Posted by sharklover on June 21, 2002 at 17:11:24:
In Reply to: What's the truth about sharks? posted by shirley on June 21, 2002 at 15:43:13:
Sharks are beautiful and amazingly powerful creatures. To watch them knife through the water is a real thrill. One time, I got to have that thrill close up doing a dive the Bahamas - didn't pay to do a shark dive, but the shop chose a site that was right next door to the regular shark-dive site. What we encountered were about 10 Carribean reef sharks, a gorgeous metallic silver on top, white on the bottom. They were very curious about us and would come quite close as they've been habituated to humans. The best part of the dive was during the safety stop when all the sharks circled our group. It wasn't menacing at all, just felt like they were keeping us company.
Statistics on sharkbites show several trends. The main one is people who are attacked are usually on the surface of the water, not submerged. Sharks strike from the bottom in an upward motion so the recommendations I have read is that if the shark is one of the more aggressive species (bulls, whites, pelagic white-tip) you should slowly descend to the bottom if possible and just watch it. More than likely it will move off and you can regain buoyancy and continue your dive.
One more thing - don't let the media scare you off from the fabulous sport. There were no more shark attacks this year than in the last 5 - they've just decided they were more "newsworthy" and so have reported accordingly. If you get the chance to dive with sharks - GO FOR IT! You won't be disappointed.