A real sea monster

[RonE58]

I got to tell you, Sea Hunt I wish you never directed me to that photo. Being an avid sea kayaker I always feared coming along side a large shark. I was down off the Florida Keys last spring and came across a number of nurse sharks but they are timid. I think I am going to hear the 'Jaws' theme the next time I am out on my kayak. I can't believe the gall those paddlers have, no brace stroke is going to prevent that monster from knocking you off of that sit-on-top kayak and you becoming his lunch.
Crazy...
Ron

Cathy:

That's a great site. The pictures are excellent. Especially the one of the guy in a yellow kayak looking over his right shoulder at what appears to be a Great White. Yikes!!!!

Of course, today, unfortunately or fortunately, digital photography allows the professional and amateur alike to "edit" their photos to delete (or insert) almost anything they want from (into) their photos.

Brushing out "back scatter" or unattractive bubbles is generally accepted. "Brushing out" sea life that was inadvertently present in the original, or "brushing in" (a/k/a cut and paste) sea life that was not present in the original, is generally frowned upon within the industry. Absent looking at the original digital, it is usually almost impossible to tell what, if anything, was done to the original digital image.

Regardless, the photos are terrific. That's a excellent site. Thanks.

Fair Winds,

[Sea Hunt]

Hello Ron:

Hey, I'm innocent. Well, at least on this topic The real "guilty ones" are John Vigor, who started this thread, and Cathy Monaghan who, with her obvious web search skills found the photos and then enticed everyone with a large green design and a bold letter link to the photo site. I merely "mentioned" the photos and commented on the digital imaging. I profess my innocence.

It is interesting that people have such varied perceptions of sharks. Wearing one of my several "hats" I have been organizing small group dive trips to various dive sites around the world for 25+ years. I do MUCH less of this now that I am "retired". Divers are always wanting to go to locations where there are sharks - lots of sharks - the Galapagos Islands (Wolf and Darwin especially for large schools of hammerheads and a few whale sharks), Isla de Cocos (hammerheads, whale sharks, oceanic white tips), Blue Corner in Palau (white tips, reef sharks, grays, etc.), the outer reefs in Tahiti ("pass diving"), the vessel Papoose off Morehead City, N.C. (large schools of sand tiger sharks make the Papoose their "home") to name a few. I have never heard of a diver being "molested" by a shark - except those few divers who intentionally did something stupid. Spearfishing and swimming back to the boat with the bleeding fish in your hand qualifies as "stupid".

I have never seen a "colossal squid" or indeed any other type of large squid in all my years. I'm Sicilian Italian. The only squid I ever saw was at Luigi's Restaurant. He called it "calamari" and charged a lot of lires for the privilege of tasting it. On the dinner plate it looked pretty harmless.

I always tell new divers that the most danger thing in the ocean they will ever see is another diver

By the way, I do not dive with or near Great Whites. Now that is just plain asking for it

I just read what I wrote and realize that none of it has anything to do with Cape Dory sailboats or sailing. Sorry.

P.S. Went racing today on Biscayne Bay. Harbor 20s. Our team came in last in all three races. Something about the possibility of mysterious seaweed fouling our keel and slowing us down. Still in the hunt for a Cape Dory (Ty Weekender, CD 22 or CD 25D)

[Sea Hunt]

Well, what a "coinquidink". I just looked at my mail from today and on the cover of the current issue (March 2007) of a diving magazine I subscribe to (Diver published in Canada), there is a large photo of a diver with two very large Humboldt Squid The article says they are appearing in record numbers off the coast of California at Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary and in the Sea of Cortez in Mexico.

Well, John, I guess these are two areas in which you will NOT be sailing in the near future. Looks like I need to plan a dive trip to northern California (San Francisco area). The only problem - this is a well known and well documented area for Great Whites. Hmm, that jacuzzi, brandy and cigar look mighty good.

[David VanDenburgh]

Now, Humboldt Squid have been known to take bites out of humans. They are voracious feeders and compete with local fishermen for the fish in the Sea of Cortez. At least one fisherman was attacked while swimming. There was a very interesting program on TV about them not long ago - was it Discovery Channel or Animal Planet?

I remember the very freaky feeling that came over me when swimming off the boat in a calm in the middle of the Pacific. Thinking about the thousands of feet of water below me and what might be swimming up from the depths toward my bare toes produced an urgent desire to get back to the boat as quickly and quietly as possible.