I moved to Los Angeles from NYC a few years ago and I have yet to swim in the ocean on the west coast - not because of sharks or anything but because it’s cold!. You’d think it would be nice here because of all the surfing propaganda but it seems way colder than the water at like Rockaway beach (in the summer anyway). Someone told me it’s cuz the currents on the east coast move up from the south and on the west coast they move down from the north.
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I don’t think I could. On the boat, yes. Get into open water, when the boat isn’t sinking? Nah…
I had a chilled late night bath once, and then the power suddenly went out; I was up and out, standing on the bathmat before the light had completely faded. Just nope.
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That would just attract more sharks, unless you do it on a different boat over there a bit.
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it’s pretty much the bull sharks what are unpredictable around these parts. two bite incidents near Marathon were bull sharks, one on a free diver spearfishing and one (i don’t know how) was bitten while fishing from a dock. that is just a wierd one that probably won’t happen again, but…
my buddy Heiko, was bum rushed by a bull just last week after spearing a nice mutton snapper at around 65ft. he is fine - even got it all on his gopro cam. the shark wanted the snapper, not Heiko.
the whites are always in the waters around here and will grab your catch as you reel it in. getting “sharked” or “paying the tax man” is just a part of fishing offshore in the Keys.
the ones i am truly mesmerized by, both in and on the water, are the hammerheads. so graceful, so serene, so… bizarre-looking. they’re pretty chill, but they can be unnervingly big! they can be intimidating, to be sure. i have been up-close and personal with a smallish (2m) hammerhead and it was pretty cool. heart-poundingly cool, but still…
nursies surround us underwater all the time. they are probably the most calm and chill shark you’ll ever meet. used to have a little 1m female that lived under the dock. cute little shark. pinkish brown and so elegant when she swam.
with all that said AND my professed love of sharks notwithstanding… leave 'em be. they really don’t want to eat you.
a bad bite can leave you to bleed out in the water, or lose a limb, but sharkie didn’t really eat you, now did they?
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I don’t know, little fish do the thing where they swim together in large numbers, and instead of just attracting more predators it seems to provide some safety for the ones in the middle.
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OK, I’m going to need a hundred or so fearless but bad swimmers, who maybe thrash around a bit, just to be safe.
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I was thinking that they were the mountain lions of the sea. Mountain lions scare me a whole lot more than the bears that live around me, and they’re also way better at keeping out of sight. Like the sharks, it’s probably a statistical certainly that I’ve passed very close to mountain lions without knowing it.
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As well they should. Mountain lions are seriously dangerous and absolutely above us on the food chain. Bears look at us and see a hassle. They are scavengers. Mountain lions look at us and see big drumsticks. They are predators. Pray you never encounter one on the trail because few people come out of the encounter unscathed.
You only see them when they feel like being seen, though. It’s extremely rare to encounter one.
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Thanks Cal State Long Beach. I did not need to know this.
Try to not look like a seal when you go swimming.
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Round here none of the sharks will attack you but the seals fucking will!
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Decoys, Red Shirts?
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Exactly. Even before I knew them well, I measured the joy I get from being in the ocean against the (mostly irrational) fear of a shark attack, and decided the joy was worth the risk so stopped being afraid, because the fear didn’t improve anything if I was going in anyway. 
The thing that’s more likely to keep me out is jellyfish. If I see them washed up on the shore, I don’t wanna play.
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Seals gonna fuck you up!
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My first deep dive was my first ocean dive, and I had many thoughts about how I’d react to sharks. Only one way to find out!
At about 100’ I spotted a massive nurse shark cruising with a lot of trailing smaller fish, and “cool!” sprang to mind. Thankfully!
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In shark-infested waters I always swim with my chums.
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I remember during my first deep dive, we passed a barracuda at about 60 feet, who looked at us out of the corner of its eye like, “what the hell are they doing?” and proceeded on its business.
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Absolutely. I’m practically perfect in every way.
Of course you are…
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