Shark Tales (Shark Tails?)

[PhD4JC]

So what is your favorite "shark tale" or personal experience with "shark tails"?

I have a snorkeling encounter. Not too exciting for divers, but kewl for newbies in the water...

It was summer 2003.
I had taken a small group of high school students on a biological field trip to Panama, Central America.
We spent the first week in the remote ANCON Field station, on a small cleared patch of rainforest. We had about 3 hours of electricity each evening, IF the generator was working. Insect netting on our beds, bats flying above our heads and howler monkeys for alarm clocks each morning. Each morning we started our day with a dawn hike, where we came across 5 fer-de-lances during the week we were there?one of which the entire group stepped over as it was sunning itsself in the trail and it was only when I asked if there were copperheads in Panama, that our guide came back and recognized it as a fer-de-lance and promptly chopped off it?s head. (a fer-de-lance is a large EXTREMELY venomous pit viper (Bothrops atrox) of Central and South America .So venomous in fact, that bitees usually don?t make it to the hospital alive).
But that is not my story, just the setting.
Week 2, we went to Bocas del Toro, the coastline. Where we explored some caves, mangroves and the reef. I was out swimming alone that day, because the children did not listen to me the day before and swim in their t-shirts, so they were all sunburned and shunning the sea.
Though our guide was quite knowledgeable in the rainforest, his skills were lacking in reef ecology. So I was ?on my own? in ore ways than one. With my trusty waterproof disposable camera, I was on a quest for reef life.
After spending about an hour in the water with just a handful of fish, I spotted a shy box fish. I decided to follow him as he scuttled away. He led me to the coral city where fishes abound. I was gaily snapping away.
It dawned on me that there were fewer and fewer fish to take pictures of, so I figured I?d reached the end of the coral city and needed to turn around and go back the way I came.
When suddenly...
(insert suspense building music here)
a dorsal fin, passes between my thighs, as a 5 foot gray mass darts off in front of me.
Yes Lord, I wanted to see a shark ever since I started diving in 2000, but NOT LIKE THIS!!! It was supposed to be at a distance, with tons of other divers in the water, and a diver master who could thwart any attack. Not along, snorkeling at the surface (the place of most shark attacks) 10 minutes from shore!!!

Being the budding marine biologists, I know a few things about sharks and shark attacks.
1. That shark was aware of me LONG before I was aware of it, and it could have swam away without approaching me and I would have been none the wiser.
2. Most shark attacks occur at the surface, with the shark attacking from the bottom.
3. Many times sharks first investigate prospective food before eating it. It?s called bump and bite. First comes the bump (see above)
4. And of course, the LAST thing you should do when confronted with a shark is thrash around acting like a wounded fish and panic.
So of course you know what I, the shark braniac did?!?!
Trashed around like a wounded fish and panicked.
You see, I was certain that the shark was coming back to bite me in the butt.

So here I am, swimming, no, thrashing in circles, trying to face my assailant, making more noise than......
Though I was far from shore, the water was not particularly deep. It was a few spots 6-20 feet deep and then the reef which in some cases was only a foot below the surface. I finally came to a reef and scrambled out of the water with only my ankles submerged, and looked frantically around. I did not see the shark, but I also could not see my students on the shore because I had swam around a bend. I had to get back in the water...

Well I made it to shore unaccosted, and had to sit on the beach for a while since my legs were to jelly to stand. I thanked God that I made it back in one piece although the morbid crazee part said it would have been kewl to have had a shark bite to show off and weave stories about for years to come.
When I got back to my group, and told my story, the other teacher I was with said she heard my ruckus out on the water, but figured I was talking to someone on the shore (around the bend). So while I was facing the peril of jaws, she though I was yapping my jaws at some stranger...

When I got home and was going through my pictures (this was before I had a digital camera) I came across a water picture that I did not recognize. I turned it sideways to see what it was I thought I was taking a picture of?I can usually center the object at least. Then I saw it. My shark. Apparently I was so shocked during the experience, that the reflex made me press the shutter and I have a picture of my retreating shark. I will upload it to the pictures. I have it as a testament to the ?one that got away?. I just haven?t yet decided if that would be me, or the shark.

(disclaimer: I later found out that it was a nurse shark and I was in no real danger. And for those insightful people who inquire, yes, I happened to be swimming during my menses, but through subsequent research have found no documentation that women swimmers are more likely to encounter sharks during that "period" of time.)

[scubaculture]

Favourite is probably a Tiger shark dive with African Watersports. The dive takes place on a reef called Eel Skin near Aliwal Shoal. Great company and very professional. http://www.africanwatersports.co.za/

Couple of pics, sorry about the quality, its taken off the digital video and I don't know how to get them any clearer.

[moosicman]

I think they are pretty good pics....heeeeeyyy, there are those mares avanti quatros again...Just kidding, the last time you posted these i asked about those fins and everyone made fun of me

[dannybot]

Not much of a story, but fun...Belize October, 2007