Shark experiences

[TheDragon]

I just watched this YT video. Delightful young lady living the life, but the shark experiences are pretty amazing. I'm not sure I like the baiting in of sharks, but she seems to know what she is doing.



My own experiences last year were a little different. Started with snorkeling in South Pass at Fakarava Atoll where with wife and daughter we were thrilled by all the black-tip reef sharks swimming around us, but basically ignoring us. And I never had an issue with them subsequently. But later I did a solo drift snorkel in the pass where I first swam out towards the drop off and suddenly a grey reef shark came shooting out of the depths of the pass straight at me, only veering off at the last second, then circled me for a while before leaving. That unsettled me and I swam back to my dinghy on a mooring and drifted back along the pass. Later on Tahanea Atoll I did a similar drift snorkel in one of the passes there with a very experienced family (the guy could stay down for several minutes at a time), and when three grey reef sharks started circling us they decided we should bail. Strangely when I repeatedly solo drift snorkeled outside of the reef over the dropoff outside of Anse Mayot at Taou Atoll, I did not see any sharks (or when scuba diving the drop off outside the reef at North Pass of Fakarava or at the White Wall at Viani Bay in Fiji later).

I also tried solo drift snorkeling through the pass at Maupihaa, and there were so many grey reef sharks I bailed. Later, when I was completely alone in Beveridge Reef on the way to Fiji, there were lots of grey reef sharks and they would follow me around as I was spearfishing, so I stopped, but eventually one became far too curious coming right up to me and it took two jabs with my spear to get it to leave me alone, upon which I bailed completely. I still don't know if they are that dangerous, but they are really mean looking compared with the black-tipped or even white-tipped sharks.

And just to acknowledge, in Fiji near Savu I paid for a "shark dive" where they bait them in with a massive trashcan filled with tuna heads and skeletons, resulting in large numbers of nurse sharks and several very big bull sharks circling us closely, along with a few beautiful silver-tips. Sadly no tiger sharks like in the several YT videos of these dives, see below.

 

[kent_island_sailor]

I have been on shark feeding dives. I do not like them anymore, the dive master admitted that someone that showed up there without food would be in trouble, the sharks were pretty much trained it was dinner time as soon as the boat anchored. On one dive a shark was too impatient for the treats, it followed the dive master back to the boat and when he got back in with the food the shark bit onto his flipper until he wisely dropped the bait ball.

Usually sharks are just around ignoring people, we are not their usual prey. One almost took my hand off though, I was washing a pot I had cooked stew in at sunset over the side and the shark must have followed the meat odor, I saw it coming and a quick yank moved the pot and my hand out of reach

 

[LewSipfher]

Spearfishing. Grey suits show up at the sound of grouper croaking or struggling fish. Generally a jab will run them off, but sometimes you just have to move away.

I have talked to people who do dumb shit like spear lionfish and then toss them, or ‘pay the tax’ by letting a shark have a fish. All that shit does is teach sharks that spear=dinner. No bueno.

 

[accnick]

All it takes is one...

Do you feel lucky?

 

[mckenzie.keith]

 

[Goodvibes]

That guy is a complete fucking idiot. He deserved to get eaten for staying connected to that tuna.

Spearfishing should be banned world wide. Go the sharks.

 

[mckenzie.keith]

When we went to Suvarov we found that as soon as you shoot the spear gun the sharks swarm (even if you miss). Then they hang around, so you have to go move somewhere else. We would have the standby person on the surface begin descent about 30 seconds after the hunting diver. Then if/when you hear the speargun shot, you swim more quickly to the first diver, and you ascend back-to-back, keeping your loaded speargun pointed at the sharks to deter them. The visibility in Suvarov is so good that there was no worry of losing sight of each other in the water. The diver with the fish (if you didn't miss) would also keep the speargun pointed at the sharks, even though it isn't loaded anymore. It is still a long pole.

 

[mckenzie.keith]

Spearfishing should be banned world wide. Go the sharks.

I mean, if you are going to ban spearfishing, shouldn't you ban all fishing? What is your specific gripe with spear fishing?

 

[Goodvibes]

I mean, if you are going to ban spearfishing, shouldn't you ban all fishing? What is your specific gripe with spear fishing?

Had a brother spend most of his working life catching coral trout on the Great Barrier Reef. They used glass bottomed buckets from small dories to spot fish, drop a line down and pull them up. They were sold live to Singapore, China and Japan where the poor fuckers were sometimes dropped live into hot oil.

In heavily fished areas they saw the remaining fish but they were educated and refused to take any baited hook.

Spear fishing wipes out even these survivors.

 

[Septic]

Had a brother spend most of his working life catching coral trout on the Great Barrier Reef. They used glass bottomed buckets from small dories to spot fish, drop a line down and pull them up. They were sold live to Singapore, China and Japan where the poor fuckers were sometimes dropped live into hot oil.

In heavily fished areas they saw the remaining fish but they were educated and refused to take any baited hook.

Spear fishing wipes out even these survivors.

Begs the question, is the issue the spearos taking the few remaining fish or the commercial fishermen reducing the population down to "the remaining fish"?

