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This may sound like a dopey, or at least an irrelevant topic for the forum. Maybe it's because it's almost summertime. But I was wondering if anyone has the same fascination for sharks that I do.

It didn't start with "Jaws" -- though that's one of my favorite movies and I've seen it a bunch of times. Remember the scene where the woman slaps Roy Scheider? (Her kid had been killed by the shark.) I talked to that actress once and she said Steven Spielberg told her to be real, so she really smacked him, hard LOL. Spielberg then ran up and said, "Not that real.")

Anyway -- for me it started in high school. I live in Florida and did my school science project on sharks. I read everything I could find about them. Scared me out of my mind.

I'm in the water a fair amount -- swimming, snorkeling, jet-ski, etc, but the only time I've seen one in the wild was when I went with the Miami Seaquarium on a shark capture -- and they brought back a bull shark, about eight feet long. I have mixed feelings about captures, but seeing the shark up close was riveting, if spooky.

Wonder if any of you guys ever had a shark encounter, or have the same fascination and fear for them that I do?

Here you were being serious... When I saw the title to the thread, I really thought this might be an "adult forum"....LOL

No real fascination for me... but I can see where someone might have one.

Y'know. . . That didn't really occur to me. . . I didn't think about that until later. . . LOL

Sorry if this thread disappoints anyone.

Like Jaws 3-D (one of the worst movies ever made), I guess it doesn't live up to its advanced billing. . .

What can I say? Marine biology is one of my favorite subjects.

My next thread will be about the nocturnal feeding habits and mating rituals of manatees. Stand by. I am certain hundreds of responses will pour in.

I can also tell you where the original "Flipper" is buried. . .

Mitzi was buried at the Dolphin Research Centre in Florida in 1972.



And people don't believe me when I say I'm a geek!

Shawn, Congratulations! I'm totally impressed.

God, I thought I was the only person who knew that. . .

Nothing too impressive. I'm full of totally useless information.

I love sharks, I'm fascinated by them. Air Jaws was just on Animal Planet the other night. It was amazing.

I watched JAWS for the first time in 1975 at the theater. It really peaked my interest about sharks too.

I took up recreational diving and ran into a few sharks and a hell of a lot of barracuda. I usually dive at key West because of the great gay night life there. Dive all day, party all night. I also know some people there.

I did come face to face with a Bull Shark once, he was about three feet long from head to tail. I swam up for a clear picture and it scared the hell out of the little guy. I don't think I want to meet him again though. On that same dive, my dive partner got really excited and pointed towards the end of a finger in the Great Sambo reef and then gave the hand on the head sign that he saw a shark, then spread his arms out to indicate a Big F*king Shark, but I missed it.

On another dive we were going down a line for a particularly deep dive to a wreck to see some Moray Eels. I couldn't get my ears to clear though at about thirty feet down. My dive partner was getting impatient because we don't have much bottom time at the depth we were going. (The deeper you go the more pressure on the body, the more pressure on the body the more Nitrogen from the compressed air gets forced into your blood, so you can't stay on the bottom too long) It was excrutiating but I tried to keep going. That was a big mistake. I heard a pop and then my ears cleared and I thought I was fine, until my mask began filling with blood. I took off my mask, swished it around in the water put it back on and cleared it and I was fine but the cloud of blood worried me a little. Lucky for us, it didn't attract JAWS.

I did get some pictures of some Nurse sharks but as long as you don't bother them, they're pretty docile.
It doesn't take much courage to do that.

The Barracudas; the multitude that I have met are real sissies. As long as you stand your ground, or water, or show aggression, they swim away at an incredible speed. New divers usually puke a lot and that draws fish to the dive boat and the fish draw Barracudas to the dive boat.

The only time I ever met with a life threatening situation was from the water itself, those currents can be murder. Also a few times in choppy water I almost got hit with a dive boat.

I agree with you though, sharks are just so cool. I'd give a left testicle to live in Florida and be in the ocean more. Lake Erie makes for a really sucky dive.

http://www.divespots.com/scuba/search-by-gps.divespot?spotID=75

When i lived in Puerto Rico I would snorkel dive in a "protected" reef area that was designed to keep dangerous sea life out. Well, there was obviously a gap somewhere, because on a dive I saw a 6 ft shark, which a lifeguard said was a Caribbean reef shark. I never got out of the water so quickly.

The other encounter I had was a shark that some sport fishermen had caught and hung up on the dock. They told me it was a tiger shark, and this was a big motherf****r. I was 10 or 11 years old during both encounters.

I took my son fishing in the ocean off Pompano Beach this past December. Pompano, I read somewhere, is the site of the most shark attacks in Florida, because people fish off the pier and the chum attracts them.

Anyway, he caught two baby sharks---perfectly formed, but no more than 2 feet in length. We threw them back with very mixed feelings.

There was very interesting show that was on either discovery or animal planet years ago. They did metal reconstructions of different species of sharks' teeth and jaws and calculated the approximate bite pressures to show how the combination of bite radius, pressure and tooth morphology determined the type and extent of damage they would inflict on their prey. I seem to remember that the shape of the tiger shark's tooth was particularly nasty as it combined both piercing and cutting edges allowing it to adapt to a wider variety of prey that most other species. It was also pretty cool watching the mechanical steel jaws snap into sides of meat and bone. Okay, that's my nerd moment.

I love sharks - saw all the Jaws movies - even the crappy ones.

