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General => General Discussion => Topic started by: toolate on March 24, 2021, 12:54:03 PM

Title: Tiger shark etiquette
Post by: toolate on March 24, 2021, 12:54:03 PM
When paddling at your favorite break and you see a large tiger shark slowly cruising do you:
1) head in quietly
2) paddle over to others and let them know
3) scream "shark , shark"
Title: Re: Tiger shark etiquette
Post by: Dontsink on March 24, 2021, 01:31:09 PM
Cry?
Title: Re: Tiger shark etiquette
Post by: Caribsurf on March 24, 2021, 01:36:51 PM
Soil yourself, and then let others know
Title: Re: Tiger shark etiquette
Post by: toolate on March 24, 2021, 04:32:01 PM
i think i must have developed shark vision or something: i have plenty of friends who never see any sharks. I have had many close encounters this past year, two with large tigers. Nothing overtly dangerous. Just them checking me out. beautiful but made me wish my board was two feet longer.
Title: Re: Tiger shark etiquette
Post by: Vancouver_foiler on March 24, 2021, 09:05:03 PM
But really, I know what to do with a bear or cougar...sharks not so much. Is there even a standard set "don't do this" or "protocalls"?
Title: Re: Tiger shark etiquette
Post by: PonoBill on March 24, 2021, 09:47:39 PM
In my experience, if you're comfortable and interested in sharks, you'll see a lot of them. If you aren't, you won't. I see them all the time, I seek them out. I've seen many hundreds, maybe thousands in my life. Big Makos, lots of bulls, great whites, tigers, and a zillion white tips, black tips, Galapagos, greys, nurse sharks, and the weird little ones like cookie cutters. I've surfaced through schools of hammerheads, seen leopards, got chased around by a dusky that wanted my lingcod.  I've never seen oceanic white tip, never seen a whale shark, a porbeagle, or oddly, a dogfish, though they are common.

I've seen the Tiger that hangs out at the entrance to Kahalui harbor at the end of a Maliko run probably 50 times or more. Bill Boyum (headmount) never has to my knowledge, even though we're usually pretty close together coming into the harbor. 
Title: Re: Tiger shark etiquette
Post by: pafoil on March 24, 2021, 10:35:08 PM
As an ex diver fish-farmer, I have more experiences with this beauties that I would want.
My advice, learn their stress sings. If the move fast, arched back fins down. RUNNNN.
Don't let them check you out many times.
At the end shark are like dogs, and you don't get close to a dog that is barking stressed out.
I hope this helps.
Title: Re: Tiger shark etiquette
Post by: toolate on March 24, 2021, 11:29:58 PM
fortunately this was slow lazy moves big S turns
Title: Re: Tiger shark etiquette
Post by: sflinux on March 25, 2021, 07:43:49 AM
I think ideally you would want to remain calm as sharks can hear your heartbeat.  If they hear a fast heartbeat, they can sense your stress.
I don't have experience with tigers.  But some sharks are ambush predators and will attack if they think you don't see them.  So I would try to keep an eye on the shark.
I would try not to splash.  Ideally, you would calmly, slowly paddle back to shore.
I have a feeling my nerves would get to me and my legs would start shaking.  I would not want to fall into the water.  I may go to my knees and paddle back that way for that reason.
If you have mates in the water.  You can call out shark and do the fin sign on the top of your head.
Notify lifeguard and shore patrol if appropriate.
I had a female friend who was out prone surfing, who had aunt flow visiting, and she got circled by a tiger shark.  She and her friend were able to paddle back to shore safely.
Title: Re: Tiger shark etiquette
Post by: PonoBill on March 25, 2021, 09:17:13 AM
They certainly can motivate one. I was longboarding with my two daughters at Manzanita years ago when my older daughter Cassie, who was inside a bit yelled at me and pointed out, where I could see a fin and tail tip. Looked fairly big. I yelled to my younger daughter, Elizabeth, who was outside and fairly close to the shark, but she couldn't make out what I yelled. A few moments later she sat up straight, pivoted her board, and paddled in like a torpedo. I swear she left a rooster tail. I was laughing so hard I could hardly paddle in.
Title: Re: Tiger shark etiquette
Post by: sflinux on March 25, 2021, 01:53:33 PM
Not a tiger shark, but I enjoyed hearing about Wayne Lynch's encounter with a white shark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ-rj_O9gbw (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ-rj_O9gbw)
Title: Re: Tiger shark etiquette
Post by: toolate on March 25, 2021, 07:27:20 PM
In my experience, if you're comfortable and interested in sharks, you'll see a lot of them. If you aren't, you won't. I see them all the time, I seek them out. I've seen many hundreds, maybe thousands in my life. Big Makos, lots of bulls, great whites, tigers, and a zillion white tips, black tips, Galapagos, greys, nurse sharks, and the weird little ones like cookie cutters. I've surfaced through schools of hammerheads, seen leopards, got chased around by a dusky that wanted my lingcod.  I've never seen oceanic white tip, never seen a whale shark, a porbeagle, or oddly, a dogfish, though they are common.

