Shark Bite #’s 1, 2 & 3

What I’m sure some of you were thinking was bound to happen actually did occur on this trip-I became the victim of a shark bite. The crew was doing some “shark wrangling” which consists of throwing a fish on a line into the water at the stern (back) of the boat, and then pulling it back quickly as the shark follows it in. If the shark stays around for about 15 minutes of this, we know we have a “player” and then it’s time to get in the water—wouldn’t you agree? While the wrangling is going on, it’s a good time to try for above-water photographs of the shark with its mouth open (see Shark Bite #1). What I didn’t know was that the line was secured by being tied off onto a Scuba tank, like the tank in Shark Bite #2. I was standing on the bench in the back of the boat, as modeled by Capt. Jake, a member of our crew. (see Shark Bite #3), except I was leaning forward a lot more, attempting to take photos of a large tiger shark that was going for the bait. The shark hit the line, first jerking it out of the hands of the crewperson holding it, then jerking the Scuba tank out of its hold and upward, snapping the bungee cord holding the tank in place, and pulling the tank completely into the water. Oh, and the tank snapped out and up BETWEEN MY LEGS, so that one edge of the tank bottom smashed into my shin, opening about a one-inch gash. Fortunately, kindly Dr. Howard Pelovitz (an ER Doc) was one of my fellow guests, and with his quick treatment all was soon well. Once ice & elevation of the leg had reduced the swelling, Howard put the medical equivalent of Super Glue (honest!) on the wound and covered it with a piece of plastic tape to make it watertight. I was diving the next day (this happened on Day Two of the trip) and never really suffered any ‘discomfort’ (actually, that’s called PAIN to us non-medical types). Everything has continued to heal nicely, but I’ll have a scar, which I can truthfully say is due to a shark bite. As Dr. Pelovitz kept repeating over and over (remembering the path the tank took vis-à-vis my body) “This coulda been soooo much worse!”

Bull Shark #1 & #2

These bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas) photographs were hard to get, as the bulls were not living up to their aggressive reputation. We had bait baskets on the sand floor and it was around dusk (shark dining time), but they were wary about approaching the divers. I kept adjusting my f stops (from f8 eventually to f2.8) until we ran out of light.

 

Lemon Shark #1 & #2 & ‘Bad News’

It’s odd, but in the shallow, sandy areas where we went for tiger sharks last year, we saw no lemon sharks (Negaprion brevirostris). When we were doing dives on reefs at 50′ or 60′, we could usually see them down below on the sand at 90′ or so. This year, we had lemon sharks on every shallow-water sand dive, up to eight at one time. Lemon shark #1 is a nice behavior photograph, as it shows 13 remoras accompanying the shark-and that’s just on its left side! Of course, when the tiger sharks showed up, you had multiple sharks to deal with-in “Bad News Comes In Threes” there are two lemon sharks on the left and a tiger shark on the right. It takes some getting used to…

Caribbean Reef Shark #1, 2 & 3

These caribbean reef shark (Carcharhinus perezi) photographs
were taken at a reef Jim Abernethy calls the Mother Lode, for the profusion
of reef sharks (and others) you can find there. I got a lot of photos of
these sharks last year, but two things were different this time:
(1) the reefs now had a layer of sand on them, due to the hurricanes last
fall, and the sand was easy to stir up and made photography more
challenging; and (2) I happened to go in when it was just Jim and me, and
his dutiful shaking of the bait baskets they had put down on the reef drew
the sharks in much CLOSER than last year. I mean, in-your-face close.
Caribbean reef sharks are not considered dangerous, but the scent Jim kept
stirring up got them excited and aggressive. I had my strobes bumped by
sharks three times on this one dive. Reef shark #1 is my favorite shot of
the trip-one of the few advantages we poor outmoded film shooters still have
over the digital guys is that when they shoot underwater digital photos with
the sun in the picture, the sun comes out looking strange. I’m sure
technology will correct this in time, but for now…

No doubt many of you feel that I’m nuts to be doing trips like this, but I look stone sane compared to our Fearless Leader, Jim Abernethy. Here he is petting one of the tiger sharks, as it busily tries to devour the bait basket. Maybe Jim never had a dog when he was growing up… I was peering through the viewfinder to take this photograph when the shark whacked my housing with its tail fin (another shark first for me).