So have any of you guys been reading the Megalodon series by Steve alten?

Ahaha, sharks were a huge facisnation of mine when i was a kid.

My dad showed me the scene from Jaws when they find the head in the boat...scared the piss outta me!

I souldnt swim alone, or even be in water of any kind, showers included, without somehow thinking a shark would get me.

I hear those shower drain dwelling sharks are brutal....

RBY71, Tiger shark teeth are a lot like a serated saw and they have rows of them. They snack on sea turtles so they need to saw through the shell.


Tonyvoyager, I didn't know they had a series about Megalodon, tell me more.

In South Carolina there is a river dive that has an excellent track record of finding fossil Megalodon teeth. I hate diving fresh water but I plan to book one of those dives someday.

RBY71 saidThere was very interesting show that was on either discovery or animal planet years ago. They did metal reconstructions of different species of sharks' teeth and jaws and calculated the approximate bite pressures to show how the combination of bite radius, pressure and tooth morphology determined the type and extent of damage they would inflict on their prey. I seem to remember that the shape of the tiger shark's tooth was particularly nasty as it combined both piercing and cutting edges allowing it to adapt to a wider variety of prey that most other species. It was also pretty cool watching the mechanical steel jaws snap into sides of meat and bone. Okay, that's my nerd moment.

The teeth of Great White sharks change from pointy teeth (adapted for gripping and eating fish) to triangular, serrated teeth (adapted for killing and eating mammals) as the shark ages. I'm told the transition occurs around when they achieve a length of about 8-9 feet. They are constantly losing teeth, with the teeth in the row behind moving forward to replace the lost teeth.

I've never seen a Great White while in the water. Just a few Blues, a rather large Hammerhead, and a few unidentified fins (that swam by between me and the beach on a few occasions). However, there was a Great White attack on nearby abalone diver about 30 years ago when we were surfing in a fairly remote area (but we didn't find out about it until two days later). I also have a movie I shot of two of my friends surfing (nobody else in the water) when a pod of killer whales swam by them. Since the surf was pretty good sized, my friends never saw them.

However I have been nipped in the heel by a seal or sea lion (don't know which as it was at night), and had another seal look at me from about 6 feet away, then dive down and tug on my swim fin. That was repeated about 4-5 times before he gave up (I think he was annoyed that we were in his fishing area).

Thanks for the great stories and information, guys.

I was at the local Science Museum visiting one of the curators when he plunked a shark's tooth in my hand -- completely covering it.

I said, "Wow, how big was this one?"

He said, "About 80 feet long." (Based on the size of the tooth.) 80 feet is about four times the size of the great white in "Jaws.

So I asked: "That musta been a prehistoric shark, huh?" And he said well. . . they dated the tooth and discovered. . .

It had fallen out of the shark's mouth within the last several decades. "Sometime during the 50's or thereabouts," he said.

Think about that

Gulp

Love sharks, and all your shark stories!

They've been around for 450 million years -- living with dinosaurs, but outlasting them on earth by a factor of 3 and counting.

My best shark encounter was with a black-tipped reef shark, on the barrier reef, who, unbeknownst to me, was following me when I was swimming back to a deserted beach after some solo snorkeling.

When I stood on the beach, with my feet still a few inches in the water, taking off my flippies, I saw this guy, about 2 meters long, swim almost right up on shore, turn his head and look up at me, stared for a bit, then pushed off the sand and went back in the water. It was almost like he was saying: "You quitting? I'm lonely. C'mon back in!"

I told the folks back at the island were I was staying about this, and they said it was impossible -- sharks never swim up on the beach in that shallow of water.

What could I say -- they were the experts. But it's one of the most amazing shark memories I have. I was simply dumbfounded when it was happening. I just stared right back at that shark, with my jaw hanging open. He was just a few feet from my feet. Way cool.

K

I love sharks. I think there is so much we can learn about them. Fascinating.

Since we are of sharks, what is everyone's favorite sharks or shark related animals?

I like the Thrasker, Cuttie Cutter, Great White, Mako, Tiger, and Sting ray.

Guy101 saidwhat is everyone's favorite sharks or shark related animals?

Oooh, tough one. But Leopard shark, if I had to choose. Amazingly beautiful.



K

Leopard sharks are beautiful. I think hammerheads are neat. Bull sharks have the classic "shark" look. Great Whites. . . incredible animals, but so spooky.

There are 360 species of sharks, by the way. Most are not dangerous, and some, like the Dog Shark, are very small.

Little Dude - You may not know but Jaws was based on real incidents which occured off the New Jersey shore in 1916. Thats right! The first attack happened in Beach Haven, NJ (on Long Beach Island, NJ) which happens to be a short distance from where I have a summer place. Anyways, there is a GREAT book about that summer of 1916 called "Twelve Days of Terror". I think you would find it fascinating. In total, the shark killed 4 people in 3 separate attacks, the last one occuring amazingly 5 miles or so from the shore - in a creek upstream from the beach!

I went down the waterslides at Atlantis that take you through the shark tank. They were lazy, though.

Author is Richard Fernicola..on sale at amazon.com for like $12. Take my recommendation - you won't regret!

NJ Dewd--

Thank you so much! I am familiar with the story, but I haven't read the book. I'll get a copy. Thanks!

Timberoo saidI went down the waterslides at Atlantis that take you through the shark tank. They were lazy, though.

Or maybe you just didn't look appetizing. Perhaps if you'd used ketchup instead of sunscreen?