Have you photographed them? If so, were you standing/swimming at a safe distance? Have you had any shark related accidents?
Ali loves the diving but I've told him to watch out for the sharks and that I didn't spend all those years bringing him up to be a shark's dinner!
By
Gig
Gigs must say a special hello - my mother also said she did not raise me to be shark food, but as I tell her..theres not enough sharks left and I would be the last choice of diver to be eaten, im way too skinny, only my bones for toothpicks would be of any use to a shark!
By
littlewing
~error~ private photo 2350255
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Looks to me from these photos, that there are different types of sharks, and they can range form vicious to cuddly?
Reply to this Most sharks are harmless...some are actually not that....but....they enjoy swimmers. Attacks on divers are actually close to non-existant. If you read of an attack on a diver, it is often once the diver is over with his dive, and is therefore in the snorkeler category.
I love sharks...
Galapagos is a serious shark lover paradise...but there is better...
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My first whaleshark ever, Tubbataha, Philippines
Oceanic white tip, South Red Sea, Egypt, this guys have been well-known to eat one or two snorkelers...
The Great white...and yes, I'm in a cage, Gansbaii, South Africa
Hin Muang, Thailand, 2 whalesharks on the same dive...plus few mantas...cool!
Sipadan, Malaysia, a lot of very common sharks all around...
More of Sipadan....
Reply to this Capital of the world for shark diving has to be South Africa for me. Some close contenders...done are Galapagos, wishing to do Cocos, Rangiora/Fakarava and few others...
Below are diving Protea Banks, but also Aliwal Shawl and the two last ones from Belize this summer...
[Edited: 2011 Oct 13 10:08 - Maisondubonheur:38623 ]
[Edited: 2011 Oct 13 10:09 - Maisondubonheur:38623 ]
Reply to this I totally agree, even though I live in what is fast becoming shark fatality central. A swimmer has been taken again this week by a suspected great white on a popular city beach where another swimmer was taken four years ago. This is the third fatal shark attack we have had in the city waters in the last ten months.
As Peter pointed out, there are rarely attacks on divers, most attacks are on surface stop divers or bodyboarders or swimmers.
I personally LOVE sharks. I have seen whites and tigers cruise past in the blue while diving Ningaloo as well as the harmless whale shark of course. And i do admit, when you see a big tiger shark around 3.5 - 4m you cant help but look over 😉
There is a pretty clear reason for the rate of fatalities here, we have protected our big sharks like the great white and the tiger and bronze whaler and grey nurse (a harmless shark anyway) for a long time and while they were happy to stay off the coast chasing the pelagics overfishing has depleted their food supply so they are coming closer to shore to find food. It is also whale migration season plus seal calving season so there is a lot to attract them close to shore. More people in the water means the chance of shark human interaction has also increased.
While we know sharks dont like the taste of humans unfortunately a test bite from a 5m white like this week is going to do fatal damage. The body of the swimmer has not been recovered but his swimming costume has and the bites are consistent with a great white.
As for the sharks can smell a drop of blood theory..i cut my hand while diving with about 6 very big white reef sharks cruising past about 20m away. I looked down to see a stream of blood coming from my hand and saw the sharks look toward me but they did not react in the slightest..however a giant baracuda did come up for an overly close look!. Why would they bother eating me at a time that is not their feeding time and they are surrounded by fish bigger than me to bother eating?
We should also remember we kill 200million sharks a year for shark fin soup and other shark products. If you do some maths and realise we are sending these guys to a rapid extinction as we are catching them before they can breed, and understand their importance in the ecosystem, you hopefully may find that sharks need our help badly.
Reply to this Most sharks are less interested in you than you are in them. With that said-- it only takes the right shark to change your mind about that.
This one looks friendly enough.
Reply to this Ok, we had another fatality today in city waters..a diver this time. This makes 3 fatalities in 6 weeks. Great white is the presumed species again.
We have 26,700km of coastline. Six deaths here in 16 months in a 300km strip of coastline means your chance of getting fatally attacked is something like 0.011%.
As before, I stand by my opinions re overfishing, protection, whale migration and seal pups attracting sharks to shorelines but it is interesting to see these clusters in such a short time span in the same very small area. Do we have a shark with a memory and a hunting ground?
