Do you see many sharks while spearfishing ?
And is there any precautions that should be taken while spearfishing ?
And is there any precautions that should be taken while spearfishing ?
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Do you see many sharks?
- Thread startersweetdiver09
- Start date
Thread Status: Hello
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Welcome to DB, sweetdiver09.
Entirely dependent on where, what and how you hunt. Even in sharky places,like out island Bahamas, it is possible to hunt for many days without even seeing a shark. Do something stupid and you are very likely to have trouble within a few minutes in the same area.
Precautions: Depends on where, what, when, and how. In general, don't hunt alone, keep the fish away from you, preferably getting them out of the water immediately, if not, kill'em dead, immediately. Be patient and go for kill shots as often as possible. Look behind you, a lot.
I dive in clear water, often in very sharky places and do circles when coming up with a fish. A shark coming up behind me will usually peal off when he realizes I see him. We dive with one guy in the boat following the divers. Fish are in the boat within seconds of the shot. Further, a tight buddy system means that a second diver is immediately available if moral or other support is needed. Our sharks don't much like confronting two divers. I just spent 8 days diving and never saw a shark in the water.
Good hunting,
Connor
Entirely dependent on where, what and how you hunt. Even in sharky places,like out island Bahamas, it is possible to hunt for many days without even seeing a shark. Do something stupid and you are very likely to have trouble within a few minutes in the same area.
Precautions: Depends on where, what, when, and how. In general, don't hunt alone, keep the fish away from you, preferably getting them out of the water immediately, if not, kill'em dead, immediately. Be patient and go for kill shots as often as possible. Look behind you, a lot.
I dive in clear water, often in very sharky places and do circles when coming up with a fish. A shark coming up behind me will usually peal off when he realizes I see him. We dive with one guy in the boat following the divers. Fish are in the boat within seconds of the shot. Further, a tight buddy system means that a second diver is immediately available if moral or other support is needed. Our sharks don't much like confronting two divers. I just spent 8 days diving and never saw a shark in the water.
Good hunting,
Connor
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As Connor said, no bleeding fish in water is the key caution.
Not that I've experienced that, as me I do not live in sharky waters (so far)*, but EVERYONE living in sharky waters gives the same suggestion: I've been talking with americans, south africans, egyptians, australian, and what they all said was don't keep your catch in water, neither at your belt stringer nor hanging under your float. Keep the fish out of the water.
One more caution they talk about is keep off murky waters in shark areas.
*BTW. A 10 ft. mako has been caught in a net in Sicily yesterday. I didn't even know we had Makos in Italy.
I knew we had some rare sightings of GWS and greys, but Makos in Italy sounds like new music to my ears. I'll let you know if I ever see one myself
(hopefully....:blackeye)
Not that I've experienced that, as me I do not live in sharky waters (so far)*, but EVERYONE living in sharky waters gives the same suggestion: I've been talking with americans, south africans, egyptians, australian, and what they all said was don't keep your catch in water, neither at your belt stringer nor hanging under your float. Keep the fish out of the water.
One more caution they talk about is keep off murky waters in shark areas.
*BTW. A 10 ft. mako has been caught in a net in Sicily yesterday. I didn't even know we had Makos in Italy.
I knew we had some rare sightings of GWS and greys, but Makos in Italy sounds like new music to my ears. I'll let you know if I ever see one myself
(hopefully....:blackeye)
*BTW. A 10 ft. mako has been caught in a net in Sicily yesterday. I didn't even know we had Makos in Italy.
I knew we had some rare sightings of GWS and greys, but Makos in Italy sounds like new music to my ears. I'll let you know if I ever see one myself
I dunno how common are makos in the med ,but makos are very common in temperate atlantic ,where they are heavily targeted by european fishermen.(english ,french and spanish ,for asian market)
I just read in the newspaper today that France will ban the fishing of Mako shark in it s economical zone ,as it s getting endangered.by the way ,i never heard of grey reefs in the med ,but blue sharks are very common offshore in both med and north atlantic.
here is a video of a small mako who landed on a beach on the atlantic french coast last summer (in La baule)
Dailymotion - Un requin sur la plage de La Baule - une vidéo Actu et Politique
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Yes blue sharks (we called them Verdesca) are quite common, and I've met a couple of spearos who reported meeting them. They're not considered much aggressive (are they or not), but as you see we are not big experts of sharks over here in the upper Med.
Back on topic, this is a very good old DB thread on the matter of sharhs vs, spearos/divers:
http://forums.deeperblue.com/huntin...ques/67995-where-do-you-draw-line-sharks.html
Interesting read with worldwide contributions form the big Deeperblue community of shark pimps
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Hi Guys,
Where we normally dive we rarely see sharks but do occassionally bump into them (figuratively speaking of course)
On a recent return trip on our annual holidays in the North West of Western Australia where sharks are not only common, but are encountered a,most EVERY dive regardless of spearing fish or not, I offer the following observations and comments.
A bleeding fish will attract sharks but they will come in to investigate only initially and tend not to be aggressive, just curious as to what is bleeding. This may change once they see the fish in question and then want it.
A fighting fish is a dinner bell to sharks and not only do they come running, they will often come in swimming fast and erratically and may have a go at your fish if you don't have it under control. We lost some fish to sharks if we couldn't retrieve them quickly enough. This is not a cool situation, especially if there are multiple sharks and you are on your own away from your buddies.
Try and stone the fish straight away.
Dive with a buddy (or two).
