Children and Sharks

[osirissail]

In the Bahamas - the OP's region of interest - if you stop by Highbourne Cay and dinghy into the marina area about the time the sportfishermen return with their catches you will see an amazing sight and have an up close and personal experience with dozens of small and large sharks thrashing the water just below where the fishermen are gutting and cleaning their catch. Under your dinghy the sharks will be turning and thrashing wildly trying to get some of the offal thrown in the water. I would hesitate to take a pure inflatable dinghy in to do this though.
- - Much further south in the Jumentos, we were walking on the shoal area just off the beach in a foot or two of water when we noticed two medium or large black tips cruise by between us and the beach. That stops the heart for a millisecond as it was very unexpected to see them in such shallow water.

[NomadRip]

Originally Posted by TACK OFF

I would suggest you check out a video called SHARKWATER it is very informative in many aspects, and it may help you relax and enjoy the water

Thanks for the recommendation. Great film. It looks like it's even over on YouTube.

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by TACK OFF

I would suggest you check out a video called SHARKWATER it is very informative in many aspects, and it may help you relax and enjoy the water

Thanks, from that I got led to a movie called The Cove (2009) - IMDb all about Dolphins and the Japanese
More info here
The Ruthless Killing - Sea Shepherd

[capn_billl]

Originally Posted by hummingway

I watched an interesting documentary a while back on a series of atacks that occurd in the Red Sea at Sharm El Sheihk; five very viscous attacks in a period of a couple of days. It's an important Saudi vacation spot and the attacks were quite unusual so it was very thoroughly investigated. They realized the problem was being caused by human behavior.

Divers feeding sharks, although illegal in the Red Sea, had produced an expectation that huans will feed them and a pattern of attack that reflected it. Divers would hold the fish out at arms length. When a shark comes at a human, the instinct of the human is to ward it off by extending theit arms. In each of these attacks one or more appendages were torn off. An even more unusual part of the attack was that most of the victims suffered a bite to the butt. They thought that this was because these sharks had been habituated by divers to expect a sack of fish hanging there.

In deep water where these sharks would normally be and where the divers had fed them shark attacks don't usually happen but these sharks had come into very shallow water. Despite signs asking people not to feed the fish around the piers and swimming platforms it was a popular thing to do as the fish are spectacular there. Apparently sharks can detect the feeding activity of small fish from quite a distance and this would pull hungry sharks into the area.

The fines for being caught feeding sharks or feeding the shore fish have been increased to very significant levels in the hopes that it won't happen again.

Human behavior can significanty change behavior of wild animals, usually to the detriment of both. Feeding bears in northwest caused simular problems. I would outlaw "shark feeding tours" completely, nothing good can come from associating humans with food. Sharks can go in incredably shallow water. IF you have ever been in the ocean over your knees for any legnth of time, I can guarantee you, you have been within arms reach of a shark big enough to taste you.