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I sit here, nursing the wounds of a (minor) titan trigger fish attack on me earlier today. It hurts.
Diving in Malaysia and the Maldives (my preferred destinations) is extremely safe from a wildlife perspective, which is one of the main reasons I like diving there. Almost uniquely among prime diving locations (others are Hawaii, the Caribbean, Australia, Polynesia) there are almost no great whites or even (despite their technically wider range) bull sharks in much of the northern Indian Ocean and around the equator in Southeast Asia (the map does hint at the fact that great whites have been very, very rarely observed around Borneo, but these are vanishingly rare sightings). Those two represent the biggest risks to humans, as while tiger sharks are responsible for slightly more fatal attacks on humans than bull sharks, they are orders of magnitude more common, are much less likely to go in for the kill and are therefore 'per capita' much less dangerous.
Shark attacks on divers are very rare, but if you're a neurotic like me, you can't dive around Hawaii or Australia without the thought at the back of your mind that 'he's just behind me, isn't he?', like in a Marvel movie. Because diving (for tourists, at least) is a leisure activity, this mental burden can dampen the fun. It's a popular topic of discussion on diving boards that many thrill-seekers want to see a great white in the wild until they do, at which point they realize just how terrifying it is, contemplating a slow-ish death by nonconsensual limb amputation 80 feet beneath the sea a few miles from shore. Even if you make it to the surface (something that has to be done slowly for decompression reasons if you don't want to risk an even more painful death), you then have to wait to get picked up, take the boat back to shore, and then meet the ambulance to take you to hospital (unlike surfers, divers are usually too far out to be hauled in by other swimmers and lifeguards). Many shark attack victims die on the way to the hospital or during the ascent, where losing consciousness is often fatal.
In some places, like Southern California's kelp forests, perhaps most regular divers have at least spotted a great white at some point. Like pitbulls, these are animals that can be friendly one second and kill you the next for seemingly little reason, and in the ocean (unlike a safari with an armed guard or an arctic trip with a rifle for any pesky polar bears) the diver is usually entirely defenseless, and 360 degrees of movement and the muffling effect of being underwater on our hearing capabilities makes it easy for them to sneak up on you. Bull sharks especially have a pitbull-like reputation for not abandoning humans after realizing we're not fish, and instead coming back again and again for follow-up attacks.
Do you dive? What's the biggest shark you've encountered (outside a cage)?
I don't dive, but I have gone snorkelling on some tropical islands. The biggest sharks I encountered were black-tipped reef sharks, and those are so non-dangerous to people that I actually gave one a pat on the head (which mildly annoyed it, but it then just swam away from me). The nastiest interaction I had with a shark was when I went deep sea fishing - I was bringing up a kingfish and a shark decided to fight me for it (and the rented fishing rod). I'd been powerlifting and was in relatively good shape (140kg squat) and this shark did not let go and continued to try and take the fishing rod into the ocean for about fourty five minutes. My muscles were on fire at the end of it, but I did manage to avoid losing the rod.
I'm guessing you didn't simply cut the line but actually defeated the shark or at least old man and the sea'd the fish.
I managed to get the head of the fish I originally caught up onto the boat. The shark wasn't even hooked, it just didn't want to let go until I got it to the surface.
Did the shark eat the rest of your fish, leaving you just the head? If so that is both funny and fucked up. You fight an epic battle with a shark only to get a fish head you throw back overboard.
Yes, that's what I got at the end. At least the shark didn't take an expensive rented fishing rod with it, so I had at least some small victory.
I am clueless about deep-sea fishing, but: why didn't you cut the line?
That would have cost a bunch of money as I would have had to replace the hook and sinker etc.
Also I was a young male who really did not want to give up, I'd been working out for a while and wanted to put those muscles to use.
Got it - you had an expensive hook and sinker attached to the other end. No wonder you fought the shark for it!
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Well, you also get to honestly brag that you've wrestled with a shark. That's pretty dope.
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I've dived in the past (open water license only) and sharks were the #1 reason I didn't do it more. I have seen sharks in Thailand when I learned and its probably tempered my desire to go back into the water. You're just so helpless against them and as an amateur you don't really have access to anti-shark equipment.
Diving is an amazing sport as an introvert though. There is true peace down there beneath the waves.
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There was a video out of australia where a great white bit a guy in half horizontally. And then comes up and swallows the remaining half.
Do you have a link
https://old.reddit.com/r/CrazyFuckingVideos/comments/su49pj/man_eaten_by_great_white_shark_in_sydney/
Theres 2 parts to it, the other part should be linked in the comments
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I went snorkeling in Hawaii and the guy I was airbnbing with told me I didn't have to worry about sharks and I didn't feel like fact checking him (or freaking myself out) so I just took his word for it. I did get stung by a spider fish in Portugal and it hurt so bad I felt like I got my foot slammed in a car door, but it stopped hurting surprisingly quickly after soaking it in hot water.
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Once on a Caribbean vacation as a kid I swam to a floating platform, maybe 100 feet from shore or so. I stood up on the platform and looked down only to see a medium-sized shark just chilling underneath without moving. I waited and waited and the asshole never left his position, only occasionally moving far enough out that I could see his whole body. After 10min of deliberation and pacing I waved to my parents on the beach, a passing server mentioned that there was a large barracuda seen by the platform earlier in the day, and they had someone on a jet ski nearby come and retrieve me. It was not a shark, but I thought it was. When I learned it was a barracuda this did not assuage my fear or relief because I was raised on animal planet, finding nemo, and hit rock songs from 1977.
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I dont think you need to speak in euphemisms, half of the world saw the video already.
And there are far far worse videos on the internet than that. I am fully aware how bad of a fate that guy had but after just using the internet for a while, I didnt even flinch while watching that video.
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Biggest shark I've ever seen while diving was a couple of white tip reef sharks in Hawaii. One was taking a nap on the ground and another was tucked away in a cave. That's about the level of shark I'm comfortable dealing with. I've only ever been on guided dives with groups so I don't worry too much them, even if they decide to eat someone it probably won't be me.
The one thing I saw diving that gave me goosebumps wasn't a shark though. I was on a wreck dive and was passing a doorway to a cabin on one side. I shined my light in and there was a moray eel just sitting on the ground staring up at me out of the dark. It was one of the coolest and creepiest things I've ever seen.
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I snorkel and the biggest sharks I've seen were the small ones that swim in the shallows in the Maldives. They still made me uncomfortable.
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I don't dive but I have snorkeled. Seems fun.
I've been interested in free diving, less as a way to enjoy leisure and more as a way to hone my interoceptive ability.
I've tried freediving but unfortunately am mediocre at it, in part because my swimming isn't particularly fast and in part because I have issues with my ears that make very fast descents harder (in diving, it's common to descend to maximum dive depth like a stone in seconds, I usually take much longer). It's a very cool sport though, and it let's you spearfish which is apparently fun and usually banned for scuba divers for reasons of conservation (ie. it's too easy to hunt when you don't have to worry about running out of air in seconds).
I love snorkelling too, it's obviously the only way to enjoy very shallow reefs and it's also best for some encounters with big wildlife like whale sharks where diving is usually inefficient/unnecessary.
Is the issue about the pressure buildup in your ears? That's what I was talking about with interoception. It's a skill that can be learned!
A lot of what our medical society claims is immutable, like overbites or herniated spines or whatever, can be changed with focus and attention to inner muscles.
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