Issues with sharks

[hogphish]

Landshark SA, Thanks very much for the info i think i might invest in one in the near future and try not to electrocute myself too much!

Hogphish, do bulls / tigers come from below to attack? My concern is that now we are in deeper water it is hard to see the bottom from the surface, but from the bottom the surface is very clear. I am finding the biggest issue with my diving now is the fact that i cant seem to focus on diving in the deep as I keep thinking that a shark might be coming up at me from the other direction. Also I dont really dive with a gun to much, I'm not really a fish eater and so don't want to kill anything that I wont eat, do you think it best to just take one anyway?

Thanks,

Sam

Sam. The bulls are in all levels of the water column when we hunt. Our diving is predominately 60-90 feet. The viz ranges from 20 ft to 60 ft. Attacks are quite unusual and almost unheard of when you are not spearfishing. If you normally dive without a gun I would not carry one for protection alone. I always like to encounter sharks in a freedive because it is a part of the beauty of the ocean. I have swam with bulls, hammerheads and on one occasion a Mako. Being struck by a boat is much more likely than a traumatic shark encounter. I just mention that when you are spearfishing as we do in Jupiter Fl. we intentionally chum or look for sharks because they are where the fish are. Incidently I have taken care of a few shark bites and they usually never saw it coming... this is over a 25 year career and five of it in the Bahamas. They were all spearos and doing unwise newbie things like tying fish to a stringer on their belt or swimming to shore holding speared fish.

John

 

[FreeRestriction]

They were all spearos and doing unwise newbie things like tying fish to a stringer on their belt or swimming to shore holding speared fish.

If not on a stringer and not on the spear how else does some one shore diving get fish to shore? Ive only spearfished a few times but i can say dragging a floatation device that could hold fish way out there would really suck.

 

[hogphish]

If not on a stringer and not on the spear how else does some one shore diving get fish to shore? Ive only spearfished a few times but i can say dragging a floatation device that could hold fish way out there would really suck.

Most of the spearo's that shore dive here have home made floats with buckets on them where they put their fish to keep them out of the water. Others use kayaks for shore diving. In the Bahamas we rarely shore dive because you usually don't make it back to the beach with your catch.

 

[growingupninja]

If not on a stringer and not on the spear how else does some one shore diving get fish to shore? Ive only spearfished a few times but i can say dragging a floatation device that could hold fish way out there would really suck.

You can use a cheap inflateable signal float (20 bucks). It rolls up into a tiny package when deflated. Put a little elastic loop on it to keep it rolled up and clip it your belt with a carbiner, then inflate it once you are in the kelp and clip it to a kelp stalk. You can hang stringers and lobster bags, water, flashlight, etc on it. Deflate it, roll it up when you are ready to go back in. Sometimes I tow mine back in fully inflated if I have been lobster diving and have a full catch; lobsters and shellfish are heavy in the water. Slow going but as the saying goes, meat is never heavy. It is not sturdy enough to use like a tuna float, but it is 10% the cost of a spearfishing float and in kelp nobody uses a float anyway. In theory something could steal your catch but not so much if you keep an eye on it and it beats diving with a bag of lobsters or a grip of fish on your thigh. Gives you slightly more visibilty to boats as well.

 

[sai]

Maybe you should study a few statistics on shark attacks and realize that getting struck by lightning and dying from it is more likely than dying of a shark bite. And I'm pretty sure you don't start worrying about getting struck by lightning now.
So if you follow a few dos and don'ts you REALLY need to have bad luck to get attacked.

For example: FLMNH Ichthyology Department: Unprovoked Shark Attack Statistics
BTW even a bump or a close pass-by gets counted as attacks.

 

[FreeRestriction]

Maybe you should study a few statistics on shark attacks and realize that getting struck by lightning and dying from it is more likely than dying of a shark bite. And I'm pretty sure you don't start worrying about getting struck by lightning now.
So if you follow a few dos and don'ts you REALLY need to have bad luck to get attacked.

For example: FLMNH Ichthyology Department: Unprovoked Shark Attack Statistics
BTW even a bump or a close pass-by gets counted as attacks.

You always hear that statistic but it seems im guessing they are counting every human on earth versus number of shark attacks. When in reality not everyone is ever even in the ocean so take a far smaller number, those actually in the water regularly and see how often one of them is attacked. I bet it goes way up when you only factor spearfisherman vs. Number of attacks on them.

 

[Antigua Sam]

Hi Sai,

I realise the risks are small however the statistics are very warped in the sense that they do not take into account the risk factors.

As far as I know my friends and I are the only people in Antigua who swim 3miles off the coast, on the surface for 3hours or more and encounter sharks on virtually every dive we do. So its more others experience as opposed to thinking i might be eaten at any time, but as above I think if anyone is going to get a nasty shock in Antigua then we are at the top of the list by far!

Also lighting hasn't come within 6 feet of me when I was looking the other way!

Sam

 

[FreeRestriction]

You can use a cheap inflateable signal float (20 bucks). It rolls up into a tiny package when deflated. Put a little elastic loop on it to keep it rolled up and clip it your belt with a carbiner, then inflate it once you are in the kelp and clip it to a kelp stalk. You can hang stringers and lobster bags, water, flashlight, etc on it. Deflate it, roll it up when you are ready to go back in. Sometimes I tow mine back in fully inflated if I have been lobster diving and have a full catch; lobsters and shellfish are heavy in the water. Slow going but as the saying goes, meat is never heavy. It is not sturdy enough to use like a tuna float, but it is 10% the cost of a spearfishing float and in kelp nobody uses a float anyway. In theory something could steal your catch but not so much if you keep an eye on it and it beats diving with a bag of lobsters or a grip of fish on your thigh. Gives you slightly more visibilty to boats as well.

Interesting. Dosent get around this danger of swimming in with dead fish in the water but ill deffinatly keep it in mind being i plan to try lobster diving this season. Thanks.