Thread: Shark Shields

The way I look at it

The sharks are usually interested in a free feed from the fish you speared. You're also in their home so you can't sit in the barber's chair and not expect the occasional hair cut.

Most of the ones I've seen are bronze whalers though so not quite the same.

Mate, you want a shark attack story check this one out. It's a 60min doco about an Aussie spearo who got pinged by a bull shark. What's makes this even more tragic is that the American guy in that doco who saved the young spearo also got his leg bit off just a couple of months ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdB9...nutesAustralia

Check out this one too. A bit violent though. Starts at 2:05. It's like a balloon full of blood just popping. Poor bastard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4oa...l=MHakimMHakim

I think it's important to note though that shark attacks are EXTREMELY rare. In fact, statistically speaking, you're more likely to die in a car crash getting to your spearfishing location than you are in the water.
In my limited experience with sharks, I've found that they follow a very simple mentality which can be boiled down to two perspectives. Are you food or are you a predator. Obviously there are other things that go into it like species specific characteristics, but for most of the sharks in NZ like Bronzies, it seems that if you're bigger than the shark, appear aggressive, or are confederation with others, they tend to back off. With Great Whites though, you're unlikely to be bigger than it and even a 'curiosity' bite is enough to absolutely carve you up. What scares me the most is the increase in juvinile numbers here in the Bay of Plenty. The Big Angry Fish boys recently did a video where they went fishing for Bronzies only to end up catching 3 Great Whites in the bloody Waihi Harbour. They actually had to stop because they knew that if they tried again that they would end up catching another Great White and legally speaking, you cannot target Great Whites.

Originally Posted by Daniel Kwon

Mate, you want a shark attack story check this one out. It's a 60min doco about an Aussie spearo who got pinged by a bull shark. What's makes this even more tragic is that the American guy in that doco who saved the young spearo also got his leg bit off just a couple of months ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdB9...nutesAustralia

Check out this one too. A bit violent though. Starts at 2:05. It's like a balloon full of blood just popping. Poor bastard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4oa...l=MHakimMHakim

yea thanks, i wasnt planning on sleeping untill next year anyhow...

It's an interesting subject. My take is that the probability of shark attack is so small, you shouldn't worry about it, but we are humans, not robots and it activates a primal fear. I think SCUBA divers are relatively safe, but there are always exceptions. Freediving and spearfishing in particular are higher risk. Experienced spearos seem to see it as a managed risk and almost part of the fun! There seems to be more great whites around the north island these days. I'm not sure whether that is true or just more people carrying cameras and posting on social media. I don't know much about shark shields, but the Aussies do, so it would be worth jumping on one of their diving forums.

This is a great resource, download the "Incident Log" and play with the data. You can limit it to NZ. I'm not sure whether it's reassuring or terrifying!

https://www.sharkattackfile.net/incidentlog.htm

Originally Posted by planenutz

Yeah, nah.

Like others here I'm still traumatized from JAWS version 1.

This is so true of my experience too. Are you around 50 years old btw? I was at a party a while back where the subjecgts of sharks came up, and eventually everyone was asked for input and it turned out all of us who were at primary school around the time Jaws came out (1975) all shared an irrational fear of sharks that the other age groups did not have. A couple of people my age confessed to never going further than waist deep in the sea, but no problems with deep water in lakes. In my case watching Jaws as a kid then seeing a dead Great White washed up on the beach a few years later set me up with a profound paranoia I have never tried to shake off. I have swum with sharks in the water here and in Australia but did not enjoy it. As Micky Duck says, the Jaws shark was not very realistic (and swam so slwly even I could outswim it!) but there was something in those beach scenes that has stuck with me.

30 million years evolving out of the ocean.
why go back in

Originally Posted by Ben Waimata

This is so true of my experience too. Are you around 50 years old btw? I was at a party a while back where the subjecgts of sharks came up, and eventually everyone was asked for input and it turned out all of us who were at primary school around the time Jaws came out (1975) all shared an irrational fear of sharks that the other age groups did not have. A couple of people my age confessed to never going further than waist deep in the sea, but no problems with deep water in lakes. In my case watching Jaws as a kid then seeing a dead Great White washed up on the beach a few years later set me up with a profound paranoia I have never tried to shake off. I have swum with sharks in the water here and in Australia but did not enjoy it. As Micky Duck says, the Jaws shark was not very realistic (and swam so slwly even I could outswim it!) but there was something in those beach scenes that has stuck with me.

