USVI-On-Line

O'Rielly is about to do a segment on sharks. I know you all HATE him. But I thought it might be interesting.

Seems the bulls and lemons are really bad. I googled shark attacks in USVI. There was a really bad attack in Magen's Bay on STT about 20 years ago. The 25 year old guy died. Don't really see anything else to make the STJ group freak out. The black tips aren't aggressive unless you provoke them. Just don't snorkle at night...that's when they come out to feed, they don't like the warm water during the day in our little piece of paradise. Anybody else heard anything????

The guy he interviewed from The Discovery Channel said Great Whites, Bulls, and Tigers are the ones humans need to be careful of. He said to make "eye contact" if you see one. Yeah, like I'm going to do that. Which eye?? 250.000 sharks a day are being killed for their fins. As an animal lover, I should be sad, but I just can't muster up that emotion. My bad.

I'm scared to death of coming face-to-face with a shark but the number being slaughtered bothers me. In spite of my fear, I hope that one day I get to swim with one. I just hope that I don't have a panic attack and drown!

i have seen footage of shark poachers and it is kinda sad. they just cut the fins off and throw them back in to sink to the bottom. they take nothing else. seems like a huge waste of life on both sides.

It was also mentioned that the greatest concentration of sharks in the world is.... Caribbean !!

DaveS007 wrote:It was also mentioned that the greatest concentration of sharks in the world is.... Caribbean !!

But those were "Land Sharks!"

LMAO Bandit!!
It's "Shark Week" on Discovery. My favorite TV week of the year!

bevm wrote:LMAO Bandit!!
It's "Shark Week" on Discovery. My favorite TV week of the year!

I wonder if we have shark week as well on Discovery. I have to check.

Agree about that it's probably the human sharks that are the most dangerous .

DaveS007 wrote:It was also mentioned that the greatest concentration of sharks in the world is.... Caribbean !!

My wife heard that and I had to reassure her about STJ.

I had to laugh at the show with the Stuarts Cove guys attracting sharks in the Bahamas. They do that everyday with tourists. The sharks are concentrated there because they feed them everyday.

SO and I were snorkeling the right side of the cay at Cinnamon in 2005 when a shark that wasn't a nurse shark swam by. What freaked me out is that it came back to check us out at which point I was looking right at it (maybe in the eye...more like the teeth). Fortunately, it turned and swam off but that totally freaked me out as I am used to the nurse sharks ignoring us.

SO missed the return as he was closer to the cay watching the pelicans diving for fish which was probably what drew the shark there in the first place.

Anyway, it took me three trips back before I would go around the cay again Saw two sharks this past summer, one was a nurse shark and not sure what the other was as it looked dark with spots but it was on the bottom really deep.

nothintolose wrote:SO and I were snorkeling the right side of the cay at Cinnamon in 2005 when a shark that wasn't a nurse shark swam by. What freaked me out is that it came back to check us out at which point I was looking right at it (maybe in the eye...more like the teeth). Fortunately, it turned and swam off but that totally freaked me out as I am used to the nurse sharks ignoring us.

SO missed the return as he was closer to the cay watching the pelicans diving for fish which was probably what drew the shark there in the first place.

Anyway, it took me three trips back before I would go around the cay again Saw two sharks this past summer, one was a nurse shark and not sure what the other was as it looked dark with spots but it was on t
the bottom really deep.

Wow - the same thing happened to us at Cinnamon Cay...We were on the left side (looking out from the beach)...Pretty sure it was a reef shark. We didn't stick around...It swam right by us and kept moving.

For some reason I have no fear whatsoever of sharks. I'd much rather see a shark than a snake in water...now that freaks me out big time!

While there are the odd documented cases that contradict this (rare things happen in all phases of life) if you see a shark your best bet is if it also gets a good look at you. Humans are neither their natural enemy nor their natural food, so in almost all cases, once they've ID'd you, they will swim away.

I've seen just about all of the indigenous spieces while scuba diving, and the above has always held true.

I consider myself much more at risk of an "attack" when I am surfing. I put the quotes around the word attack, because again, in almost every incident of a shark biting a surfer/swimmer it's because they didn't get a good look at them, and instead only saw the splashing at the surface that, to the shark, looks a lot like a wounded fish struggling at the surface, which is shark for a snack! Once they've realized that they literally bit off more than they can chew they go look for something that's on their menu. Of course that exploratory "taste" can leave the surfer/swimmer with some nasty souvenirs of the experience.

I crave shark sightings. Of course if that ends up being my ultimate Waterloo you folks will be able to say "crazy dude got what he wanted!"

Hey,

I think I've told my St John shark stories here before??? First, let me say that I am not overly concerned when I see these guys, but I definately respect their space. One year we spent a day at Lamshur to look for sea glass. The weather was bad because of a passing tropical storm and the water was really churned up. We were not swimming but my young daughter, maybe 9/10? had to go to the bathroom so we entered the water, yeah I had to go also . We had to go up to my chest to keep her from getting knocked around by the surf. I held her hand while she took care of business, then as we started moving towards the beach I was really knocked off balance by what I thought was my daughters legs pushing off on me, buuuut guess what....she was already walking out of the water 10 feet in front of me I don't know what it was but it wasn't a friggen parrot fish!

Last month we met up with some friends(first timers) and we suggested that they go to waterlemon to snorkle. We didn't see them until we returned to Virginia. Last week they told my wife that the snorkling was great at waterlemon and that they actually saw a small hammerhead on the backside of the cay. Over my 25 years of visiting I have seen a few different types of sharks, but never a hammerhead. That one would have made me say Hmmmmm!

Sharks are definately out there, I see them on most trips. To reduce your chances of a close encounter I suggest not peeing in churned up water late in the afternoon

If this stuff makes you nervous please stop watching shark week! My favorite shark week story so far was the guy who went into the great whites mouth head first and lived to tell about it!

Take care,
Budman