Would you swim with sharks?

[Mej]

i would, it was the reason i did my Padi, i have done in the past, but im not so sure i would be willing to swim with known man eaters!

You wanna have a look at this guy if you havent seen him already Mike Rutzen.

http://www.sharkdivingunlimited.com/...-documentaries

2010: Shark Nights – National Geographic

[keith_d]

I particularly liked the PADI Great White Shark speciality.

http://www.sharkdivingunlimited.com/...ark-speciality

I think some of this stuff gets blown out of proportion TBH - loads of sharks are safe to dive/snorkel with as long as you're reasonably sensible. I'd fairly happily dive there at the mo (ahhh wouldn't a holiday be nice!!), though would be more cautious on the snorkelling/swimming front.

Essntially there are a few species that are of significant concern (Great White, Tiger Shark, Bull Shark and Oceanic White Tip) and if any of them had been spotted recently in the vicinity I'm staying out!

Shame that they've closed off all the beaches, etc at the mo...

[kaivalagi]

Originally Posted by keith_d

Oceanic Whitetip sharks aren't so discriminating about what they will eat, and have been known to take an exploratory 'bump & bite'. So I'd be a lot more cautious if there was one around when I was diving.

I've seen first hand what an Oceanic whitetip is prepared to do, diving off the coast from a tuna processing factory in Fiji. A 5 meter monstrosity followed a tuna boat inside of the reef and took an interest in a diving buddy at 40m deep...he had to use his second regulator to scare it off but it came back just after his last 3m stop as we were pulling him into the boat...but hey these fish are deep sea fish right Another reason why I do not snorkel with pilot whales and similar, these sharks follow the whale pods about for the Squid...

Apart from that one time I've seen tiger, bull, hammerhead, grey, reef sharks etc and they can get close but unless it is a shark feeding dive they will keep their distance normally.

I must say though I'll only dive with sharks, I hate snorkling/swimming and seeing sharks below, gives me the creeps as I have no means of evasion if that makes sense.

I do this every day.

It's called working in an office.

[keith_d]

Originally Posted by kaivalagi

I've seen first hand what an Oceanic whitetip is prepared to do, diving off the coast from a tuna processing factory in Fiji. A 5 meter monstrosity followed a tuna boat inside of the reef and took an interest in a diving buddy at 40m deep...he had to use his second regulator to scare it off but it came back just after his last 3m stop as we were pulling him into the boat...but hey these fish are deep sea fish right .

If it's been following a tuna boat it thinks boats=free food, so I'm not surprised it came back to check your boat out. That being said, 5 meters is a lot of shark in anyone's book and even an exploratory bite would probably get you a flight home in cargo class.

[G]

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

You going diving anyway? Or has whole trip turned to cluster-****?

Nope not at the minute sun bathing, i've read two books all ready (No Angel - Hells Angel undercover cop book, a damn good read), and perving instead, the Russians look after themselves very well

[kaivalagi]

Originally Posted by keith_d

If it's been following a tuna boat it thinks boats=free food, so I'm not surprised it came back to check your boat out. That being said, 5 meters is a lot of shark in anyone's book and even an exploratory bite would probably get you a flight home in cargo class.

Yeah, and 5 metres is no exaggeration, it might have been longer to be honest...there was some debate on the shark for some time after...oh and the Fijian diver who had the encounter was from a clan who are "immune" from shark attacks ha ha

The only real scary encounter I've had with a shark myself was being almost head butted by a scalloped hammerhead before, we both got extremely scared when we came head on around a blind corner of a reef

There's much more dangerous things that can happen when scuba diving than sharks anyway...faulty gear nearly had me in the past...a pressure gauge that got stuck was one, I was at 20m when I realised I had no air left, the gauge has 100 bar on it still...I had incorrectly thought that I was conserving air rather well! My dive buddy was 60+ and was not a buddy at all...I had to steal his air and drag him towards the surface and got as far as 10m depth with him before an emergency accent. The result was bad but not the bends (I had slight joint aches for a few hours and bleeding nose/ears but didn't need controlled decompression)

I almost got poisoned by an angry lion fish at depth and 45 minutes from shore too, it must have seen it's reflection in my mask and luckily was a great aim and hit me square in the mask!

That being said though, I've done over 200 dives, I spent 4 months diving for free twice a day for a start...so to only have the above scares is quite good going I'd say Happy days those were, I miss it a lot...can you tell...