Yup... nailed it @Ben_Waimata I'm 56 so was about 10 when I saw JAWS. A mate and I went together to see the movie and while I had no real desire to see it, I recall that year I'd delivered leaflets for the Papakura movie theater and as a reward they issued us both a "Pass" which gave us free entry for about 3 months. We were trying to make the most of the free pass and Jaws happened to be the hit of the day. I've regretted that decision all my life. I've watched the movie in my adult years and it now seems all very.... tame and amateur... but in its day it clearly had a profound effect. Not only on me but on an entire generation. The sea was never the same again. That was compounded by seeing my very real first shark, half dead, lying on the mudflats near Manurewa the following year. I lost all interest in waterskiing at Bottletop Bay after that.

Bloody sharks. Bloody Spielberg.

I think a 44 magnum power head might be a bit more comforting, especially in a him or me situation.

the only thing separating me from a shark should be nice crispy batter cooked in hot grease

When I lived up North I did a lot of spearfishing / freediving for about 15 yrs and speared in some very sharky places. Probably for the first 8 - 10 yrs I never saw a shark of any type.
Other factors such as shallow water black out, boats and getting caught in your float line posed the biggest risks.
Then I started seeing a few and have now being in the water with Bronzies, Mako, Blues and a Hammerhead. All were curious but not aggressive, I tended to be the aggressor ( best defense is a strong offence theory ) and it worked .
However day one I was doing a shore dive off a little bay in the Coromandel . It had being a nice spear working a weed line at 40 - 50 ft and I had John Jory and other fish hanging off my float line , I decided I had enough fish and had a 2 km swim back along the coast line to my entry point and the car.
I was about half way through the swim back when I was suddenly and violently being pulled backwards through the water. I knew straight away that a shark had grabbed my float and the fish hanging off it. A small tug of war took place which saw me get my arse kicked till I managed to wrap some float line around a rock , the shark broke the surface now with the extra pressure and started to swim straight out. I got a brief glimpse of a large head with my bigger than a basketball in its gop.
After a very short time he got to bite through my float line....then it got freaky .
Like a scene out of Jaws I watched my float get towed around for maybe 30 seconds then suddenly go under and there was total silence and nothing to see. I was thinking well that's over when suddenly my bright orange float pops up onto the surface about 300 mtrs out and sits bobbing innocently away .
I had a dilemma ... almost like the Angel on one shoulder saying you are ok and it makes sense to swim back to the car and buy a new float on Monday and take up a safe sport like base jumping.
On the other shoulder was Mister Angry saying " that dirty fucker, go and get that float back , you have already feed him and now it's going to cost $100 to replace the float ( Scottish Angry Man )
I watched my float for another couple of minutes and it was slowly drifting further out ( why the hell don't they ever drift back to you ? ) .
Fight or Flight ? Not been particularly intelligent and a tight arse I swam out 300 odd mtrs to my float. It was an adrenaline filled swim done at a slow controlled pace , I could just make out the bottom as I reached my float that still had two fish hanging under it .
The voices were going in my head again with reason saying " you fucken idiot, now we are in the shit " and Mr Angry saying " you fucking idiot , I can't believe you took my advice , can we go now ".
The swim back was spooky but uneventful but it was great to get back to the beach. The wife did comment that the fish I brought home had some cuts on them ( bite marks ) and my float has some cool bite marks also.
I have since had several run in's with Sharks over speared fish and they were always Bronzies. The current situation with Whites bothers me and despite people like Clinton Duffy from DOC saying Great Whites were always in the Bay that's total bullshit.
I went to school with guys who's fathers were 2 generation commerical fisherman and they barely saw or a bronze whaler and never saw a white.
The shark population has increased and because of that there is going to be a much greater chance of interaction and some of that won't be good like the poor girl who got hit by the White off Waihi beach at Christmas.
I don't know if I would still be spearfishing if I lived back up North... I probably would but I would be extremely alert .

