Reprinted for the Shark Encounters page of http://sharkfeeding.net
- Name:
- Trish
- Email:
- Scuba2525
- Date:
- 17 Sep 1999
Story
About three weeks ago I was doing a shallow dive 15-20 feet off the Pompano Buoys with my husband when I looked up and saw a shark swimming right towards me. I managed to get my husbands attention and we were motionless until the shark came towards us and then swam off. I am sure he was looking for food. I have dove in this area for 12years and never encounter anything like this before. I consider sharks wildlife and they should not be feed. We must put a stop to this.
- Name:
- Milan
- Email:
- barisicm@zlt.co.zwNOSPAM
- Date:
- 13 Sep 1999
Story
I have 150 dives and I have seen sharks on 51 dives; good average, huh? I've seen tiger sharks, bull sharks, scalloped hammerheads, Galapagos, silkies, whitetip reef sharks, blacktip sharks, copper sharks, sandtiger sharks and silvertip sharks.
I really don't understand why you need to have a page with people describing "encounters with unusually aggresive sharks". All my sightings (sometimes, sharks were within the touching distance) were uneventfull and I think, with a little bit of experience and common sense and some background knowledge (books, videos) on sharks, all our scuba diving shark "encounters" should be , well, let's say exciting, very special and totally undramatic.
Good diving
- Name:
- L.A. Bykowsky
- Email:
- can't
- Date:
- 09 Sep 1999
Story
About two years ago, while diving off the Pompano pier in 60 feet of water, I had my first real and scary shark encounter and I'm convinced that it happened because of idiots going out and feeding sharks in "controlled encounters".
I've been diving off Pompano for 14 years and I've seen plenty of nurse sharks, a lemon shark and maybe a brown. I've been close and never been afraid. It's their ocean too and I know that people are not the food of choice. But when you change an animal's feeding habits, introduce it to new things, all it knows is a new source of food. Sharks are fish, with limited intelligence, as Matt Hooper said in JAWS, all they do is "eat, swim and make little sharks". Not that there's anything wrong with that. But a shark is not going to be able to tell the difference between a chum slick put out by a shark encounter group and a chum slick put out by a bottom fisherman. That's what happened to me.
We completed a 60' dive and I was making my way back to the boat. I was on the surface, in a decent current and slowly swimming towards our boat. My husband and friend were just boarding when for some unknown reason, I decided to look below me and what I saw scared the hell out of me. But, I also didn 't believe it. I had to do a double take. A six foot shark was swimming up at me, at an attack angle, I've seen enough Discovery shark week shows to know the difference. I immediately stopped swimming and became as still as possible and was very thankful that I had already discarded my regulator, so there were no bubbles to attract attention. I calmly called out to my husband to come pick me up as there was a shark in the water and I wasn't going to be doing any more surface swimming. He gave me the high sign and I was pretty calm. Until I looked down to check on my "friend". Now there were two of them. And they were circling me about 10' - 15' feet below me. I called back to my husband and asked him to hurry as there were now 2 sharks. He waved at me and said he was coming. See, it wasn't sinking in for him, just like it wasn't for me, that I could be in trouble. It's amazing how many things went through my mind in those few minutes: I didn't want to end up a statistic in the Sun-Sentinel, because most diving accidents that make the paper are due to diver error; I knew I wasn't gonna get eaten, but I was concerned about being bitten, fearing that if one gave me a taste, the other would follow suit; or maybe they'd grab on and drown me. And I also realized that the only reason they were there was because of a fishing boat a little ways off that must have had a chum slick going. And what were the sharks doing? They were simply being sharks. Maybe they were following the chum, heard me swimming on the surface and decided to check out the much larger sounding dinner bell. I didn't blame the sharks. I blame the people who think feeding sharks in the wild is a neat thing to do.
I digress, back to my predicament. I turned around and looked down again and now there were three sharks, 10 feet away and circling. Panic definitely set in at this point. At least on the inside. I turned around and keeping my body as still as possible lit off on an expletive filled screaming tirade to my husband that there were now 3 sharks and I was gonna f'n die if he didn't get over to me. Now, my husband realized I was in trouble. So, he asks if he should cut the anchor. Now, being a type A person, I can tell you that I actually tried to do a calculation of how much the anchor and line costs, before I made my reply. " F' the anchor, I'm gonna f'n die". So, he did cut the anchor, (which got hung up on the pulpit so we didn't lose it anyway), started the motor and headed my way. Before he got to me, the sharks were gone. The moral of the story, if someone yells shark, start the engine, that may scare them off. As for my husband, when I got on board my first question was "you had to wait until there were three sharks before you thought I was in trouble"? We ended up being able to laugh about it, and it does make for a great story. But I'd rather it never happened. It never should have. And the only reason it did was because of chartered shark encounters. Of that, I have no doubt.