Sounds like the issue is the people catching and selling the fish?

I know the gentleman in the shark video personally, he is a lifelong commercial fishermen and avid recreational spearfisherman. He's spent more time around sharks than you have around domestic dogs I suspect. Yes there is risk to placing yourself in the sharks environment but that is to truly understand your environment, In my mind better than dropping a line from a glass bottom boat.

What's really the difference here? 1% of fish ignore a bait but not a diver? Many more would avoid the diver so it's the more sustainable method but we don't give the fish the chance!

 

[Goodvibes]

Begs the question, is the issue the spearos taking the few remaining fish or the commercial fishermen reducing the population down to "the remaining fish"?

Sounds like the issue is the people catching and selling the fish?

I know the gentleman in the shark video personally, he is a lifelong commercial fishermen and avid recreational spearfisherman. He's spent more time around sharks than you have around domestic dogs I suspect. Yes there is risk to placing yourself in the sharks environment but that is to truly understand your environment, In my mind better than dropping a line from a glass bottom boat.

What's really the difference here? 1% of fish ignore a bait but not a diver? Many more would avoid the diver so it's the more sustainable method but we don't give the fish the chance!

Same old same old. Pro's blame the amateurs, amateurs blame the pro's.

Spearies blame the line fisherman, it's boring and totally misses reality, they are all just self interested.

Still, the video shows that the guy will probably be shark shit in the near future. Stabbing sharks with a divers knife is really fucked-up all round. Not something to be proud of at all.

Go the sharks!

 

[LewSipfher]

That guy is a complete fucking idiot. He deserved to get eaten for staying connected to that tuna.

Spearfishing should be banned world wide. Go the sharks.

Really? So the most sustainable type fishing should be banned? G.zeus.

Interestingly enough, my local friend, grew up fishing commercially with his dad, will be quick to tell you that ‘the freezer is why the fish are gone.’ Ergo large take commercial fishing.

The Bahamas has the right idea IMO. No guns, only slings and polespears, and freedive, no air (without a permit).

I don’t know anyone fool enough to jab a shark with a dive tool, esp when you have a nice long pole to hand. No need to perforate, just warn off. Me, I get the fish in the boat immediately which means the boat is on me or I don’t take the shot.

WRT the vid, I think it interesting to note how surgical the sharks were in honing on the fish. if the suits had wanted the diver he would have been toast

 

[Elegua]

I found squeezing a half filled plastic water bottle is excellent at attracting the grey suits.

 

[LewSipfher]

I found squeezing a half filled plastic water bottle is excellent at attracting the grey suits.

remind me not to dive with you 🤣

 

[Elegua]

remind me not to dive with you 🤣

Learned it from an islander in Palau. It was like magic.

 

[mckenzie.keith]

Had a brother spend most of his working life catching coral trout on the Great Barrier Reef. They used glass bottomed buckets from small dories to spot fish, drop a line down and pull them up. They were sold live to Singapore, China and Japan where the poor fuckers were sometimes dropped live into hot oil.

In heavily fished areas they saw the remaining fish but they were educated and refused to take any baited hook.

Spear fishing wipes out even these survivors.

I don't know how things work in Australia. In the US, or at least in California, you need a fishing license to take fish. There are size limits and quantity limits. And the taking of abalone is now actually banned because there are so few of them. Seems like Australia might need to protect the coral trout. One good thing about spearfishing is that you see the fish before you shoot it so you can avoid taking of the wrong species.

 

[TheDragon]

I will not give up spearfishing. I am woefully bad at it, but it is an interesting challenge and of course I eat the entire fish, so it is far more efficient than eating store fish given the enormous waste involved in that process from start to end. When there are sharks around I usually bail or just swim around. Even when no sharks obvious, I get the fish out of the water as fast as possible. I am often far from my dinghy so have to hold it up out of the water while I swim back. So far the easiest place was Beveridge Reef where the fish were almost totally naive and I hit first time each shot, got four nice little ones that fed me for four days. Here's three of them.

I also caught quite a few small mahimahis and tunas, all excellent eating. I don't see a difference between the methods, if anything the fishing was worse as the big ones regularly broke my gear, so there are fish out there with hooks in them. I intentionally use small lures in hope of avoiding the big ones, also because I don't have a freezer, so can only keep raw fish for a couple of days in my little fridge.

 

[Goodvibes]

Interestingly enough, my local friend, grew up fishing commercially with his dad, will be quick to tell you that ‘the freezer is why the fish are gone.’ Ergo large take commercial fishing.

Totally agree.

I am talking about the survivors being cleaned up by spears, particularly the larger cod and groper.

No spear permit required in the Aus state I live in. Just have to stay out of fresh water and any declared zones, green etc which there are a lot of.

 

[LewSipfher]

No spear permit required in the Aus state I live in.

therein lies the issue, not the spearing itself. As was stated above, permits and limits do much to protect stocks.

 

[Goodvibes]

therein lies the issue, not the spearing itself. As was stated above, permits and limits do much to protect stocks.

We have bag limits and protected areas. Some claim we are over regulated. Other States have permits, but they aren't doing any more than collecting money. Just get them online.