Reply to this These sharks here are really starting to become quite pesky..I was sitting in my office today staring out at the ocean and heard the familiar buzz of the coastwatch choppers - three 5m whites hanging at the entrance to the same bay the diver was taken at 10 days ago and another less than 100m from the beach I can see from my window. Summer is just starting to make its presence felt so will be interesting to see the arial beach patrols effect on families going to the beach on weekends.
My partner has cage diving with great whites in south africa on his bucket list..my answer...ohhh dont be a sook, why spend all that money on airfairs to south africa when all you need to do is walk out of my office, walk 100m and swim out 50m - cage is optional 😉
In response to: Msg #145674 Reply to this
Cindy, you continue to make me laugh and I'm sure Giant appreciated your comments.
1st off I'm jealous of the view from your office. Maybe you should post a photo on travel blog so we can all enjoy it.
Love the cage is optional comment.......
Reply to this Cindy, sorry to disappoint you, but in South Africa, it's not cage diving, it's cage viewing...no diving equipment involved, not even a snorkel. Doesn't stop the fact that it is a really fun experience
The only two places that I know where they lower the cage is from Los Cabos and out of Adelaide, both on liveaboard.
My dream is actually to see a great white while diving and without a cage...doable....but extremely rare. I dived out of Protea Bank, south of Durban, and that's a place where you can "encounter" them...but last time I did it...the guy in charge told me he saw it three time...in ten years! And don't worry, I'm not that mad. Protea does involve the usual bull sharks in number...
...and guess what, I'm back there pretty soon...can't wait...
Reply to this LOL Peter I did know about the cage ''diving'' being a misnomer..much as cage diving with crocodiles is here in the Northern Territory. Its a great marketing tool and if I am ever in Darwin I probably would give it a go for the sheer fun of it because last time I encountered a crocodile underwater was midway between PNG and the Solomon Islands..exactly where you dont want to encounter a croc - baby or not!.
Another reason to save money on flights to south africa..we can actually just jump on a flight to South Australia and hop on a 4 day liveaboard although Giant will be on his own on that one, not because im afraid of sharks, im afraid of cold water!!
Im having a bit of a love affair with Sulawesi at the moment and Ali again has popped up a wonderful blog on Lembeh so will head there and Bangka island as well as back to Bunaken just after christmas...I am trying to schedule Raja Ampat later in the year and the elusive Banda islands which unfortunately seem to be now only accessible by liveaboard according to Maluuca divers as they have stopped island based operations due to unreliability of flights and ferries.
And you must stop tormenting me with Protea Banks! Thats on my must do list but Africa is not scheduled to 2014 when I get my long service list.
To be honest, after working at ningaloo where bronze whalers, tiger sharks in the 4m range and schools of hundreds of scallopped hammerheads are just in a days work (not to mention whale sharks and humpback whales) I have become a bit spoiled with shark encounters. Giant on the other hand has not so I guess I need to take him to Ningaloo......or let him go for a swim off the beach outside my office 😊
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In response to: Msg #146395
Hey Pierre, i'm in Perth similar to Cindy and we are having the beaches closed at the moment due to great whites at least once a week! So you could definitly come down and do some diving off Rottnest Island or on one of the wrecks off the coast and i think your odds are up this summer on seeing a big shark. Thats my tourism spiel Cindy 😊
That being said, as Cindy did mention they currently do like biting people! 3 fatalities in a 6 week span 😞 But i think it is more of the accidental, thought they were a turtle type bites rather than take on a diver 😊
The weirdest thing in perth has been the media going mad that they need to be hunted down and stopped....i agree 100%!t(MISSING)hat it is their water and we are the intruders. That being said, i am not a keen diver due to the thought of sharks and completely freaked when there were little ones and turtles swimming around me at coral bay/nigaloo reef.
tam
Reply to this Thanks Tam...planning to come to dive the region...on day! When it come to Perth, I currently know the golf courses and wines way better than the dive sites. I love your area. Joondalup must be one of my prefered golf courses!
3 fatalities in 6 weeks...not sure they are putting that many divers in the water after this!
Hunting sharks because the bites is clearly a non-sense...they didn't propose the same thing for the snakes and spiders in Australia?
Should have more pics of sharks coming in the next few weeks....
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