcome seeing one when diving. To date all I have seen are nurse sharks and I don't rank them as that exciting due to the fact 9 out of 10 times they just lay there. I just hope when I finally do see one I can pick up on the signs that it is time to leave his space.
Rich
 
B

bambalamb

Guest
My wife and I have been PADI certified divers since '94. Dove on a lot of wrecks and reefs. We have dove on Nassau, the Keys, Maui, St. Lucia and others. I can't say I have ever had a major shark encounter, however. Seen a couple, but not much more.
Now if you want to hear a good moray eel or barracuda story, I can do that!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top