On Sat I was swimming at the beach here in Miami and I swam out to the sand bar. After a few minutes the life guard started whistling and me and telling me to come in. I was confused because I wasn't very far out and I had already been out even further earlier in the day. I looked closer and there were other people telling me to come in too. When I made it back to the shore they told me there was a 6ft shark about 10ft from me.

I almost became one of the shark attacks stories you read about off of South Florida.

6/2/2008 8:27:19 AM

after catching some huge sharks from the pier, i don't swim in the ocean anymore

6/2/2008 8:29:48 AM

^^

tr00 stroy

6/2/2008 8:30:35 AM

sharks are like cats. they will usually leave you alone if you leave them alone. if you start pestering them (pulling on the tail of a nurse shark, for example) or if you flail around like prey in distress, they may give you a test bite to see what the hell you really are.

unfortunately for us, a test bite usually spells death.

6/2/2008 8:30:57 AM

Well I scuba dive so I am not one that is scared of going in the water because of "things that can eat you" but at the same time, you've gotta respect the big fish.

6/2/2008 8:33:16 AM

^ true dat fellow diver

6/2/2008 8:33:52 AM

I was swimming off of Dade Co. Relatively Safe.

6/2/2008 8:38:20 AM

that probably happens all of the time honestly

i know its scary as fuck, but think about the vast number of sharks vs. attacks on humans

you only live once, might as well enjoy the ocean

6/2/2008 8:39:25 AM

I was more afraid of the 450lb. grouper than either of the two sharks I've seen. I've seen shitloads of barracuda though, and they are scary.

Then again, most of my diving has been in quarries. In which case, one my be wary of the killer brim.

6/2/2008 8:42:24 AM

Yeah I saw a huge Jew fish that looked like a VW Bug. That made me feel real small.

6/2/2008 8:44:43 AM

Quote :

"you only live once, might as well enjoy the ocean"

when i was very young, i remember reading (EDIT: probably seeing on tv, i doubt i was reading) about hypo needles and syringes washing up on maybe the jersey shore. i dont remember the year, but i was little and the news was scary back then. also they had just come out with aids i think.

anyways, since then i've had this crazy fear of going in the ocean. and i think ponds are just fucking gross. i jumped in a lake a few weeks ago, though. so im getting over it!!1

6/2/2008 8:47:29 AM

Quote :

"also they had just come out with aids i think."

lolz

6/2/2008 8:48:12 AM

ahaha which did whitey put out first, crack or aids?

seriously

6/2/2008 8:49:12 AM

Quote :

"you only live once, might as well enjoy the ocean"

i'll enjoy it from the boat, tyvm

6/2/2008 8:49:50 AM

^^^^ I used to watch Unsolved Mysteries when I was little. There was always some kidnapper who was on the loose. Scary shit to go to sleep to let me tell you what.

[Edited on June 2, 2008 at 8:51 AM. Reason : ^^]

6/2/2008 8:50:33 AM

on another note, there was eighty gazillion jellyfish at bald head last night

6/2/2008 8:56:15 AM

^Were there a lot of people peeing on themselves?

6/2/2008 8:57:14 AM

Quote :

"was more afraid of the 450lb. grouper than either of the two sharks I've seen. I've seen shitloads of barracuda though, and they are scary."

My brother and friend went out fishing in the gulf stream off the coast last year with a buddy of ours and his dad. They caught a couple kings and saw some barracuda down in the water. I think they hit a net or something because it got stuck around the prop. So our buddy's dad takes off his shirt, puts down his beer, says "get my attention if you see in barracuda swimming towards me", puts his knife his his mouth pirate style and dives overboard to cut the shit off the prop. Apparently, they all thought it was the coolest shit ever.

6/2/2008 10:12:32 AM

Quote :

"after catching some huge sharks from the pier, i don't swim in the ocean anymore"

I heard a guy on the pier down at Wrightsville say the same thing when someone hooked a 6' shark. That's a pretty stupid excuse though.

6/2/2008 10:38:07 AM

I heard someone like you're more likely to die from a plane crash or get struck by lightning than get killed by a shark...who knows.

I grew up at the beach, I've always swam in the ocean. Nothing is wrong with me yet, never stung by a jelly fish, never had a used needle stick me. I think I'll be okay.....*knocks on wood*


One year my dad was surf fishing (not from the pier) and caught a little sand shark. Some woman saw him throw it back in the water and cussed him out for it and called her kids out of the water and wouldn't let them play anymore. He just said to her that the shark is more scared of the people than we are of it, and if he hadn't have caught it we would have never known it was there.

[Edited on June 2, 2008 at 10:41 AM. Reason : ]

6/2/2008 10:40:04 AM

What kind of shark is going to try to eat me when there are a bunch of kids playing in the water? It's like if Bojangles offered a whole chicken combo. Nobody would buy it because they'd rather get chicken nuggets.

6/2/2008 10:44:31 AM

bojangles doesn't have nuggets

6/2/2008 10:45:45 AM

Yeah, but they have those chicken tenders. You know what I mean.