I read that some moron wants to do these shark encounters to increase people's awareness of sharks, that they are good creatures and not a natural enemy of man's. That's absurd. The guy is mercifully free of the ravages of intelligence. Maybe nobody has been killed yet, because of the encounters, but, it will happen. And then what are people going to do. It'll be like that scene in JAWS, every Tom, Dick and Harry will be heading out to kill sharks en masse. A slaughter waiting to happen.
Lots of people like wolves. They're misunderstood too. Have you heard of any expeditions out to Yosemite to feed them? Of course not. They're wild animals. And they are wild for a reason. The same applies to sharks. You can't feed them in a controlled environment at 2pm on Saturday and expect them to know that the chum or people they are around at 8am on Sunday are not part of the same deal. Until that day, I'd never seen Reef sharks on a dive off Pompano. If you are going to do shark encounters, why in the world would you do it in a populated area. Again, the sharks don't know what's "off limits".
I didn't report my adventure because I didn't know who to report it too. I'm sure there are others out there like me. There's a law against feeding or interferring with wild dolphins or manatees. They're gentle creatures. Why should the same apply to sharks?
- Name:
- James Burns
- Email:
- swathdiver@aNOSPAMol.com
- Date:
- 07 Sep 1999
Story
About two weeks ago I had an encounter with a Bull shark. After catching our limit of bugs off Deerfield Beach, my buddy and I headed for the surface. While on a 5 minute safety stop we were circled by an 8 foot Bull from at least the beginning of the stop until we boarded the boat. What made it even more uncomfortable was that it was the first time I'd ever been a little "out of it, narked out" in over 300 dives. I never even saw the Bull circling us but thankfully my buddy did. I consider myself a professional diver and 99.99% of the time have my wits about me. But think about Joe and Jane Tourist who dive once a year. What could of happened to them? Why are these morons allowed to feed on the balls where students go to learn? Some cities have local ordinances about feeding the ducks, possums, raccoons, alligators, etc. that live aorund us. Do these ordinances extend to the ocean? Are there state laws on the books like this? If my memory serves me correctly it's illegal to feed alligators and manatees. Since the Jewfish is a protected species that would make it illegal to feed them too, right? Enforcement is another issue but I'm sure my boat would gladly take some undercover officers to one of the "Zoo Keepers" feedings! HeHeHe
- Name:
- Dylan
- Email:
- greydy@yahNOSPAMoo.com
- Date:
- 06 Sep 1999
Story
I was surfing down at the beach one day and I knew that there was alot of sharks around but I had been living there for 10 years now and I had never heard of a shark attack. But one day it was perfect conditions. I couldn't resist myself even though there had been sightings of a 10 foot tiger shark. I went with about 3 of my mates took off on our 4 wheelers and went out. It was the best day. Until I saw this fin coming for me. It looked like a dolphin but when it got closer it was a shark. It would of been about 12 foot long. I jumped off my board and body surfed the next wave in. I was on the beach with my mates scared like hell. When I went back to town and told people of my scary story. They didn't believe me so we went back out to the surfing spot and when we got there my surf board was washed up on the beach in half.
This was one of the cloest experiences I have had with sharks. But there are many more
- Name:
- Dave Earp
- Email:
- Dave_Earp@sharNOSPAMkfeeding.net
- Date:
- 28 Aug 1999
Story
In the past month I have had 4 aggressive encounters with bull and Caribbean reef sharks. One of the encounters Sheri described. Two of the encounters occurred while I was spearfishing and had to surface. The last encounter was near Fink's Grouper Hole. This is a known shark feeding spot. On this dive I was only lobstering. I did not have my speargun. As I reached the bottom a large Caribbean reef shark approached at a high rate of speed. Luckily I saw the shark out of the corner of my eye as he came up on my side. I turned toward him as he turned off about 3 feet away. He then made one more pass and then left my field of vision. About 5 minutes went by and I began to lobster. As I looked around I spotted the shark circling about 40 feet above me. I saw him several more times throughout my dive. He did not come close again but I consider this very unusual behavior. He had no reason to continually follow me unless he thought I was going to give him food. I believe the only reason he thought I would give him food is because somebody else had. I believe its only a matter of time before somebody gets bitten around here unless the dive operators give this practice up. I would hope they would have the decency to do this on their own. But legislation is going to be needed to stop these greedy feeders and to stop others from taking up the practice.
