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Shark Safety

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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When I saw this it seemed timely. Last Friday my buddy and I were run out of the water by a big mako that rushed straight at us before veering off. We decided to get out of the shark's house.
 
I have never seen a Mako, I read the Zane Grey books as a youth & that set my sights on catching a Mako!
30 years ago Mako were quite common where I live & several 500lb fish were caught on long lines but regardless of all my efforts. I never even saw a live one.
In 1985 I travelled to the Azores with one purpose but again with no joy. Then in 1990 I travelled to the cape Verdi Isalnd ... no luck!!
Nowadays I don't have any desire to catch any sharks but I would still love to see a Mako...
 
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LOL!

Think she and the rest of her meat ministry will sing a different tune if she ever get to taste Mako - it's delicious!
 
I've seen lots of makos from the boat and caught a couple by accident while fishing for marlin, but this was the first big one I've seen underwater. In the past I've seen a big tiger shark in Hawaii, and while it was impressive , it was just cruising by. I've seen Galapagos and grey reels sharks in Hawaii and Guam, hammerheads in North Carolina and Hawaii, sand tigers in North Carolina, etc. But something about this mako just exuded sheer power. It was so muscular and mean looking. I agree that they are very good to eat, but I was more concerned with it thinking that I might be tasty.
 
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Hi adoke,

It depends on where you will be based. The Protea Banks are more than 1000km from Cape Town. So if you are based in Cape Town travelling up there to dive may be a hit or miss affair. Although Zambezis / Bulls are found all the way down to Witsands (about drive 3 hours from Cape Town) the best place to predictably find and dive with them would be from Kwazulu Natal and higher North.

Around Cape Town you have a few options for diving with sharks. There are quite a few shark cage dive operators who specialize in Great White diving in and around the False Bay (30 min from CT) , Gansbaai (3 hr from CT) and Mossel Bay (5 hr from CT) areas.

Other than that, you will be able to freedive with 7 Gill Cow sharks, around Pyramid rocks at Millers Point (30 min from CT). Also Blue Sharks and possibly Mako's offshore from Cape Point.
 
I remember 3o years ago there used to be a lot of sharks in Southern California. You couldn't get to Catalina without seeing dozens of fins on the surface. Unfortunately, the destruction of the blue sharks population became vogue because they were a nuisance. They were subsequently eliminated with a vengeance. Here we are 30 years after the rampage and the historical populations show no sign of recovering... same thing happened to the bonito--it took 3 years to drive the single most abundant sport specie to virtual extinction...

Bill McIntyre, you obviously know the history also, we should share notes---i have logged over 130,000nm in the Southern California bight since 1985. I do underwater photography as a hobby. My last trip was on the 9th. I spend a nice night on the back side of Nic, then i made the run out to the Cortes bank that afternoon..bad vis in the water--no kelp on the surface, no life, rolling whitecaps, it was bleak so after an hour i ran down to the east end of SCI for the night..I absolutely love that late afternoon run.

We should make acquaintance~

Brad

(lovesthesea)
 
Brad, you're sure right about the blue sharks disappearing. I used to do a lot of marlin fishing after the Marine Corps transferred me out here in 1975, and we were constantly doing double takes on blue sharks while looking for marlin finning on the surface. Now its rare that I see them. Fishing for makos and threshers became popular, and my impression was that the fishermen would just kill the blue as by catch. My first trip this year was Feb 15. I was surprised to see that a couple of our favorite kelp beds south of Dana Point were in reasonably good shape considering the storms we've had. We heard a lot of white sea bass croaking, but didn't see any.

But getting back to sharks- last Sunday three of my friends were diving a kelp bed off of Camp Pendleton, and one of them got rushed by a great white approximately 12 feet long. He said it got within about ten feet of him but spun on a dime and departed when he made eye contact. He was pretty shaken, and all three guys walked on water back to the boat and pulled anchor.

This has all of us feeling pretty apprehensive about our next trip. It seems as if sightings of great whites are becoming more and more frequent. One was caught by a fisherman off of the San Clemente Pier a couple of weeks ago.
 
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I have only seen a GW twice in all these years. But what i find most interesting about the GW is where they decidedly do not hang out... i have spent over 300 nights anchored around Nic since 1993 and i have never seen a GW, nor any evidence whatsoever- That island is a perennial haul out and should be a staging place for the older adolescents in transition, but somehow it isn't.

I can't say that one hasn't taken a look at me and bolted before i ever knew he was there :)) But this does remain a mystery to me.

The experience of your friend perfectly illustrates the value of good enough visibility in the water. Let's all remember, they have to keep their mouth open to breathe, that doesn't mean they are going to attack...

Tell your friend that according to the best information available, he has nothing to worry about--when GW's turn into chunk-feeders, they look for other species.
 
Brad, what is that spikey stuff on his dorsal fin?
Brad, what is that spikey stuff on his dorsal fin?
Brad, what is that spikey stuff on his dorsal fin?

Yes, those are parasites. Makos are one of the very few creatures that you can actually touch in the wild.. They come up right along side of the boat and it would be very doable to actually pick a free-swimmer right out of the water. Try that with virtually ANY other specie.When i have them around the skiff, i like to take the opportunity to groom their dorsal fins of those crummy parasites!
 
I think she should worry more about the souls she is endangering while driving making a video on her phone. Smart phone and cars are more dangerous than any shark.
 
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She has groove. The shark, one of the oceans dangers and the only conundrum I had with introducing the rug rats to free diving early on even though we called it snorkelling for mums sake. They are also the main reason my diving has regressed to a pedestrian 20m. I also line fish and have lots a number of large fish boat side which sort of wakes you up a bit. Living on the Barrier Reef I have a lot of options and 5m will put you in areas of abundance and beauty.
 
Shark attacks last year in Aus were out of hand ,there were 4 or 5 attacks in 1 month,a few years ago a mate was killed whilst on holiday surfing in West Oz which shocked our local community,But the rate of shark attack on AUS east coast is becoming ridicules .Around byron bay northern NSW is there hot spot.
White pointers are frequently spotted in SE QLD were I dive ,and I even thought I seen one the other week while diving in murk ,I froze for two seconds as I seen a massive white pointer tail fly by my peripheral vision,then thought to my self,don't look just ignore it an keep hunting,or else I would die of fright, scary stuff.
When I was working trawlers we netted a 24ft(over lines) tiger shark 700m of shore of a well known beach I don't know how long that shark really was but 24ft over lines is OMG!! Massive.
 
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