sharks

[1oldbuzzard]

This is gonna be a fun thread.

OK. My 2 cents: I have been a scuba instructor since 1967. I have more than 10,000 dives. (really). Most in salt water. I have seen 3 sharks in that time except for nurse sharks which are harmless unless you grab one by the tail.

It's just not a problem. A statement used to be that there is 1 shark for every square mile of ocean so you could be within a half mile of a shark at any time. Sharks are heavily fished for their fins and less of them in the last few decades.

As a full time instructor I have determined that women, especially are safe from sharks.

They are man eaters.

:-}}

 

[Meriachee]

wow you got vending machines up there swimming around ?????? who new

We'd heard that Phil was cost effective, but a vending machine in the cockpit? really?

 

[walt]

scariest “shark” story for me..

Back in the late 80's (when I "used" to be more foolish...), we used to do beach scuba dives off Laguna Beach CA. There was a reef a ways off shore about 60 foot deep and we would take two beers in bottles with us. One to drink sitting at the bottom on the ocean (yep.. ALWAYS safety first!!!!) and the second to drink while swimming back to shore.

So this one time there was a some swell and my buddy and I were swimming back with the BC inflated enjoying a beer after a great dive. You are basically swimming on your back looking mostly backwards.

All of a sudden I got lifted out of the water several feet!!! This just really scarred the crap out of me. But.. shortly after I dropped back to water level and and being pretty much terrified, started pedaling like I was about to eaten..

Turns out that we had swam over a reef about halfway to shore and the swell was exposing the reef. All that had happened was that I was over the reef just at the right time.

 

[Popeyemd]

I've seen plenty of "beached whales" from our boat, but never any in the water!!!

 

[Rcraigjohn]

Sailing with Sharks/Whales

I am sorry to ask such a silly question but...
My wife is freaked about the idea of sailing out of the lake, IE: ICW or the keys or Caribbean waters. "Not that we are doing any of that in the next few years"
Q: Has anyone sailed in open water and had issues with sharks, killer whales, or any other extra large sea going animals you would consider dangerous? Thank you so much.

We sail in the Northwest in the San Juan and Gulf Islands. Rarely see sharks, but often see killer whales -- a real treat! Marine animals are a huge way down on the risk matrix compared to fog, currents, rocks, tugs with tows, overzealous customs agents, etc. But, one of the best places to sail in the world, but with 9 foot tides, and marine hazards, you must always pay attention. On the whole, would not trade it for the world! You might charter a boat out of someplace like San Juan Sailing, or get some instruction (even an experienced fresh water sailor can use some local knowledge) before you venture out. But you will be thrilled seeing sea life, eagles, etc.

 

[YVRguy]

If you can't stand the heat...

I doubt there is anything you can say to her that will dispel her concerns about sharks, etc. in the near term. We all know that fear is based on the unknown and since you guys have been living and sailing inland, the ocean and its critters are one big unknown for her.

Solution?
Take her for a sail some place beautiful and warm (you mentioned Florida)and reassure her there will be no swimming required. Find a nice spot to anchor on a hot day - ideally one of those places where the water is turquoise and you can see the sandy bottom. Sit out on the deck for the day until you're both baking hot and then follow the cues of the boats around you and jump in for a cool off - without pressuring her to join you. Eventually after baking in the sun and watching everyone around her swimming and laughing eventually she will screw up the courage and enjoy the water. But that decision has to come from her. No amount of stats or other reassurances from you are likely to work as well as her coming to her own peace.

 

[sailndays]

Bata Boom,

I've seen plenty of "beached whales" from our boat, but never any in the water!!!

Bata Boom!

 

[John_Rog]

Tell your wife that I'm freaked out to go to Colorado because of rattlesnakes.

 

[MrBill_FLL]

(WALT) how do you drink underwater? (and keep the salt out?)

I have drank from the 'capri' juice foil bags with a straw underwater... but it was a watertight


-I was body surfing in Ventura Ca, and saw a fin out of the corner of my eye... longest 3 seconds of my life.. until the porpoise surfaced and took a breath...

I knew the size of the 'fish' by the size of the fin... and it was 1000# at least.
(east coast porpoise are around 300-400#)

 

[MrBill_FLL]

btw, I've seen probably 50+ nurse sharks, and maybe 20 reef sharks when diving. (30+ years, and over 1000 dives) never an issue.

but only 1 over 10' and I didn't wait around to find out about that one....

 

[bfahle]

My boat is named Shark, so other racers worry about seeing US. I've only sailed the ocean once, down at Corpus Christi. The dolphins followed our wake for an entire leg of the race. It was very distracting.

 

[sailingohana]

Sailed all over the Caribbean for years and crossed the Pacific in 2005. Never an issue however........in Tonga, at anchor, a whale came up right under our catamaran (between the hulls) and exhaled It was amazing! Was having coffee and ran outside to see what was happening, grabbed goggles and jumped in the water to see her swim away. Magic.

Let her know it will be ok.

 

[walt]

(WALT) how do you drink underwater? (and keep the salt out?)

Most important.. practice, practice, practice..

You need a beer bottle with a twist off cap and no gloves. Twist off the cap and quickly put your thumb over the bottle with one hand. Remove the regulator with the other hand and "carefully" take a swig. The last few swigs might be a little salty..

