Sharks

[Donny Bahama]

I saw a nature show recently that said we’ve (mankind has) overfished the oceans to the point that sharks can’t get enough food. They’re coming in much closer to shore, showing up in places where they aren’t usually seen, and even attacking each other out of sheer hunger.

Are you seeing them more often? How much do you worry/think about them?

 

[O C Diver]

Most animal populations rise and fall based on their food availability. Food availability declines; animal species declines. While sharks aren't dumb, applying human intellect to them is a big stretch.

There are lots and lots of sharks in the ocean. If more than the rarest incidence of sharks attacking humans were to occur, we wouldn't be swimming in the ocean anymore.

Most shark attacks on humans are a case of mistaken identity as the shark often releases the victim after realizing it's not what they thought it was. A surfer in a black wetsuit being mistaken for a seal is a good example.

Ted

 

[smitty477]

I saw a nature show recently that said we’ve (mankind has) overfished the oceans to the point that sharks can’t get enough food. They’re coming in much closer to shore, showing up in places where they aren’t usually seen, and even attacking each other out of sheer hunger.

Are you seeing them more often? How much do you worry/think about them?

"How much do you worry/think about them?"
If you are generally worried you could research how many people are killed by these animals each year to get a wider perspective:
Bees
Cows
Dogs
sharks
mosquitos
snakes
alligators

 

[Hippocampus]

We’ve seen a huge increase in sharks. Particularly great whites. This follows a large increase in the number of seals we’re seeing. It gotten to the point that if you see seals while fishing you just move on.
My interpretation is with man made global warming our coastal waters (New England) have gotten warmer. We’re seeing warm water species (black bass and the like ) increase with cold water species (lobster etc.) moving north. Seals now have come a bit further south to feast and sharks a bit further north. Hence more seals and more great whites. Have noticed this trend over the last 5 years or so. Seals are most vulnerable as they get in and out of the water so the sharks are closer to the shoreline. Some places (Manomet point) where the seals sun themselves on the rocks just a few yards from shore you commonly see the dorsal fins of the sharks as well.
We left a shiny swim ladder in the water by mistake going from Provincetown to Maine. Picked up two great whites at the race which started to follow us. Carefully got the ladder up and they swam off.

 

[Chrisjs]

We were snorkeling with amazing fish including very large eagle rays , barracudas and giant groupers in the Bahamas several years ago over the course of a few months. Never did SEE a shark even though we were in some pretty deserted areas in deep water. However, there are plenty of sharks there! Seems the locals like to feed the bull sharks in and around the marinas. They are pretty aggressive.
Now I definitely think twice before jumping in the water. Even where we live just south of Boston, there are great whites that show up!
Just because you do not see the shark, does not mean it does not see you!

 

[McGillicuddy]

We were snorkeling with amazing fish including very large eagle rays , barracudas and giant groupers in the Bahamas several years ago over the course of a few months. Never did SEE a shark even though we were in some pretty deserted areas in deep water. However, there are plenty of sharks there! Seems the locals like to feed the bull sharks in and around the marinas. They are pretty aggressive.
Now I definitely think twice before jumping in the water. Even where we live just south of Boston, there are great whites that show up!
Just because you do not see the shark, does not mean it does not see you!

Three bull sharks off my swim platform in Bimini Harbor. Smallest was over 6’.
They hang out because the have a diver cage ‘Shark Experience’ just a few hundred yards away. The workers throw chum in the water several times a say.
Certainly discouraged me from swimming off the boat but the next boat over was a local lobster boat and they didn’t hesitate to jump in if they saw an unlucky lobster pass by.

 

[Fletcher500]

I started working on fishing boats as a kid around 1977 in SoCal. Many 12 hour days on the water and I never saw a Single Great White. About 20 years ago, there were more sighings mainly due to the Seal population increase and in the last 5 years or so it’s fairly common to see them. They are mainly Juvies (Less than 10 ft.) looking for fish and sand sharks and I have had them actually swim under me while surfing. There are larger ones are around that have killed a few people in SoCal over the past 20 years but they mostly head up north for the larger seals. We are in the water a lot (Every day) and I would be lying if I said I didn’t think about them periodically, but the risk is minimal as noted by others. If there are a lot of seals in the water, we don’t go in. Today alone, literally hundreds of people will go into the water in the Channel Islands. I don’t believe there has ever been a shark related death out there. Bottom line, I worry more about driving in my car or walking down the stairs in my house.

