What do you regard as "safe" viz?

[Fish Tale]

We have a lot of sharks where I dive. Bull Sharks, Tigers, and Hammer Heads are the ones that concern me the most. If I can look back and see my fins clearly I don't worry much about sharks unless I've speared a fish. I always attach my stringer to my float which is 40 feet behind me. Swimming back to the float to string another fish with less than 10 foot vis always creeps me out. When the vis is less than about 10 feet I try real hard to stone the fish to keep the fish from thrashing around because it tends to quickly call the sharks in from a distance. It's always a good idea to avoid getting blood or fish oil on your suit. The tiny slick you trail behind yourself in the water may be just enough to create a shark brave enough to take a test bite in low vis situations. At sunset I've had sharks follow my stringer slick back to the beach and agressively search back and forth in a foot of water for the source of the slick.

Right now we have a lot of big sharks gorging themselves on tarpon in our area. Over the weekend I found two nice grouper with 2000 psi left and I decided I couldn't risk shooting them until I was closer to the end of the dive. At 1700 psi- building wave surge had degraded the vis to about six feet and we decided we wouldn't risk the unwanted attention with several hundred yards between us and the beach. The stringer stayed empty on that dive so I could come back another day and fill it.

[timgfallon1]

Originally Posted by bluecape

There is a great, very true saying that goes "Knowledge dispells fear..."

I , like Andrew, used to be seriously freaked out by whites. So I decided to learn about them. I started reading everything I could, I started speaking to 'experts', and last week, I got into the water with them. ( In a cage) See 'The silent beauty' under freediving stories forum.

And yes, the more I see, and learn, the more I understand that they are probably more likely to try and avoid us, then we are them. Understanding it's habits and 'routine', and diving conservative, has left this 'paranoia' cape diver a happy, contented 'fan' of the oceans purest and most spectacular predator!

Dive safe

Jeff

Being relatively new to spearfishing, I haven't had much experience sharing the water with fellow predators large enough to cause me any worry. However, my 25 years as a Big Game Hunter has found me in many a situation where I am sharing space with a larger, faster, and more environmentally adapted predator. I know from experience the fear that a face to face confrontation sparks, and the only thing that allows me to take the risk of confronting a larger predator is knowledge and respect for them. I learn as much as I can about the predators I am likely to come into contact with, and I learn the proper respect each one demands. That being said, I am never foolish enough to charge into a wild berry thicket after a Griz, nor would I follow a lion into a shoulder high crop field. I take the lessons of respect for these animals and transfer those lessons into the water - I will not fish any water with larger, faster, more environmentally adapted predators without at least 15-20ft visibility. It's not based on any fact or research, just my own personal feelings.