6/2/2008 10:46:23 AM

tenders =/= nuggets

6/2/2008 10:47:56 AM

Quote :

"after catching some huge sharks from the pier, i don't swim in the ocean anymore"

true this...i used to go pretty deep out in the ocean at the beach..but now i wont go out very far, not to mention the fact that i rarely go to the beach anyway. i prefer the clear safe waters of chlorine pools


plus ive reeled in a 6-7' shark up to the base of the sportsman pier back in the day, line wasnt strong enough to pull it up. the fact that i cant see whats underneath me in the water in oceans is what scares me the most

[Edited on June 2, 2008 at 10:53 AM. Reason : f]

6/2/2008 10:51:58 AM

The same time I saw that Jew Fish i saw a cuda about 5-6ft long and it had a big ass hook in its mouth. The line that was connected to it was cut and the cuda was pissed as hell it had a hook in its mouth. We saw these two at a wreck off of Miami Beach. I think it was a Tug Boat.

6/2/2008 10:52:06 AM

Barracudas wont mess with you, when we were at Dry Tortugas there would always be 4-5 4ftish cudas around the boat and no one but 3 of us would go swimming with them, they will only go after you if you have something shiny to attract their attention. I will mention that they swim fast as hell when they are playing with each other.

6/2/2008 10:57:11 AM

450 pound grouper? damn that mouth must have been huge.

6/2/2008 11:04:48 AM

I think cudas can get up to 40mph in the water.

6/2/2008 11:06:34 AM

Quote :

"plus ive reeled in a 6-7' shark up to the base of the sportsman pier back in the day, line wasnt strong enough to pull it up. the fact that i cant see whats underneath me in the water in oceans is what scares me the most"

When I was little I used to go eat there all the time and order my girl cheese sandwhich.

6/2/2008 11:08:55 AM

i saw a huge hammerhead 2 weeks ago in the keys. we were trolling in about 700 ft of water. The funny thing is that about 10 mins before we saw it i was talking about jumping in to cool off.

6/2/2008 11:16:29 AM

I've swam with Barracudas at Cape Lookout. Had them within 10 feet of me and they never bothered me.

6/2/2008 12:02:24 PM

New divers and people who don't dive: "OMG WILL THERE BE SHARKS??!!"

More experienced divers: "There better be sharks on this dive or I'll be pissed!"



[Edited on June 2, 2008 at 12:06 PM. Reason : ]

6/2/2008 12:06:11 PM

Quote :

"I've swam with Barracudas at Cape Lookout. Had them within 10 feet of me and they never bothered me."

You haven't experienced life until you're ascending up the anchor line and everywhere you look there are baracudda -- completely all around you. What an incredible, amazing experience.

Not to mention the 8ft sand tiger.

6/2/2008 12:07:26 PM

Hammerheads are one of the sharks to fear the least. I'd be WAY more worried about a Mako or bull before I would be a hammerhead.

^^I've never been diving before, but I would have a reaction more like the experienced diver! I am a shark enthusiast.

6/2/2008 12:58:47 PM

^ agree

6/2/2008 5:10:31 PM

cudas don't bother me at all, they just always eat my blue runners before I get them to the livewell or munch on whatever gamefish I'm catching... we call em "saber toothed sea trout"


sharks, well, they don't bother me much I think they are neat, esp big hammerheads I've caught and seen, I just don't go swimming in the ocean in south florida or even florida for the most part, well at least not in deep water, but sharks are all over the keys, even in relatively shallow water

[Edited on June 2, 2008 at 6:03 PM. Reason : ...]

6/2/2008 6:03:13 PM

They're not nuggets or tenders, they're supremes.

[Edited on June 2, 2008 at 6:07 PM. Reason : ]

6/2/2008 6:07:44 PM

fuck getting in the ocean i can't afford to lose anything else

6/2/2008 6:12:30 PM

Quote :

"You haven't experienced life until you're ascending up the anchor line and everywhere you look there are baracudda -- completely all around you. What an incredible, amazing experience"

I bet thats wild


I've pulled up on bouys and towers in the gulf before only to see the whole water column be filled up with 3'-5' cudas everywhere because thats where the blue runners were all at

it's crazy to see them like that, literally thousands of them and you can't begin to jig for bait hardly... we had to switch over to 30 weight high speed reels just to catch bait before they could snatch it and they usually did anyway

6/2/2008 6:15:50 PM

Quote :

"They're not nuggets or tenders, they're supremes. "

6/2/2008 6:17:01 PM

Quote :

"fuck getting in the ocean i can't afford to lose anything else "

bwahahahahaha

6/2/2008 6:29:39 PM

I've been diving and snorkeling around sharks and barracuda. The one that makes me nervous is the much smaller barracuda.

6/2/2008 7:10:01 PM

when diving the barracuda bother me more than sharks because it's unnerving the way they just hang out in the water column and around the boat, i worry that i'll accidently bump them and piss them off 'cause they always seem to sneak up on you

those shark statistics for florida don't look too bad, low fatalities considering the number of people in the water... some guy got bit by a great white out here in san diego a few weeks ago and bled out, he was a triathlete training with a group of people one morning...

6/2/2008 7:46:05 PM

Yeah low fatalities on the shark attacks. They just like a taste at first. Don't start bleeding or they will really go crazy.

6/2/2008 10:22:26 PM