Iki Jimi your fish as early as possible if you couldn't stone it. This will help to diffuse excited sharks. Sharks are opportunistic feeders and will seize an easy opportunity to grab a fish. When spearing big Mackeral I keep them against my body when swimming them back to the boat (expired of course!) and I keep my eye on all escorting sharks constantly.
Don't keep fish in the water with you. Calmly swim your catch back to the boat and get it out of the water as soon as possible.
Try and keep your eye on any sharks bigger than you. This can be difficult if there are more than two or three swimming around you. In this case, keep looking behind you, they are sneaky bastards and will probably attack from your blind spot if they decide to attack at all. Keep your gun between you and the closest shark and stick it in the nose if necessary.
In general, sharks have little interest in you apart from general curiosity. They want your fish, not you. You are probably more likely to be "bumped" than bitten.
Try not to give up fish to a shark that is hassling you, they will learn that aggression towards divers leads to fish being handed over. Give 'em nothing! Not good having sharks associate food with spearo's.
Sharks are unpredictable, never trust them or turn your back on large sharks even ones that look like they are uninterested. A couple of mates I dived with were attacked by a large Tiger that appeared and slowly swam along the bottom beneath them when without warning it turned and attacked vertically. They fended it off after a very intense minute of gnashing teeth and jabbing with a spear.
When burleying, use small cubes not big chunks. This will be of lesser interest to sharks, especially bigger ones.
Just because you don't see sharks doesn't mean they aren't there. Many larger predators like Tigers etc will watch you from the edge of vision, they'll see you but you wont see them. Get used to it, the ocean is full of sharks and most times they aren't a problem.
We saw a Humpback whale die on a reef and within 90 minutes it was being savaged by 30+ large Tiger and Whaler sharks. How do so many sharks appear so quickly? Answer: They are always there, just not always seen. We only saw three other Tigers in 7 weeks outside that event. It doesn't mean there weren't any around!
Sometimes when shark activity gets a bit too heavy after spearing several fish and they start getting too brave for comfort, it is worth moving to another spot.
Last piece of advice. Sharks are near perfect in their creation. Develop a curiosity and appreciation for them, they are beautiful and deserve your respect. I started photographing them and developed a love of sharks. I still don't trust them as far as I can throw them, but not fearing them is a good place to start. It took me quite a while to get less uncomfortable around them.
I hope this is of benefit. Enjoy the spearing, sharks add spice!
DJ
Where we normally dive we rarely see sharks but do occassionally bump into them (figuratively speaking of course)
On a recent return trip on our annual holidays in the North West of Western Australia where sharks are not only common, but are encountered a,most EVERY dive regardless of spearing fish or not, I offer the following observations and comments.
A bleeding fish will attract sharks but they will come in to investigate only initially and tend not to be aggressive, just curious as to what is bleeding. This may change once they see the fish in question and then want it.
A fighting fish is a dinner bell to sharks and not only do they come running, they will often come in swimming fast and erratically and may have a go at your fish if you don't have it under control. We lost some fish to sharks if we couldn't retrieve them quickly enough. This is not a cool situation, especially if there are multiple sharks and you are on your own away from your buddies.
Try and stone the fish straight away.
Dive with a buddy (or two).
Iki Jimi your fish as early as possible if you couldn't stone it. This will help to diffuse excited sharks. Sharks are opportunistic feeders and will seize an easy opportunity to grab a fish. When spearing big Mackeral I keep them against my body when swimming them back to the boat (expired of course!) and I keep my eye on all escorting sharks constantly.
Don't keep fish in the water with you. Calmly swim your catch back to the boat and get it out of the water as soon as possible.
Try and keep your eye on any sharks bigger than you. This can be difficult if there are more than two or three swimming around you. In this case, keep looking behind you, they are sneaky bastards and will probably attack from your blind spot if they decide to attack at all. Keep your gun between you and the closest shark and stick it in the nose if necessary.
In general, sharks have little interest in you apart from general curiosity. They want your fish, not you. You are probably more likely to be "bumped" than bitten.
Try not to give up fish to a shark that is hassling you, they will learn that aggression towards divers leads to fish being handed over. Give 'em nothing! Not good having sharks associate food with spearo's.
Sharks are unpredictable, never trust them or turn your back on large sharks even ones that look like they are uninterested. A couple of mates I dived with were attacked by a large Tiger that appeared and slowly swam along the bottom beneath them when without warning it turned and attacked vertically. They fended it off after a very intense minute of gnashing teeth and jabbing with a spear.
When burleying, use small cubes not big chunks. This will be of lesser interest to sharks, especially bigger ones.
Just because you don't see sharks doesn't mean they aren't there. Many larger predators like Tigers etc will watch you from the edge of vision, they'll see you but you wont see them. Get used to it, the ocean is full of sharks and most times they aren't a problem.
We saw a Humpback whale die on a reef and within 90 minutes it was being savaged by 30+ large Tiger and Whaler sharks. How do so many sharks appear so quickly? Answer: They are always there, just not always seen. We only saw three other Tigers in 7 weeks outside that event. It doesn't mean there weren't any around!
Sometimes when shark activity gets a bit too heavy after spearing several fish and they start getting too brave for comfort, it is worth moving to another spot.
Last piece of advice. Sharks are near perfect in their creation. Develop a curiosity and appreciation for them, they are beautiful and deserve your respect. I started photographing them and developed a love of sharks. I still don't trust them as far as I can throw them, but not fearing them is a good place to start. It took me quite a while to get less uncomfortable around them.
I hope this is of benefit. Enjoy the spearing, sharks add spice!
DJ
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