Scubaran or anyone else out there.....

[azkcruizers]

Scubaran,

 

Hope your hand is healing in time for our cruise. I have a crazy question for you...Here goes...

 

There are certain people in our group who are concerned about snorkeling and seeing or being seen by a shark of any kind. We are going on the rumbaba daysail to St. John. Can you tell me what the chances are of this happening? LOL:)

 

Thanks a lot and no laughing..

 

Karen

[10X]

Sighting sharks while snorkeling is a true rarity, even while scuba diving you have to look for them if you want to see them. I've probably done at least 10 Caribbean cruises, 7-14 days each, and my wife and I have been snorkeling at almost every port on every cruise (it's our thing), so that's a lot of snorkeling. In all that time, we have seen one Nurse Shark about 4 feet long laying on the bottom off Key West. I dove down a took a couple of pictures of her and she was unmoved by my presence. We then wandered off, leaving her there unbothered.

 

It wasn't until I took up scuba diving that I could see how wonderful the underwater world really is. However, I have yet to see a shark in the Caribbean while diving.

 

The only sharks I have witnessed were in the Pacific and one of those was a shark dive, where we were surrounded by about 30 sharks. Awesome!!!!!

 

Go snorkeling and have fun. The tour operators aren't likely to take you anywhere that there is anything truly dangerous. They would be out of business in a heartbeat if they started to lose their customers.

 

Enjoy !!!!!

[azkcruizers]

That's good to hear (for me anyways LOL)!

 

I know my oldest son is a little nervous. He didn't want to swim with the stingrays with us after the death of Steve Irwin either.

 

If everyone else keeps watching these shark shows on tv we'll all be sitting on the boat:)

 

Thanks for sharing

 

Karen

[unavox]

Important fact to remember:

 

When you go into the ocean, you are at the bottom of the food chain.

 

 

 

Respect the oceans and all that inhabit them.

 

Don't bring food to feed the pretty fish.

 

Observe, enjoy, take pictures.

 

Do some 'shark' research and you will see that these magnificent creatures are truly mislabeled and misunderstood.

[scubaran]

That's good to hear (for me anyways LOL)!

 

I know my oldest son is a little nervous. He didn't want to swim with the stingrays with us after the death of Steve Irwin either.

 

If everyone else keeps watching these shark shows on tv we'll all be sitting on the boat:)

 

Thanks for sharing

 

Karen

 

Hi Karen,

 

Lets put it this way, about 25 people a year get attacked by sharks, only about 3 are fatal. That's of the 100 Million or so people who visit beaches and the ocean. In one day 100s of people per DAY are killed in auto accidents and 100 people a year are killed in plane crashes. So statistically anyone afraid of sharks sure as heck better not get in a car or plane. :p

 

BTW, I've seen one reef shark and 6 nurse sharks in the wild in a decade of diving and 25 years of snorkeling. But I did dive in the "living seas" at epcot center in Orlando a few years ago and had a 12 ft. bull shark swim 5 ft. above my head (I actually manuvered myself in his path so he'd swim over me) and had numerous 3-4 ft. reef sharks swim within 10 ft. of me. All limbs were accounted for at the end of the dive.:D

 

Less than a month to the cruise and diving in Grand Turk (where if I'm lucky I'll see a shark!).

Randall

[Latitude 20]

these magnificent creatures are truly mislabeled and misunderstood.

 

Amen.

 

One of the best dives of our lives was Apalohu Canyon (which I think was in Moorea but may have been in Raiatea) where we swam in the midst of hundreds of black-tipped reef sharks including the three in the attached pic who lined up so neatly for us. Never a moment's fear--the sharks had absolutely no interest in us.

 

But to ease your family's mind Karen, add us to the list of divers who've never seen a shark in the Caribbean. There just aren't that many in the areas the cruise ships frequent.

 

Kathi & Leo

[turtlegirl2]

Our first open water ocean dive in Cozumel proved to be very successful in terms of sharks. We saw a sleeping nurse shark and all gathered around 'her' and checked her out - and she never paid us a bit of notice! :eek: I remember going over the shark dive sign with our DM, Alison (of scubawithalison . com -- the best!) and thinking "I hope I never see that sign!". Sure enough, first dive we see our shark!

 

On our second dive trip to Coz we did our advanced dive training with Alison and on our navigation dive, two nurse sharks joined us and swam around during our safety stop. My dad was snorkling above us watching our class and got to see the circling sharks. He said it was very cool!! We did not pay much attention to them as apparently it's easy to get accustomed to nurse sharks - especially when you're from Kansas - they look like giant catfish! LOL! :D

 

Our most adventurous dive was in Nassau when we did the shark dive with Stuart Coves. That one was really amazing and awesome! The sharks on this dive were not nurse sharks - they had 'Jaws' written all over them! It was an amazing dive and we bought the video and all the pictures of the dive - it was really incredible! We show off the video to family and friends and they think we are nuts. I'd do the dive again in a heartbeat. We never felt in danger and it was incredible being so close to the action.

 

I say 'Go For It'! You are much safer diving than driving - so go lookin' for those sharks! ;)

[bruce-r]

One of the best dives of our lives was Apalohu Canyon (which I think was in Moorea but may have been in Raiatea) where we swam in the midst of hundreds of black-tipped reef sharks including the three in the attached pic who lined up so neatly for us. Never a moment's fear--the sharks had absolutely no interest in us.

Same experience I had in Fiji. On one site, there were quite a few sharks, all of which had little interest in us. It was such a fun site, we did 4 dives there.

 

But to ease your family's mind Karen, add us to the list of divers who've never seen a shark in the Caribbean. There just aren't that many in the areas the cruise ships frequent.

The notable exception would be the Bahamas. Plenty of opportunity to see sharks there.

 

I'm happy to say you can keep me off the list of "never seen sharks in the Caribbean". I've seen a few sharks in Cozumel and on one advanced dive in St. Thomas.

 

I've also seen a 6 gill shark in the Hood Canal. That was a fantastic dive.

 

Sharks are cool to see underwater.

[cranneberry]

Some of us actually go diving to hopefully see sharks. According to the archives more people are killed by vending machines than by sharks, when they shake them and they fall on top of them. Chances are you are more likely to be killed by a bag of potato chips or a candy bar than by a shark.

[azkcruizers]

Thanks for everyones shark experiences. I'm not so brave, but I will still go snorkeling and hope that no sharks are around:rolleyes:

 

I didn't realize that people went diving hoping to see sharks, I just figured you hoped you wouldn't encounter one while you are down there LOL.

 

Thanks for easing our fears and I hope you see a shark on your next trip.

 

Karen

[TheVegasMan]

"Important fact to remember: When you go into the ocean, you are at the bottom of the food chain." Since when? There are a lot more in the ocean that we can eat than can eat us. And most shark bites are not when we are seen as food usually it is when we are confused for their food. It's amazing how much like a seal a surfer on a surfboard looks.

 

I have seen sharks only one time while snorkeling and that was in Cozumel. 6'1" 240# of me on top of the water and 60 feet below me was 1 3' long maybe 35# reef shark. Good thing for it I didn't have a filet knife handy. :D

 

While diving I did see a 6 foot long Bull Shark in Cozumel, a group of 10 of us 20 feet away watching it resting in a cave. As soon as it realized we were there it took off.

 

Off of Saba I saw 3 4' long reef sharks while diving 100' down. Also spotted were 2 sleeping nurse sharks.