Warning to Florida divers

[Chagy]

This was posted by Bigcypresshunter in "Beach & Shallow Water" on Dec 26.......

Dozens of sharks swim near the shoreline just north of the Fort Pierce Inlet on Tuesday. Aviation officials with the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office said they saw more than 100 sharks feeding "close to shore" about 10 a.m. between the Fort Pierce jetty and Pepper Park. They are believed to be bull sharks, according to Chief Deputy Garry Wilson.

 

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[Charlene]

Yikes!

Funny how our status on the food chain changes depending on the enviroment we're in at the time.

 

[mnm]

That is very scary considering Bull Sharks are mean towards anything they sense -to include humans. I wondered about this because I actually want to dive w/ the Team this year . Is it during different times of the year that they migrate or inhabit the area , or more prevalent pretty much common all the time? To think when I was a kid would swim as far out as I could and in getting older ,watching Discovery Channel seeing the White Sharks literally jumping completely out of the water to catch their food . Sheesh , pretty wild & to think a friend actually caught a 6-7 foot Baby White here off shore about 17 miles out while running longlines .

 

[Chagy]

you mean like this

 

[mnm]

That looks fabricated : o

 

[Chagy]

That looks fabricated : o

Actually is not...check it out

AND YOU THINK YOUR HAVING A BAD DAY AT WORK !!

Although this looks like a picture taken from a Hollywood movie, it is in fact a real photo, taken near the South African coast during a military exercise by the British Navy.

It has been nominated by Geo as "THE photo of the year".

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blsharkattack.htm

 

[mnm]

Chagy , look a little closer my friend . Fabricated , the shark picture may have been taken in S. Africa but the Bridge in the background states otherwise . Would be very freaky though having a White Shark fly out of the water at you like it was stalking a seal . Wow !!!!

 

[Chagy]

Chagy , look a little closer my friend . Fabricated , the shark picture may have been taken in S. Africa but the Bridge in the background states otherwise . Would be very freaky though having a White Shark fly out of the water at you like it was stalking a seal . Wow !!!!

You are absolutely right I didn't read the whole thing....

 

[ScubaFinder]

Yeah, that one is a fake, but the one up top is not. I read about that several weeks ago, they were Bull sharks...lot's of them in close to shore. My guess is they were breeding, especially if there was a freshwater inlet or river dumping in near by. Lemon sharks congregate by the thousands off Florid'as east coast every year to breed too. Bull sharks generally breed near a fresh water source...sometimes even in a fresh water source.

 

[skip_fla]

Those sharks don't bother me. I always make sure that when ever I dive or Detect in the water that I have a partner with me. One of the requirements to being my hunting partner is that you can not swim faster or run faster in the water than me!!!!!

 

[ScubaFinder]

Funny Skip, if you can outswim a bull, I need some lessons...OH wait, you don't have to outswim the bull, just your buddy...now I see. They almost never attack one of a group of divers anyhow, it's always a loan swimmer or surfer...or diver. When the see four or five of sticking up out of a hole, I bet they run and hide.

 

[xXx]

You don't have to out-run the shark, just your dive buddy.
xXx

 

[ScubaFinder]

Grubby,

I was wondering if you ever got one of those, any word on the pricing?

Cheers,

Jason

 

[mnm]

Jason , I see you too are concerned w/ the shark issue or perhaps just curious .

 

[Chagy]

I know sharks don't buther must of us...but to swim with 100 feeding bullsharks .....Hummmmm? I don't know

 

[Salvor6]

This is all bull. It all started in 1973 when "Jaws" came out at the movies. That rattled me so I studied everything I could about sharks because I just moved to Florida and did a lot of diving in the Gulf. Right down the road was the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota with the worlds largest shark attack file. They have recently moved to the University of Florida in Gainsville (home of the national champs Gators). Here are the facts: sharks are scavengers. They only attack dead or dying fish. Any attack on a human is purely accidental. They are cowards and will not fight for their food. The last few years I have had hundreds of face to face encounters with them underwater. Just last summer a shark brushed up against my leg while going after a stringer of snappers on my speargun. One bonk on the nose with the but of my gun and he was gone! Just read this story about an attack two days ago: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/25/ap/world/mainD8MRVH7O0.shtml. JUST FIGHT BACK!

 

[Peg Leg]

Hi Pete,
Do you recall when we went to the GHOST SHIP area what the Side Scan Sonar saw in the channel. There were some really big creatures going across the screen.
Recall the fisherman saying that he caught a Black Tipped shark that was about 7 to 8 feet long near where we were.
Also the water is so black you cannot see anything below a few inches but a SHARK does not have to see they can sense the object around them so tell me what the difference is in what a gator and a human would appear to a shark?
And as you know this area has a mixture of fresh and salt water and as I have read this is the perfect bredding ground for BULL SHARKS so what we saw on the screen was WHAT?
Peg Leg

 

[ScubaDude]

Hummmmm, manatee

 

[Peg Leg]

No Sir, they were not Mantees.
Peg

 

[Salvor6]

What we saw were serveral small black tip sharks swimming around the mouth of the river. I don't think a black tip would go after a gator. After one bite on the gator's scales, the shark would give up. Also, that's not their natural food and most of the gators I saw were larger than the sharks. A small shark will not attack something larger than they are. I have never read any newspaper accounts of a shark attacking a gator.

Finally, a shark would NEVER attack the National Champion UF Gators!