I was surfing with my wife a few years ago one evening and I saw something in the water. She saw the look on my face as I was working out what I saw and asked me what was the matter. I said that I either saw a dolphin or a shark (I see both fairly regularly but I didn’t get a good look). A few minutes later her eyes got Very wide and she spurted out “I’m going in” and made a beeline for the shore that would make Michael Phelps jealous. A few minutes after that 3 dolphin swam up to me side by side and I started laughing because I knew what happened. So I go to shore where my wife is standing and she says she says she saw a giant shark, she thinks it’s a great white . So I informed her that what she actually saw was 3 dolphin swimming side by side. Then I say.... So you thought you saw a great white shark and just left me out there?
Holy cow, @DCS222, you're more OCD than I am! Although I do like to refer to that tendency in myself as "concerned with accuracy".
I scuba dive and I feckin' LOVE sharks! I dove Cocos Island about 10 years ago for the express purpose of seeing hammerheads and white tips. And I was NOT disappointed. We did some cool night dives, too. Very "structured" and here's how it worked. We dove with a dive master who led the group. After very detailed dive briefings we were instructed to stay together in a relative compact group and to shine our dive lights around until we located a fish. Then everyone would shine their light on that one poor, unsuspecting and soon-to-be eaten fish. The white tips would see that lit up fishy and hone in on it until it that was "captured" in our lights then go absolutely ape-shite nuts and all go for that one fish at the same, heads in the rocks and tail fins wagging wildly about. We were instructed to stay 3-4 feet above the fray. There were usually about 20 or so white tips hunting together. We did this about 8-10 times per night dive. On one of the first night dives, one guy decided to drop a bit lower than (clearly!) instructed and had a bite taken out of his wet suit right directly in the butt area. Of course we all gave him a raft of well-deserved shite when we got back on the boat. Anyway, it was great fun for everyone--all except for the fish that were ganged up on and devoured by the white tips. I love sharks. And I love night diving.
Whale sharks are AWESOME! I got to see two while diving at Cocos Island, which is part of Costa Rica. The ones we saw were juveniles and considered "small"--they were about 20 feet long. Even though they are filter feeders and eat primary krill, one whack with a tail fin and you'd be a gonner. But they are truly gentle giants. I'm hoping to one day be able to go to Isla Mujeres just off the Yucatan Peninsula to be in the water with 100's of whale sharks during high season.
Check out these three videos--nearly identical until the "punchline". Make sure you watch each video until the very end. I first saw these some years ago while diving on Little Cayman where there are very few sharks--and no one seems to know just why. Enjoy!
The thing to remember is that when you see TWO fins sticking up it'll be a shark, and when seeing only one that it'll be a cetacean. Shark's tailfins are vertical, whilst dolphins and the likes have horizontal tails.
There’s no shortage of sharks around here, when they dredge you can find teeth on the beach, I’ve found these over the years
This was the view in our backyard early yesterday morning as the sun was coming up over the mountains to the east . The sky was even more beautiful than this photo can express!