Originally Posted by viper

When I lived up North I did a lot of spearfishing / freediving for about 15 yrs and speared in some very sharky places. Probably for the first 8 - 10 yrs I never saw a shark of any type.
Other factors such as shallow water black out, boats and getting caught in your float line posed the biggest risks.
Then I started seeing a few and have now being in the water with Bronzies, Mako, Blues and a Hammerhead. All were curious but not aggressive, I tended to be the aggressor ( best defense is a strong offence theory ) and it worked .
However day one I was doing a shore dive off a little bay in the Coromandel . It had being a nice spear working a weed line at 40 - 50 ft and I had John Jory and other fish hanging off my float line , I decided I had enough fish and had a 2 km swim back along the coast line to my entry point and the car.
I was about half way through the swim back when I was suddenly and violently being pulled backwards through the water. I knew straight away that a shark had grabbed my float and the fish hanging off it. A small tug of war took place which saw me get my arse kicked till I managed to wrap some float line around a rock , the shark broke the surface now with the extra pressure and started to swim straight out. I got a brief glimpse of a large head with my bigger than a basketball in its gop.
After a very short time he got to bite through my float line....then it got freaky .
Like a scene out of Jaws I watched my float get towed around for maybe 30 seconds then suddenly go under and there was total silence and nothing to see. I was thinking well that's over when suddenly my bright orange float pops up onto the surface about 300 mtrs out and sits bobbing innocently away .
I had a dilemma ... almost like the Angel on one shoulder saying you are ok and it makes sense to swim back to the car and buy a new float on Monday and take up a safe sport like base jumping.
On the other shoulder was Mister Angry saying " that dirty fucker, go and get that float back , you have already feed him and now it's going to cost $100 to replace the float ( Scottish Angry Man )
I watched my float for another couple of minutes and it was slowly drifting further out ( why the hell don't they ever drift back to you ? ) .
Fight or Flight ? Not been particularly intelligent and a tight arse I swam out 300 odd mtrs to my float. It was an adrenaline filled swim done at a slow controlled pace , I could just make out the bottom as I reached my float that still had two fish hanging under it .
The voices were going in my head again with reason saying " you fucken idiot, now we are in the shit " and Mr Angry saying " you fucking idiot , I can't believe you took my advice , can we go now ".
The swim back was spooky but uneventful but it was great to get back to the beach. The wife did comment that the fish I brought home had some cuts on them ( bite marks ) and my float has some cool bite marks also.
I have since had several run in's with Sharks over speared fish and they were always Bronzies. The current situation with Whites bothers me and despite people like Clinton Duffy from DOC saying Great Whites were always in the Bay that's total bullshit.
I went to school with guys who's fathers were 2 generation commerical fisherman and they barely saw or a bronze whaler and never saw a white.
The shark population has increased and because of that there is going to be a much greater chance of interaction and some of that won't be good like the poor girl who got hit by the White off Waihi beach at Christmas.
I don't know if I would still be spearfishing if I lived back up North... I probably would but I would be extremely alert .

Mate, if the float was $100,000 I think I would have still let the shark (and his buddies) have it!

Hearing a few more first hand stories for sure. One mate had a big bronzie chase him right up on to the beach to get his fish. He was sat on his arse in knee deep water kicking it away! Another had an encounter very similar to Viper in the Bay of Islands and another saw a great white at the Mokohinaus. No drama, but enough to make him get out the water. Regular fishing buddy had a big mako take out his Minn Kota, totally unprovoked. That was just last summer.

Sounds like you guys need a float boat

I've done a bit of spearfishing in my time. Seen hundreds of sharks and don't particularly like the buggers, but seldom do they put the shits up me big time. I got buzzed a GW last year in shallow dirty water and it was the single worst experience of my life. I'd rather slam my dick in a car door than do that again...

Anecdotes I've heard would suggest that using a shark shield or similar can increase the number of encounters, but reduce the risk of attack. Seems some sharks are attracted to the emitted signal but as they get close (often proper close) it overloads their senses and they bug out.

I'm with the Jaws thing
I was 13 years old, I like Sharks about as much as I like being a pillion passenger on a motorbike.