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

This past summer North Carolina had shark attacks which was unusual and in some cases warnings were ignored. A lot of advice given here was good.

however, I know of one man eating shark incident that I witnessed. My ex wife passed me on I-64 in Louisa County, VA. When she recognized me, off she speeded and beyond the next hill was a man eating shark with a blue light special in uniform giving her a safety award for speeding . We passed her and the bird was flipped and that big mouth from the man eater told her to pipe it down. I laughed on that one.

 

[CloudDiver]

Hopefully my take on this isn't offensive to anyone who made a previous comment about "you're chances of being attacked by a shark are less than..."; but seriously guys, those statistics are Bull Shark, pun intended.
The 'odds of being a shark attack victim' vs. being struck by lightning or in a car accident are not only apples vs. oranges, but you always have to consider 'who' is counting and 'what' they are counting.
'Odds of being attacked by a shark' are calculated by the number of RECORDED shark attacks in a given period of time (usually in one year) vs. a given population sample. The problems are;
1. Not all shark attacks are reported... An increase in that number will have an effect on the 'odds' if all attacks were reported correctly, but NOT as much as an impact as the next reason will have on the math...
2. This is the 'big' one... the sample population used in the math is usually the entire population of a given state or country. This is bollocks... take the lifetime odds of being a shark attack victim in the United States, currently close to 1 in 3.7 million. How many people who live in inland areas never swim in the ocean? how many of these people go an entire lifetime having never even SEEN the ocean? A more accurate way to calculate the odds is to only consider the given population of people who participate in sports/leisure or professional activities actually IN the water, and typically in saltwater areas where certain shark species who are most commonly know to strike, i.e. Bull Shark, Great White, Tiger Shark, etc... This is only a Hypothetical guess, but I am willing to say on any given day there are only about a half million American actually IN saltwater on any given day in areas which are considered habitats for those species of Shark which are commonly involved in unprovoked attacks. Now take that figure, multiply by 365 days a year, account for lower numbers in the winter, higher numbers in the summer and major holidays, then calculate odds by the number of reported attacks in a year and I promise the odds are much greater than 1 in 3.7 MIL.

Yes, you are MORE likely to be involved in a bad car accident than to be attacked by a Shark. That's because ALMOST ALL Americans drive to work EVERY DAY, all over the USA!

Surfers agree with my math, and have their own odds based on numbers of attacks vs the actual population of Surfers in the water;

http://www.surfermag.com/features/what-are-the-odds/#s2FiZ8cEZeIzu0k8.97

 

[walt]

Something useful and interesting in the link you posted

To answer your question, the chances of being attacked by a shark while being
struck by lightning are somewhere around .0.0000000004891%. Side ed. note:
We’re not statisticians.)

 

[kenackerman]

As a diver, I can say that aquatic life is almost always more afraid of you than the other creatures they encounter and will generally keep their distance. It's extremely difficult, as I'm sure you know, to change her mind only with words, as one other poster noted.

Maybe you should start by assessing her comfort with sailing.

If she is not truly comfortable with sailing, perhaps afraid of the boat capsizing, then a different tack of familiarization with aquatic creatures might be best.

Try this: both of you take a SCUBA course and then for the certification final dive, dive in a place with some fish life (but not sharks). Repeat several times until she becomes comfortable with seeing the fish being skittish.

If she gets to the point where she's comfortable enough to dive in the ocean or gulf with a good dive operation that has knowledgeable dive masters, you may be able to desensitize her fear to a degree.

 

[JK_Boston_Catalina310]

In my area of the North East we get great whites. Yup its scary if you think about Jaws but that is a movie. A couple of the big ports around here have annual shark tournaments. You can see some big blues and makos come in during those but those sharks are generally offshore and deeper in the water.

Even the great whites aren't going to bother your boat. As others have said, Jaws was a movie not real life.

We saw a shark, small one about 4 feet, during 4th of July weekend in Provincetown. It was eating something near the surface and we could see it's fin out of the water while we were in our inflatable dingy. We tried to follow it. The nature is one of the reason we are out sailing/soon to be cruising. We go looking for whales and feel unlucky we haven't gotten to see any from our own boat.

One rule you learn in the North East is you don't swim with seals. Those are shark food and you are asking for it then. In the Caribbean we learned you don't swim with jewelry but that is more for the barracudas than sharks.

Spend some time on YouTube watching videos for Delos, Wicked Salty, Untie the Lines, etc. Show her the cool fish encounters and the dolphins in the bow wake. She'll likely change her mind.

Good luck and fair winds,

Jesse

 

[jwing]

If you are diving in the Bahamas, or even simply anchored for a few days, and you don't see a shark, that means you are not observant. Even in clear water, sharks can be on top of you way before you have time to flee, especially if they approach from behind you, like any good predator will do.

If you can't deal with the nature of sharks and barracuda and the probability that they will attack you, stay out of the ocean. If you are going to stay out of the ocean, there is no reason to go to The Bahamas.

P.S. - Don't forget about lionfish, jellies, and fire coral.

 

[JK_Boston_Catalina310]

If you can't deal with the nature of sharks and barracuda and the probability that they will attack you, stay out of the ocean.

I think this should be edited to the "very low probability". This makes it sound like shark attacks are likely. They are not even common place never mind likely.