Shark Stories

I'll start with a funny shark story. The first time I dove on the reef off ft lauderdale was also the first time I saw a shark. I was working the edge of the rocky section and checking cracks and hole on a ledge about four ft tall. I was on top of the reef and oriented upside down looking. I stuck my head into a hole and right there, bigger than a basketball, was the head of a big nurse shark. I got bug eyed and said" oh shit!" and being underwater released all my breath. I clearly had to surface and reflect and collect myself. Many lessons learned that day

I had one scare me once... I ate him!!:D

LOL

It was self defense right? Lets see the full size pic G.R.

I only had one real shark encounter. I was diving an area where vis was about 30ft on the top and 50ft on the bottom, 65ft deep. On a dive I saw a big bull come by me with a nice cobia on it. I decided not to shoot the cobia to respect and leave the shark in peace. The shark went on its way, or so I thought.

The grouper where thick and spawning and I had one tear off. As I was loading the gun to go shoot I saw the bullshark on the surface. He kept circling closer and I lunged at it. He disappeared in the vis but came back about minute later, I called the boat over but it was far. He was insistently looking for food. He kept circling me and getting closer to the point that I cut my mono and was about to shoot it. He swam off as the boat approached and I got back in.

Quote from red tide

I had one scare me once... I ate him!!:D

Hey me too..:D

Cheers, Don

Look at the rows of teeth ready to replace the ones that fall out, formidable.

Don, that was a big shark.

Quote from Roberto Reyes

Don, that was a big shark.

Yeah, I have only killed 4 in over thirty years of diving.. 3 for poker game shark jerky and 1 that wanted my
food. I don't play poker any more so I hoping not to kill another one. I like swimming with them but as a dad I have adjusted the risk of my adventures some what.
Cheers, Don

Quote from attan

roberto i know you have some good stories!!!......don being a father changes everything..you must be one really good father...is your boy interested in spearfishing?........seaweed thanx for sharing! good story

Thank you,I just do the best I can. I'm not letting my boy spearfish until he is a good watermen: swimming skills; swimming without fins, making surf entries with me and surf school hopefully next summer.

As a SCUBA diver, I will wait until he could help save my life as a buddy if needed, I owe my family this minimum amount of safety.

My first real shark experience was at Nassau Bahamas. There's a place there called Clifton pier that offers some really nice shallow and deep diving all within short swimming distance from shore. I knew nothing about the place other than that the locals told me people dive there.

As usual I swam out alone. All my experiences previous to that have been in Cuba which is depleted in the areas I was diving. I only saw a shark once, and it took off as soon as it saw me. Sharks are a food fish like any other in Cuba, I guess only the weary ones survive. So diving in the Bahamas I expected about the same, and was surprised by the richness of life on the reef.

I covered a lot of ground exploring everything the area had to offer. I found wrecks, ships and an airplane. At one point I found a large cage sitting in about 30ft on a sandy patch in the reef. I wondered what the hell it was doing there and left it behind me.

As I became more familiar with the area after 2 or 3 dives I found myself drawn to deeper water and what the locals call the edge. There were a couple of very nice wrecks there in about 60ft and beyond that a drop off and darkness. It was not within my capabilities or resolve back then to explore the drop off. I was content to hover over the top of the reef at the drop off and make numerous tries at small pelagics that would cruise through. I was very limited in range with the sling, but I rigged it with shooting line so I was shooting confidently.

I finally managed to time my dive to intersect a school of what I think was large rainbow runners, and got a good holding shot on one. I let out float line to play the fish as it sounded. Then out of the darkness of the edge a speeding shape appeared making a beeline for my fish, a shark!! In retrospect it must have been around 6-7ft but my fear made it larger. The shark tried to grab the fish but got the point of the spear in its mouth and backed off for a moment, then came back in again. Then two more sharks appeared out of the gloom, and all latched on to the fish which now looked like a three tailed monster going round and round. Yes I was scared, and swam backwards not allowing my eyes to come off the sharks. I swam hard trying to get back to shallower water and away from the edge, where who knows how many more sharks were lurking. Eventually the fish was gone and so were the sharks.

Later that day I told my story to some other locals, and was informed that it's at that exact place that the famous Stuart cove's do their shark feeding dives. Now I knew what that cage was for. I dove the area a few more times but always stayed at least 100 meters away from the edge.

Cool story Dan, Yeah Stuart Cove Guys were doing the shark thing forever.
Cheers, Don

Attan
I have too many shark stories.
I will give you only one.

long time ago, I was diving in the lump, louisiana,on Eddie Mays new 26 foot Glacier bay Cat, we had shot enough wahoo the day before, the pic of the fat wahoo was on that trip, we broke the wahoo record 3 times the day before,so we were trying to shoot only Yellowfin tuna, I had shot one 91 pound yellowfin tuna the day before but my friends had none so they were in this unique tuna mode.

We had a plan of two divers in the water at the same time, Eddie was in the water with kurt when we heard a sound similar to a lion roar, by the second time the lion sound was heard we notice it was Eddies breakfast being used as chum right out of his mouth.