- Name:
- jim
- Email:
- jim@nospam.com
- Date:
- 27 Aug 1999
Story
You can check out my post on the forum board from about 8/22. I had a similar experience while lobster diving with my girlfriend - no spearfishing involved. It was pretty much the same deal - a very large and VERY aggressive bull shark. My girlfriend will not go diving anymore after that experience. She was inexperienced to begin with and that episode put the fear of god in her - she was practically paralyzed with fear. This shark was so bold that my aggressive action toward it had no effect - I bent a tickle stick into a wishbone jabbing the shark with it and it didn't matter. I spent many years in the military and was trained to meet aggression with overwhelming violent force. I now feel the same way about these sharks. I no longer consider them beautiful predators, but enemies to be dealt with. From now on I carry powerheads on my dives and have no pause in using them. Personally, I would love to dive one of the "feeding" sites prior to the arrival of the dive boat and leave the bottom littered with shark bodies. Maybe the a**holes running the boats would get the idea -- if they don't quit, someone else will put them out of business (unfortunately at the expense of the sharks, but to tell you the truth,I really don't care). Tree huggers forgive me.
- Name:
- Donna LaVoie
- Email:
- dlavoie@maNOSPAMtrox.com
- Date:
- 26 Aug 1999
Story
I do not have a personal encounter story to tell, but I know that a lot of beginner divers dive on the Pompano "balls" and it will be a scary and very unsafe situation if they have an encounter.
- Name:
- Sheri
- Email:
- sheri@NOSPAM.net
- Date:
- 25 Aug 1999
Story
My name is Sheri. I love the ocean and have been diving for many years. I have also come to love the sport of spearfishing. I made a new friend a couple years ago; a commercial spearfisherman named Dave, one of the best around. He’s logged in excess of 5,000 dives, and therefore, he is also a great source of information about this particular area, good spots, fish activity, shark sightings, etc. Being the right-brained, logical, and safety conscious person that I am, I picked his brain dry concerning sharks. If I was going to get into this sport, I wanted to know what the risks were. After many years of spearfishing, he had not been attacked nor had any encounters that were considered life threateningly dangerous. He also informed me that sharks had migratory patterns, going through here mostly in April and November.
Over the last few months, Dave and I (and many South Florida Spearfishing Club members) have been noticing an unusually high number of sharks, especially Bull Sharks. It seems a few took up permanent residence in the Rodeo 25 area, off Pompano Beach, with one even being named “Bubba”. We respectfully quit diving in that area awhile ago.
Now I wish to put into words what happened to Dave and I last month, July 1999. I doubt if my description can do it justice. We were spearfishing in about 100 feet of water. We saw a fairly large Bull Shark come by, so we put our catch bags together and blew them up to the surface with a blast of air. That is normally enough to discourage any further investigation. However, to my dismay, I then spotted a second 8 to 9 foot Bull Shark near us. Dave and I began to ascend, and I knew we were in trouble when they both started rising into mid-water with us. We concluded that the next five minutes, which we thought to be 15 until we checked our dive computers afterwards, were some of the scariest moments of our lives.
Dave and I got back-to-back as we continued to rise. I knew that panicking would make me into an instant meal so I made a conscious decision to calmly support Dave in whatever actions he felt best. Taking Dave’s lead, and still back to back, I faced my own attacker, looking him in the eye, putting my gun up and making aggressive and defensive gestures as he came by. I wondered if my heartbeat was giving me away. The sharks were moving in and out of visible range, making faster and closer passes at us. Dave later said he felt like we were a slow moving B-52 bomber, and these sharks were like F-14’s buzzing in on us from all directions, including from above and below. I was most amazed by the feeling of vulnerability due to the three dimensional nature of this attack. My head would swivel in all directions, trying to spot which direction the sharks were coming in on.
