No more swimming off the boat....

[Sgeir]

.. for Madame Sgeir. There's an article in today's Herald about a Mako shark in the Loch Alsh area. Apparently dolphins and porpoises have been the victims to date.

 

[wishbone]

Know what you mean! I used to snorkle and dive alone 1.5miles out on a reef off the cyprus coast...one year upon returning back to the UK a shark or sharks were spotted..also after friends divied Malta a great white was spotted....makes you keep a close look over your shoulder......I can hear the JAWS tune now!!!!

The last time I dived with my youngest son off Cyprus upon returning to beach a large cleaning fish (the sort that hang under sharks) chased my son out of the water! I can see him now swimming up the beach in the dry sand...did he move or what..!! took some time to get him back in to the water..

 

[jimi]

She'll be ok .. apparently whales are safe ..

 

[ghost]

it has long been found that great whites breed in the med. -- near malta, also in some parts of southern Italy a tuna fishing annual event sees the whole town fleet out with a massive net, forming a big purse trying to catch tuna - big uns aswell 9' - 12', they have a couple of divers down overseeing things from below who have seen carcaridus carcaridon lurking, obviuosly attracted by the gallons of blood and all the fuss of the slaughter, these same towns folk have a lot of jaws from g.whites adorning their doorways etc. and occaisonally they pull em out in their nets, I saw a photo of a 22' female being dragged up the slip on a winch. & I dont mean an American tourist! From Yugoslavia down to Egypt and right thru' to Gib, these animals are there, the myth of ''only in S.A. Cali. or Oz is ...well.........daft.
Three years ago in Majorca not two hundred yards from the beach, out in a peddalo - dont laugh- with my son, saw the tell tale signs of half a dozen gulls munching on some flotsam, suddenly alarmed all fly up in the air (thats what caught my eye) and a snout and boiling water - ''look J a seal'' then a dorsal and tail fluke roughly 7 - 8 behind it, ''foxtrot uniform charlie kilo'' sez I, promptly peddled in. I wont even go in our channel any more in the summer, the temp. and vis. is perfect for toothy visitors, my advice - just watch the others.

 

[Sgeir]

Oi! I'm the slightly chunkie one, not Madame Sgeir.

The weekend looms..............................

 

[Peppermint]

Re: I read in the national press

that a 300 lb Mako was caught about 200 yds of a beach near Ventnor IOW some years ago.

In Cousteau's book on sharks he makes a simple but telling statement. " If a man enters the sea a shark knows he's there".

 

[aitchw]

I thought Dolphins in particular are not much threatened by sharks as they are capable of attacking and killing them by butting them at high speed. Perhaps it only works if the Dolphins are around in numbers.

 

[Gordonmc]

The biggest Great White ever caught was off Malta.
I was diving the caves on the Comino coast a couple of years ago when we came across the recently deceased body of a large sailfish with a big bite out of its belly. The (Maltese) guy I dive with said it had gone into the cave to die after an encounter with a shark and by the span of the bite it was likely a White.
It was a bit of a sobering experience. First because I had visions of the shark waiting in the cave for seconds and second, because sailfish are among the fastest beasts in the sea... yet it still got caught.
Gulp!
Makes our basking sharks seem cuddly.

 

[ponapay]

When I was flying regularly, I saw lots of sharks off Chesil Beach. There were many swimmers in the water totally unaware of the sharks only 50-100 yards away. This was very common in the summer.

To the best of my knowledge no-one was bitten. Regrteably shark type was not identified but guess they were porbeagles, but about 10 feet or more long.

 

[duncan]

threshers come in off Chesil for the mackerel and you do get younger (smaller) porgies there and close in off the needles too. larger porgies seem to concentrate mid channel; either moving up and down with tide or taking up summer residence on wrecks.

can't see the big danger to 'us' on that coast - we don't really resemble local food supplies!

 

[claymore]

We'll have a bit of paddlewheel trouble up the Sound and send Jimi in to fix it - one look at wee Jamesie and ra mako wullbe makoin aff at a rate o' knots

 

[bruce]

I have been wondering why or where all the shark talk was, was beginning to wonder if sharks were a problem or even in your waters. nice to learn that florida is not alone...

 

[claymore]

Most of the sharks are on dry land - they sell insurance and pensions - suppose you'll have some of them too?

 

[BrendanS]

[ QUOTE ]
We'll have a bit of paddlewheel trouble up the Sound and send Jimi in to fix it - one look at wee Jamesie and ra mako wullbe makoin aff at a rate o' knots

[/ QUOTE ]

Professional courtesy no doubt! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
Sorry Jimi, couldn't resist!

 

[Rob_Webb]

We have absolutely oodles of them out here in NZ..... White, Mako, School, Hammerhead, Brone Whaler etc. Only the first 2 really bother me but I swim in the sea practically every day and have had a few encounters now but they all leave me alone when I adopt my starfish poise - I've got a theory that most shark prey is horizontal and that vertical shapes are alien to them. In the last few weeks whenever I've seen a fin nearby I stop swimming and hang vertically and form a star shape to make myself seem bigger. Also put my head under the water to see if they approach me cos apparently looking them straight in the eye puts them off attacking too. Has worked every time so far. In fact on Sunday am as I swam back into shore I passed a Bronzy coming the other way but he'd just been in helping himself to a handy breakfast of kahawai which had been caught in a set net off the beach by some local Maori lads - so he was already well fed and didn't give me a second look!

In fact most of them are pretty well-fed around here hence they have less incentive for tackling something as big as a human unless it's a genuine case of mistaken identity - which does happen.

So far so good..... but if I suddenly stop posting on this forum you'll know why.

 

[JKay]

rod and line biggest great white was caught in 1959 by a Mr Dean off southern Australia although lets be honest even a small one would make a nasty mess of your courting tackle whilst swimming and where would not matter much /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

cheers Joe

 

[Das_Boot]

South African Saying to bear in mind.

IF A SHARK OR CROCODILE THINKS HE CAN EAT YOU HE WILL.

 

[Neraida]

/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[wishbone]

Im'e with you Claysie! plenty of non swimming sharks in the BVI's