 

[moparharn]

I have a nice scar from swimming too close to a dock post in Bimini harbor. Between the barnacles, barracudas, and Chaulks air service that is not a great place to swim. Never mind Bull Sharks, arguably the most dangerous shark to humans.

A guy in my hometown just got arrested for shark finning, drug smuggling, and money laundering. So I guess those sharks will have plenty to eat when their finless buddies are tossed back into the water without the ability to swim. All this so some jackass in Asia can get a hard on or whatever other mythical power they think it might grant them. Oh yeah, there is nothing quite like shark fin stew with some bats and pangolins thrown in for that extra spicey flavor. We treat our planet so well. What could go wrong? Bill

 

[smitty477]

I started working on fishing boats as a kid around 1977 in SoCal. Many 12 hour days on the water and I never saw a Single Great White. About 20 years ago, there were more sighings mainly due to the Seal population increase and in the last 5 years or so it’s fairly common to see them. They are mainly Juvies (Less than 10 ft.) looking for fish and sand sharks and I have had them actually swim under me while surfing. There are larger ones are around that have killed a few people in SoCal over the past 20 years but they mostly head up north for the larger seals. We are in the water a lot (Every day) and I would be lying if I said I didn’t think about them periodically, but the risk is minimal as noted by others. If there are a lot of seals in the water, we don’t go in. Today alone, literally hundreds of people will go into the water in the Channel Islands. I don’t believe there has ever been a shark related death out there. Bottom line, I worry more about driving in my car or walking down the stairs in my house.

"Bottom line, I worry more about driving in my car or walking down the stairs in my house."
Very true - both driving and walking down stairs are much more likely to cause death than sharks, even vending machines are a much larger cause of death than sharks.

 

[Woodland Hills]

See many sharks? You mean like this kid:

 

[psneeld]

I have a nice scar from swimming too close to a dock post in Bimini harbor. Between the barnacles, barracudas, and Chaulks air service that is not a great place to swim. Never mind Bull Sharks, arguably the most dangerous shark to humans.

A guy in my hometown just got arrested for shark finning, drug smuggling, and money laundering. So I guess those sharks will have plenty to eat when their finless buddies are tossed back into the water without the ability to swim. All this so some jackass in Asia can get a hard on or whatever other mythical power they think it might grant them. Oh yeah, there is nothing quite like shark fin stew with some bats and pangolins thrown in for that extra spicey flavor. We treat our planet so well. What could go wrong? Bill

I think Chalks went out of business in 2007.

 

[Woodland Hills]

I am amazed at how many species are threatened with extinction just so some rich old man in China can get a woody. And this is after medical science has created a cheap drug to do the same thing that is actually proven to work.....

 

[moparharn]

Sophomore year of college winter bareboat trip in 1981. A really great time that was so unbelievably dangerous. Squalls, drug runners, drug dealers, and a steady stream of desperate Haitians. Learned quite a bit on that trip. Pump shotguns only, never rely on an auto, particularly one made in the 1960's.

I think Chalks went out of business in 2007.

 

[sledge]

I'd be much more worried about humans slowly decimating specific species of sharks. It seems you can never underestimate the ability of humans to screw another species for their own benefit. Check any research site and most will indicate human activity kills up to 100 million sharks per year. Finning is one disgusting example where they catch, slice off the fins, then dump them overboard where the shark slowly suffocates because he can no longer swim.

 

[ctjstr]

I saw a nature show recently that said we’ve (mankind has) overfished the oceans to the point that sharks can’t get enough food. They’re coming in much closer to shore, showing up in places where they aren’t usually seen, and even attacking each other out of sheer hunger.

Are you seeing them more often? How much do you worry/think about them?

Donny, since you're from Arizona, I think you'll be OK for at least a while.

Honestly though, up here in the Puget Sound, I just don't give sharks much thought. Course I don't spend much time in the water either. I know my son surfs off the coast and he's always on the lookout.

toni

 

[rgano]

See many sharks? You mean like this kid:

What happens when the kid is finished gutting fish and wants to walk ashore?