At one particular point I glanced over my shoulder to see what Dave’s view looked like, and I got the following impression burned in my brain forever (it is also Dave’s most vivid memory)…. I saw the frontal view of this 500-pound monster coming straight in on us, at ramming speed. How do they do that? They don’t even seem to move their bodies or fins…one minute they are there...then they are here. For the first time, I have the sickening feeling…”We may not come out of this alive”. No time to watch the outcome, I have to turn back and look for the other shark. Dave puts his gun up and deters another attack. It feels like they are working us in concert. Thank God Dave is a big guy and keeps his wits about him. His strength gives me strength. I wonder if he looks more appetizing than I do. How long can this go on, I wonder? They are relentless and closing in.
Then, I felt Dave leave my back. Unbeknownst to me, he knew the boat was now close enough above us so that we should try to make our getaway, and he was preparing for our departure. I watched him get in a horizontal position, speargun outstretched, ready for the next attack. As the next shark came in on us, Dave shot, but my heart sank as I watched the shaft leave his spear, hit the side of the shark with a thud, and then fall to the bottom. Although it was a good enough shot to stick in any other fish, apparently their skin is tough and hard to penetrate. Again, trying to be brave and follow his lead, I got myself mentally ready to shoot my own shaft on the next shark pass. Thankfully, Dave signaled for us to get up and out of the water.
The situation must have been immediately obvious to our buddy, Skeeter, on the boat. We started waving instead of giving the OK sign, and our heads were dunking in and out of the water, watching below us. His smile turned to alarm and he yelled “Sharks?” to which we responded by catapulting out of the water and onto the boat. As Skeeter predicted, we have spent many quiet moments reliving the event, talking about it, dreaming about it.
We are now more incensed than ever that some dive operators purposely choose to feed sharks, exposing others to dangers, and adapting the sharks to people and handouts. It seems like such an obviously wrong thing to do, on many different levels. We wonder…why is there such an increase in shark activity in this area? Why are the ones we are seeing more aggressive? What if some innocent beach-goers get attacked? And what disaster has to happen before shark feeding is stopped?
- Name:
- scott wilson
- Email:
- neptunoprofundo@hotmail.com
- Date:
- 25 Aug 1999
Story
as a matter of fact, i was surfing the web looking for 38 special power heads to return to mexico with. you see, i sustanence freedive spearfish there and have had many encounter with 7-10 foot bull sharks. i've noticed that even if i have kill, which i don't keep on my body anymore but on a lift bag system, as long as i see them in time and face off with them, they stay away. the major thing is that your fish is indeed dead. blood in the water may bring them in but the frequency of an injured fish puts them in attack mode. for example, one day i only wounded a large permit, that swam into a cave and the 10 foot bull showed up while i was in the cave retrieving the fish, the contest was on. after waiting a few minutes in the cave, the bull circling, my breath was running out so i left the speared thrashing permit and my gun and exited. the bull charged me thinking i was the permit and avoided putting his massive jaws to work at the last minute. i pushed off his body as i exited and headed to the surface for air. needless to say the bull later won, snatching the permit i retrieved the next dive right off the spear in a big hurry. i swear that bulls head was more than 3 feet wide. this is why he was unable to enter the cave. since that time i've seen this same bull shark and he follows me, unintiminated, hoping for another hand out. i have to call the dive every time! note: baracuda do the same but when you threaten them, with an act of agression, they leave. this bull won't, he only turns and shows his belly then i know that i'm pushing my luck. so, even though i don't take pleasure in killing another animal, if this bull is teritorial and still there when i return, i want to be prepared with a power head for defence. i won't take the shot unless it is necessary! unfortunatly 38's are the only amunition i can get down there, otherwise i would pick something with alot more punch... got any ideas?
- Name:
- Jeffrey Drew Jenkins
- Email:
- diver98@bellsouth.net
- Date:
- 24 Aug 1999
Story
While diving off the Tugs (Pomp/Ft. Laud) with 3 other divers in December 98, I've had the experience of being inspected very closely by three bull sharks, including a big guy of about 12 feet or so...it was quite clear that these sharks had pretty much lost any natural caution or fear of divers, and it was also pretty clear that they were looking for a handout. No one actually got bumped, but I am convinced if we were there much longer that would have occurred.
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