Video & Stills - Sharks Out The Wazoo!

[ricki]

Sorry, they made me wear a tank for this one. Good news, I found two outfits on another island not so far away where free diving shark interactions are possible. Just learned about that last weekend, video to come on that soon! In the meantime there's the following. I took four GoPro video cameras and a still camera into a several dozen shark feed off New Providence with Stuart Cove Dive Center. Some interesting perspective shots came out of it.

Writeup, video and full sized photos at:
[ame=http://fksa.org/showthread.php?p=46065#post46065]Video & Photos - Nassau Shark Dive With Stuart Cove - FKA Kiteboarding Forums[/ame]

 

[ReefTroll]

Very nice mate!!

 

[ricki]

Thanks! Took me long enough to process that one. The next clips should be interesting. Had a chance to interact with caribbean reef sharks while free diving on a dive scooter. Wasn't quite sure what to expect going into it, whether the scooter might send them away, bring them in or get them excited. The scooter does generate an electric field and sharks sense such things I understand. The reality of the interaction wasn't bad, they weren't driven away nor were they driven to take a piece out of me or the scooter necessarily. The video should be coming along soon.

 

[ReefTroll]

Looking forward to seeing that. I would have assumed they'd have fled from the scooter for sure.

 

[ricki]

That was one possible outcome. The guide thought that if they encountered something they didn't understand, the sharks could well leave the area. I was diving a couple of hundred meters away from an area where they were actively feeding the sharks. Some would come over our way on occasion so I had a chance to experiment in initial small numbers with the interaction. The first one I eased down next to pretty much ignored the scooter. If I traveled in the same direction as the sharks they would keep on going without apparent awareness of the scooter. If I turned away from them, that seemed to bring them in closer. If I turned, particularly tightly into them that would get them excited, speeding up and turning harder into me. After a while, I would just drop below the boats mooring line with no sharks visible and just motor around the bottom for a short while, three to five sharks would show up. If I turned into them in a spiral they would swim more aggressively, if I headed out away from them they just cruised along. Interesting interaction but I suspect sharks vary in behavior through time, season and species. So other interactions might differ for better or worse.

 

[cdavis]

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to dive an area with lots of scuba divers, but where freedivers were almost unknown. At first, we had several interactions with Caribbean reef sharks where they would approach at a "fast cruise" come up pretty close, sometimes very close, then go on about their business. Not normal behavior. I had the impression that these sharks had never seen freedivers and were curious. They don't do that to the scuba divers and stopped doing it to us after a few days.

Ricki, did you see anything like that?

Connor

 

[ricki]

Connor were they actively feeding the sharks when you were free diving? I haven't tried that yet and considering how intense things can get I am not sure that I would want to, in a normal feed anyway. The video shows off what goes on in such a feed fairly well. You shouldn't even put your hands away from your body in one of those as they bump and slide into you. I guess they can be curious, re:respective food and threat value of new things. You presented some new stimuli perhaps? Glad they got over it.

The sharks I was in with pretty much ignored me unless I traveled away from them. If I turned into them they would get excited, like when you chase a barracuda. Not sure I would want to deal with a playful bite from an over stoked reef shark so I avoided getting them too riled up. One interesting thing was they interacted with me only when I was close to the bottom. When I arched upward to the surface they continued to cruise parallel and close to the bottom consistently. I would have thought they might have followed me up. The water was around 60 to 80 ft. deep.

Martin Stepanek described some scenarios and recommended responses when we were trying to encounter some oceanic white tips in the Red Sea. Unfortunately, the sharks were vacationing elsewhere so there were no sightings on the trip. Anyway, he was describing developing interactions coming very close to attach behavior, pectorals down, swinging the head side to side. Note to self: try to avoid sharks the size of small vehicles going through attack behaviors.

 

[cdavis]

One place there was a dive boat that might have been feeding, not sure. The most "aggressive" shark was at that spot. Otherwise, nobody around to feed them.

Thanks for posting your stuff, always interesting.

Connor