 

[psneeld]

Sophomore year of college winter bareboat trip in 1981. A really great time that was so unbelievably dangerous. Squalls, drug runners, drug dealers, and a steady stream of desperate Haitians. Learned quite a bit on that trip. Pump shotguns only, never rely on an auto, particularly one made in the 1960's.

Not really.

I was USCG in Miami 1979-1983...yes a lot of drug activity, but really not what I thought dangerous if you played it cool.

I had a greet time all over the Caribbean.

 

[Woodland Hills]

What happens when the kid is finished gutting fish and wants to walk ashore?

I wondered that too: maybe he hops? It looks like two buckets would have been better. I also wonder if he knew they were there......

BTW if you look closely it’s a pile of lobsters that he is cleaning!

 

[rgano]

Sometime in the last ten years here in Panama City, FL, a helicopter was flying along the landward side of the barrier island which forms the outer part of our St Andrew Bay. The pilot looked down and was surprised to see hundreds of shark bodies lying along the several mile long shoreline. The postulated cause of this die-off by the local fisheries lab was that somehow an anomalous oxygen loss had occurred. The point to me was that anytime you enter the water in our bay, a shark knows about it. There has never been a recorded shark bite inside the bay,

Two weeks ago we anchored over a white sand bottom in clear water out there in less than four feet deep water. We soon saw a four foot long shark cruise by chasing bait fish. A couple of strangers waded over from their boat later on to stand in the water off our swim step to talk about boats. A shark cruised by about 20-30 feet away behind them (between them and shore) and never even looked their way, but when it got to my stern anchor in the white sand did a double as it swerved its body to check it out before continuing on. Nobody panicked or ran or jumped aboard because we all, including the shark, were minding our own bidness. NEVER swim in murky water. I have no idea how many sharks may have swum by our bow out in the darker grass covered bottom. Never swim at dusk and dawn. Never swim around fishermen. Never swim where seals are about and great whites are known to be. Never expect there are no sharks about. And no I do not believe our bay has been overfished to the point sharks like us as an alternate food, at least not yet.

 

[Donny Bahama]

Donny, since you're from Arizona, I think you'll be OK for at least a while.

You’d be surprised at how aggressive the sand sharks can be around here! :lol:

 

[Donny Bahama]

"How much do you worry/think about them?"
If you are generally worried you could research how many people are killed by these animals each year to get a wider perspective:
Bees
Cows
Dogs
sharks
mosquitos
snakes
alligators

Thank you! It’s all about perspective, isn’t it?

 

[Dougcole]

What happens when the kid is finished gutting fish and wants to walk ashore?

Not much. Those are all nurse sharks.

 

[Dougcole]

As a free diver and spear fisherman I see at least one shark in the water with me almost every single day that I dive in the Bahamas. Our rule is to only take one fish per coral head, then get out and go to the next. If you are spearing you need to be careful. Otherwise it’s not worth worrying about them. Stingrays and lion fish are more dangerous.

 

[Donny Bahama]

Those are all nurse sharks.

Those are the ones that bandage your wounds when the other sharks bite you?

 

[Dougcole]

Those are the ones that bandage your wounds when the other sharks bite you?

LOL. No, but they are perhaps the least aggressive of all the warm water shark species. Pretty lazy too. We often see them sleeping on the bottom halfway under coral heads. That marina in the pic is Compass Cay in the Exumas, there is a resident school of nurse sharks there that eats scraps from the cleaning tables. People swim with them all the time.

 

[Comodave]

The saying here is “Great Lakes unsalted and shark free”.

 

[Chrisjs]

"shark free"
Seems like bull sharks possess some of the attributes of salmon in that they are quite comfortable swimming great distances up rivers in fresh water.

 

[Donny Bahama]

"shark free"
Seems like bull sharks possess some of the attributes of salmon in that they are quite comfortable swimming great distances up rivers in fresh water.

I think I didn’t want to know that.

 

[rgano]

The saying here is “Great Lakes unsalted and shark free”.

There's a saying here, "Thank God we have no snow or frozen open water."

 

[rgano]

I think I didn’t want to know that.

The inciting incident long, long ago for the Jaws tale is now assumed to have been a bull shark. We had a 6-8 footer reported to be cruising about in front of the daw to our drinking water supply here, 14 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico