quote:
There are sharks everywhere, all the time.
Grab yourself a snorkel and flippers, maybe a speargun to make things interesting, and spend some time in the water, watching what happens below the surface. It will really open your eyes! After a while you realise exactly what FilthyAmateur said, there are lots of sharks in the water, all the time.
What you also realise is that something skating above the water has zero interest for a shark, and something splashing around trying to waterstart isn't that interesting either. Sure you get the odd shark that's angry or sick that will have a go at anything, but most of the time sharks give you a wide berth, just as you look at them and give them the holden salute (with the gun pointed at them!). Every decent shark I've seen (I've seen about fifty, not counting harmless ones) hasn't been interested in me, except if it thinks it can steal the fish I've just shot.
I still remember the first real shark I saw, you see heaps of wobbegongs and blind sharks when spearfishing, this one was different, it was very streamlined, about 1.5m, it was circling me, the eye looked evil, like a cats eye but a lot more alien. After the first second of panic, I thought "Hey, it's so much faster than me, I can't outswim it, the only option is to fight back". So I charged it.
It took off like it had a rocket up its arse and I never saw it again.
A couple of years later, while spearfishing on the barrier reef I saw a decent shark every half an hour, especially when I had a fish on the line, they left me alone and I did the same to them. The biggest problem is fear, they can hear your heartbeat from a fair distance, and they can sense when you're scared.
So if a fin is circling you then grab your heartbeat with both hands, take a deep breath, get back on your board, and sail home. You're far more likely to get killed on the roads than taken by a shark