I've seen the Tiger that hangs out at the entrance to Kahalui harbor at the end of a Maliko run probably 50 times or more. Bill Boyum (headmount) never has to my knowledge, even though we're usually pretty close together coming into the harbor.

yeah that describes it. The reef sharks i am pretty used to now. THe tigers have a whole different feel to them: like ' we know who's da boss , dont we"

sometimes i feel like: why do i want to ruin my friends session to notify them since in all likelihood the sharks are around us most days and we just missed em.
Title: Re: Tiger shark etiquette
Post by: PonoBill on March 25, 2021, 09:11:08 PM
Ye, exactly. They're there. Whether you see them or not. Closing a beach because someone saw a shark is politics, not safety.
Title: Re: Tiger shark etiquette
Post by: ninja tuna on March 26, 2021, 05:29:02 PM
When paddling at your favorite break and you see a large tiger shark slowly cruising do you:
1) head in quietly
2) paddle over to others and let them know
3) scream "shark , shark"

Don't worry, they are harmless, ;D ;D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14SjsqjgvII (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14SjsqjgvII)
Title: Re: Tiger shark etiquette
Post by: toolate on March 28, 2021, 05:05:32 PM
yep that is the look
Title: Re: Tiger shark etiquette
Post by: PonoBill on March 29, 2021, 06:55:55 AM
If someone tries to point out a shark to you and you can't see it, re-adjust your expectations to see something bigger. Even though people seem to have an idea that sharks are big they still look for something "fish-sized". Even a relatively small five-foot blacktip looks bigger than people seem to expect. I pointed out one to a friend once who couldn't see it at first. When he did, he almost jumped out of his skin. "It looked like the whole bottom moved!" It's just a matter of seeing what's there instead of what you're looking for. To me that looked like a little shark, to him it was too big to see.

Same thing happens looking for deer or elk on a hillside. I've looked for ten minutes and not seen one, but once I do I can see the other twenty that were there all along. Most recently it was bighorn sheep on the rocky cliff behind a house we rented near Palm Desert. Diane was exasperatedly trying to point them out to me and all I saw were rocks. Then I finally saw one, realized what size I was looking for and fifty of them popped into view.

Even though with a long dive career I've seen a lot of sharks I still miss some until they get close or do something obvious. I had no problem seeing a school of hammerheads above me a few years ago though. I had no idea that Hammerheads schooled until I had to come up through one on a dive at the back side of Molokini. I didn't take this picture--these are scalloped hammerheads off Cocos, the ones I've seen in Hawaii don't have scallops, but this is what it looked like except there was more variation in size:

(https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fdive-and-boats.com%2Fnetcat_files%2Fuserfiles%2Fmim000686_dsc_8806_c.jpg&f=1&nofb=1)
Title: Re: Tiger shark etiquette
Post by: toolate on March 30, 2021, 12:57:19 PM
yeah Pono, seems like mushroom hunting to me. you need eyes to see em sometimes unless (as happened to me in September) one launches mid air next to you
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