Reply to:     RE>>vids,walls ,sharks and scooters

Richard Pyle writes:

>Some of my friends are the world authorities on sharks sensing electical
>fields, and I've brought this concern up with them.  Their general
>answer is "we really don't have a clue, but it probably affects the sharks
>behavior".  I'm always nervous as hell with the rebreather - all those
>different metals and electronics.  Although I've seen dozens of sharks
>with the rebreather (more than I ever used to see with scuba), they
>haven't been aggressive.  Really quite benign, actually.  I asked Marty
>Snyderman what he thought of the problem, and he said he didn't think it
>would be too significant (he ought to know).  Howard Hall didn't have any
>trouble with the Mk-15 either.  I'm still nervous on the decompression
>line murky water, though....like yesterday, for example....

>Reminds me of my first encounter with a shark underwater.  I was like 11
>or 12 or something in the Galapagos Islands, and I was also lobstering,
>with the crew of the boat we were living on. I had one of those
>Darrell-Allen lights (I bet you cave guys just LOVE the reliability of
>Darell-Allen light switches...).  It was also my very first night dive
>(snorkle, really), so I was real nervous.  I finally started calming down
>and drifted away from the others.  Suddenly I looked up ahead of me and
>this GIANT hammerhead was coming straight at me!  I was PETRIFIED with
>fear and couldn't move.  Then that ol'd reliable Darell-Allen switch
>decided it was tired of carrying current, so it just shut itself off (as
>it was prone to do).  I was, of course, even MORE gripped with fear -
>comatose, really.  Anyway, a few seconds later, the light came back on all
>by itself, the shark was gone, and I walked on water getting back to the boat.

Your shark story jogged my memory a little more on a shark siting
that I had last weekend. My buddy and I were diving off of Santa Barbara
Island (California) at the sea lion rookery. We have been here many times
before and know that we can expect to see a Great White one day. Well, this
turned out to be the day. We were in about 30 ft of water when a HUGE swell
stirred up the bottom and dropped the vis to about 20 ft. We are used to
that. The part that startled me was that the sea lions disappeared, and so 
did the fish. Nolan was using his video camera at the time. It was then that I 
saw the dorsal fin and then the tail of what I estimate to be a 8-9 ft GW.
Certainly not big by GW standards, but it was the way that I saw it that 
spooked me. I saw it on ITS WAY OUT! It had already been in closer and we 
had not seen it. I motioned to Nolan about the shark but he did not see it. 
We made a hasty retreat back to the boat (along the bottom, heads on a 
swivel). The stop I made under the boat was one of the longest ones I have
ever done (it was only five minutes, but seemed ALOT longer). It occurred
to me this week after reading about the diver up the coast and other*s 
experiences that the electrical fields that my buddy*s video was giving
off may have attracted the shark. I have expected to see a GW one of these
days, but I had hoped to have my camera (something to keep me occupied)
and not in such murky water. We must not have looked tasty!

I have seen sharks before ( I recently returned form 15 weeks in Australia
and there were many sharks down there). The sharks in the Coral Sea
got VERY close (1-2 ft) on a regular basis (Grey Whalers, White tips, 
occasionaly a silvertip, hammerhead, and one Bull shark that spotted my 
buddy and I in 20 ft of water and came in and circled for a closer look!)

Steve Hogan
steve.hogan@tr*.co*

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