>I finally almost got over my Barracuda fears and then I saw a shark ! >Now, I have a new fear. Fortunately, the shark was small (smaller than >the Barracuda). The nurse shark was about 3', and the Barracuda was over >4'.
yeah, you have to get over these fears. Once at club med I attended a sharkfeed.
There was this guy, he was the resident MD for the club, maybe a hundred tourists at any given time. But of course this was mexico so it's not an MD, I dunno, he was the doctor in case anyone got sick. I met him windsurfing. He would sail out to sea, a few hundred feet. Manage the turnaround, back to shore. then, when he'd get to shore, he'd fumble the turnaround and wipe out. Damn. Get on the board again and do it again. A strange job; probably pays far less than an MD in a developed country.
the night before, dinner at club med. Gorgeous food, the french wouldn't have it any other way. If you want to gain weight, this is the only way. Big old frying pan on a gas stove, frying up something with tentacles, in this luscious sauce, and the chef grabs a bottle of wine as it glub glubs into the frying pan. In one kiosk, they carved up a swordfish, whole, it's head and sword on the end of the table, fins on the other side, grab some fillet from the middle.
Wednesday was shark feed day. Sign up for the scuba dive that day. One of the guys on the boat was the MD, he was just snorkeling, hanging out with us.
Our group leader did the usual, we went down 60 feet to the bottom and he set us there, kneeling. The other groups did the same, and there was 30 or so people kneeling on the sand, in a circle, each sucking on their tank, boooooosh, shhhhhuuuu, waiting for something to happen. Fish. Coral. Waiting. So whas sposed to happen? we would sign to each other underwater. I dunno.
So I get this tap on my shoulder. It's the MD. Here he is, 60 feet down, and he has no tanks. Just a big snorkel. What the hell is he doing down here without tanks!>!??!?!??!! Hey! help. He's signaling to his mouth. My mouth. His mouth. I took a big breath, took out my regulator and gave it to him. He sucked down a few lungfuls of air. Thanked me graciously. And then swam away. Later I saw him begging at someone else for a few lungfuls of air. Going around, bumming air off of everyone, at 60 feet. What a zoo.
Hey! somebody nudged me. Look up. I looked up. There was a swarm of fish. And on the side was my instructor. He was pulling down a swarm of fish, which upon closer inspection, was a bundle of table scraps from dinner the night before. Out of the side was the head and sword of the swardfish we had feasted on the night before. Sword sticking out, very obvious.
He set the swarm down, right in the middle of the circle of all of us. Then he moved himself back to where we were. The fish frenzy went on for a few minutes. Then, on cue, they all swam away... Then the serious fish came by. Sharks. As big as a person, or a bit smaller. Subtle grey shading, serious, relentless expression on the face. Just like in the movies, but smaller.
They were swarming, they were biting. Imagine chomping some raw meat with your teeth, and jerking it detached with your head. Now imagine a shark doing that - you know the look, with the tail jerking to counterbalance the jerking of the head. Ehhh. Ehhh. It was happening just a few dozen feet away, with nothing in between but water.
And I tell you these sharks were swarming around all of us. Sharks in front of us and behind us. But not a single person got bit, or attacked, or even hassled. and they did this every Wednesday. No problems.
I guess I don't worry about sharks anymore, after that experience.