USVI-On-Line

We had several interesting shark encounters on St. John this trip..

The first I was in fish bay kayaking and photographing this little baby nurse shark (I named him Guido the shark) in the shallow grass beds...(sorry, not the best picture of guido)



The next day I went back looking for Guido again when three other sharks swam up in formation and rather aggressively, they scared the bejesus outta me!

Is this also a nurse shark or something else? I am no shark expert but they look somewhat different to me. Wish I could have gotten a pic of three together but I was to busy running on the water back to the kayak!



Third encounter was very cool, I was sitting at the beach bar with our son while Cindi walked the beach late one night, she came up and told me there was a nurse shark following here up and down the beach so I went to check it out and sure enough this baby nurse shark would just swim up and down the beach over and over again, from the ferry dock down to the broken down boat in the water. Twice I was able to reach down and touch it which would cause it to swim off but then it would come back again, really cool little fellow!

I think the second shark is a black tip. We saw baby sharks a couple of times this trip, it was cool.

Ok Im officially paranoid. Is there a beach where there are NO SHARKS?

I concur with liamsaunt. I also think the second was a blacktip. Really cool but it would of scared the bejesus out of me too!!!

Ditto, Ksea!

OK, sorry for freaking people out (sorta) but these sharks were tiny, the pictures make them look bigger than they are. The black tip one was at most 3 feet and they retreated fast once I started moving.

Cindi is most paranoid of sharks but she let the little one at the beach bar swim between her legs...so don't be scared

robncindi wrote: Cindi is most paranoid of sharks but she let the little one at the beach bar swim between her legs...so don't be scared

There is something about this sentence that is so so wrong...

Which little shark at The Beach Bar was it? Just kidding...

I second the opinion that the second one is a Black Tip - along with the black tips, it has a pointed snout (relatively for a shark). FYI - Black Tip sharks are not typically aggressive toward humans, so no worries

Bandit wrote:

robncindi wrote: Cindi is most paranoid of sharks but she let the little one at the beach bar swim between her legs...so don't be scared

There is something about this sentence that is so so wrong...

Which little shark at The Beach Bar was it? Just kidding...

Fins to the left,,Fins to the right and you're the only bait in town.

Bill L. wrote:

Bandit wrote:

robncindi wrote: Cindi is most paranoid of sharks but she let the little one at the beach bar swim between her legs...so don't be scared

There is something about this sentence that is so so wrong...

Which little shark at The Beach Bar was it? Just kidding...

Fins to the left,,Fins to the right and you're the only bait in town.

you guys are killin me! phins up!!!

The Bongo Boys are reporting that 3 black tips are hanging around the Beach Bar.http://www.on-stjohn.com/

KSEA I am with ya. I have a huge fear of sharks. I have always been so happy that I had never seen one while snorkeling around STJ. I was so paranoid about it I always used to ask people if there were a lot of sharks down there and they would tell me no except for the occassional non-aggressive nurse shark. With vacation just over a week away I am getting pretty nervous about snorkeling. It seems in the past few month of reading trip reports the # of shark sitings is very high UGH! I think I'd better load up on the painkillers so it doesn't hurt so bad when one bites my leg off. Good luck, enjoy your trip, and keep the painkillers flowing!

kirk wrote:The Bongo Boys are reporting that 3 black tips are hanging around the Beach Bar.http://www.on-stjohn.com/

Are people feeding them scraps, kinda like stray cats you can't get rid of.

I think I'll not be putting my feet in the water at the beach bar.

And the nightmare continues. Im not telling the rest of the family about this. Anyone want to come along and be the family lifeguard/shark chaser?? We have an extra bedroom at our Villa

We have see them behind the Beach Bar for a couple days in a row now. They are 2 feet long or less, I actually stood in the water with them to get my pics.

They were not aggressive and moved away quickly. But, when we went snorkling, I have to be honest,was a bit jumpy for awhile. [/img]