Sharks in the Panhandle
Hi guys I just found this forum from the incoming links to my website when the whale shark video was posted (thanks for the plug). The whale shrks was an opportunity of a lifetime, at least so we thought but it turns out that they have been spotted quite a few times this Summer from Orange Beach to PCB and everywhere in between. I know that locally several of the dive operations have been lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time like we were on the 4th of July. A point of clarification though, we are not the same as Panama City Dive
Center who bought the old
Hydrospace boats
, but rather we are a smaller boat and certification operation with no retail shop.... we just pretty much just dive.
As an avid spearfisherman I have been in the water with many aggressive sharks and they are only ever trying to get our fish. When we are just diving they are seldom around and never aggressive. While I have no doubt the shark sighting at the beach that day was exciting and the lifeguard's actions were indeed selfless, there was never any real danger to the swimmer and I'd go further and bet the shark was more likely 8' if it was a bull. Bulls in the double digits are very very rare especially in the gulf. As to the question of a ratio to encounters with swimmers versus bites...... its a really lopsided ratio. Spearfishing on scuba gear means we shoot, kill and keep our catch on us while we continue our dive. Wounded fish struggling on a spearshaft send out a vibration through the water up to a quarter of a mile out in all direction which is pretty much like ringing a dinner bell to a shark. So here we are, with dead fish attached to us and curious sharks cruising around to see if they can get a meal.... and everyone spearo I know has all his or her fingers toes and other appendages still firmly attached.
I boils down to the fact that most attacks are simply mistaken identity or curiosity. Most human infants put stuff in their mouth's to figure out what they are dealing with, and with no hands, sharks are even more likely to take an investigative nibble on an unfamiliar object. Its hardly an attack but if the shark is large enough it can still be fatal to us. The only people I know who have been bit by sharks or barracudas while diving were messing with them first.
Also in my experience with local waters the limestone reefs offshore of Sea Grove Beach are home to more adult bull sharks than anywhere else in the Panhandle, yet some how everyone seems to survive their beach visit year after year. Its only the rare exception and the primal nature of the fear it arouses in us that so captures our imagination when it comes to sharks. It would be far more prudent to worry about being hit by a drunk driver, something that is statistically much more likely and more deadly.
-Capt Pat Green
Panama City Dive Charters