So it was my time to join Kurt in the water, suited up, jumped in and as soon as finished loading my 6 band gun could see a few pieces of black fin tuna around me, the guys from the boat were chumming the h out of this place.

All of a sudden I see this huge shape aproaching, it was heading right at kurt, it looked like a really fat tuna, but it had something diferent besides the bus size, it had huge teeth just hanging out of its mouth.
All of a sudden am seen this white shark right in front of my friend, as am looking sideways, i could see the huuuge tail, and big eyes, things turn ugly when without me noticing anything else, the shark starts a big jump right in front of kurt.

We had a line in the water, like 300 feet long so we could dive and grab the end of the float as the current took us there, so the guys at the boat start pulling , we were thinking that the shark had cut kurt in two, but we knew the half with the head was intact as we could hear him screaming really loud, and while the guys pulled us to the back of the boat, a lot of bubles were forming all around me, so i could not see anything, i was just waiting for the shark to hity me next, as i get to the boat, the guys are screaming so i get in, i jumped faster than i can think of doing it, and when am thinking that was fast, Kurt was rushing me to get out of his way on the way in, so I knew he had his legs intact.

I second later he says, BIG LONG FIN MAKO SHARK, i remember thinking, "dude, if that is not a white shark, thats the biggest mako I will ever see in my life".

As we look at each other, the guys start to hug us and ask if we are ok, Kurt had this gun , he has built from scratch, the first hybrid i had ever seen, and he called it Cañon de Muerte.

Well, Cañon the muerte was still loaded with 5 , 3/4 bands, and in the jaws of this gorgeous, fat ,white bellied shark, and it was trailing really slowly his gun, bungie,and his float with the flag, at an easy but steady pace.
Kurt starts screaming again that he wants his gun back, so we let loose the anchor that had a float on it, and follow the flag, the shark is right at the surface, with the fins out of the water and all, just like the jaws movie, and i cant think of how we are going to get the gun back, I was dumb enough to say I would go in the water and shoot it, but cant tell you the response of the guys, because the "F" word is nothing compared to what I got from them.

We got hold of the bungie on several ocasions, until Kurt pulled right out of the mouth with a big pull, and that was it for the day.

Hope you enjoy it :crazy:

Keep em coming Rob , I love your Tiger Story were you saved your friend erics Life

Quote from Roberto Reyes

Attan
I have too many shark stories.
I will give you only one.

long time ago, I was diving in the lump, louisiana,on Eddie Mays new 26 foot Glacier bay Cat, we had shot enough wahoo the day before, the pic of the fat wahoo was on that trip, we broke the wahoo record 3 times the day before,so we were trying to shoot only Yellowfin tuna, I had shot one 91 pound yellowfin tuna the day before but my friends had none so they were in this unique tuna mode.

We had a plan of two divers in the water at the same time, Eddie was in the water with kurt when we heard a sound similar to a lion roar, by the second time the lion sound was heard we notice it was Eddies breakfast being used as chum right out of his mouth.

So it was my time to join Kurt in the water, suited up, jumped in and as soon as finished loading my 6 band gun could see a few pieces of black fin tuna around me, the guys from the boat were chumming the h out of this place.

All of a sudden I see this huge shape aproaching, it was heading right at kurt, it looked like a really fat tuna, but it had something diferent besides the bus size, it had huge teeth just hanging out of its mouth.
All of a sudden am seen this white shark right in front of my friend, as am looking sideways, i could see the huuuge tail, and big eyes, things turn ugly when without me noticing anything else, the shark starts a big jump right in front of kurt.

We had a line in the water, like 300 feet long so we could dive and grab the end of the float as the current took us there, so the guys at the boat start pulling , we were thinking that the shark had cut kurt in two, but we knew the half with the head was intact as we could hear him screaming really loud, and while the guys pulled us to the back of the boat, a lot of bubles were forming all around me, so i could not see anything, i was just waiting for the shark to hity me next, as i get to the boat, the guys are screaming so i get in, i jumped faster than i can think of doing it, and when am thinking that was fast, Kurt was rushing me to get out of his way on the way in, so I knew he had his legs intact.

I second later he says, BIG LONG FIN MAKO SHARK, i remember thinking, "dude, if that is not a white shark, thats the biggest mako I will ever see in my life".

As we look at each other, the guys start to hug us and ask if we are ok, Kurt had this gun , he has built from scratch, the first hybrid i had ever seen, and he called it Cañon de Muerte.

Well, Cañon the muerte was still loaded with 5 , 3/4 bands, and in the jaws of this gorgeous, fat ,white bellied shark, and it was trailing really slowly his gun, bungie,and his float with the flag, at an easy but steady pace.
Kurt starts screaming again that he wants his gun back, so we let loose the anchor that had a float on it, and follow the flag, the shark is right at the surface, with the fins out of the water and all, just like the jaws movie, and i cant think of how we are going to get the gun back, I was dumb enough to say I would go in the water and shoot it, but cant tell you the response of the guys, because the "F" word is nothing compared to what I got from them.

We got hold of the bungie on several ocasions, until Kurt pulled right out of the mouth with a big pull, and that was it for the day.

Hope you enjoy it :crazy:

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Great story Roberto.