By Terry Lilley – Notice all the shark attacks lately off the island of Maui?
I know why they are happening. I have been buzzed by 18-foot hammer heads, Galapagos sharks, aggressive sand bar sharks and tiger sharks all within the last year while spear fishing or kayak fishing.
Just ask the dive shop owners. The increase in spear fishing has more than tripled in the last few years. It has become very popular and the sharks know it.
The sharks are learning to follow spear fishermen and kayak fishermen to get a free meal. I have had many fish taken by these sharks right off the end of my spear, including an attempt on Thanksgiving day.
We fishermen should rotate where we spear fish. If you go out at the same places every time, the sharks will wait for humans to catch their food for them. They look at a kayak or spear gun as a source for food.
I do not spear fish at Tunnels off Kauai any longer because the one 10-foot female Galapagos follows me around like a puppy waiting for me to spear a fish and then she steals it. If my arm is in the way, I would be bit.
In old Hawaiian times, fishermen rotated where they fished so the sharks would not be trained by the people as to where they are going to find dinner.
The sharks never try to harm humans and I have made friends with a number of large sharks that I dive with and video. They are just doing what sharks should do. Eat wounded fish. Killing the sharks would be stupid and would ruin our marine ecosystem.
If you feed the neighborhood dogs free steaks everyday at the park, you better believe the dogs will be there waiting for you. They will soon jump right in your car window to get food.
We need to rotate where we fish like the Hawaiians have done for thousands of years.
I am no marine biologist, but I wrote a paper in college about shark behavior not to long ago, so I guess i have some credibility from the numerous amount of research I conducted. From what I know, sharks feed on wounded fish – turtles – and skates. When the pray of sharks have depleted by overfishing, they have to rely on other sources of food. In this case they probably changed there method of finding prey by relying on spear fishermen to get food for them. Hence the increase of shark sightings where ever you are in the water. Sharks are intelligent creatures and can sense electrical impulses we humans give off miles away. So it would not be a surprise you would run into a shark on a dive.
Furthermore, due to tourism and destructive human behavior in the ocean, much of the reef have died or will die, which leads to fish and turtles who feed on the sea grass to head somewhere else to find sources of food. Sharks are not likely to prey on humans, but I am sure if there hungry enough anything is possible. Back in the day there was a theory of the "rogue" shark that is either injured or sick, who cannot get food on their own. These rogue sharks prey upon humans swimming in the water, because it was an easy dinner for them.
Feel free to reply to my analysis!
I remember hearing about the rebuttal to the "Rogue Shark Theory". I am writing a paper on shark conservation and I cannot seem to find the source on injured sharks. Is there anyway you can help me?
I don't have much to say on this matter because anything I do say will be just another opinion. Just because somebody is a marine biologist doesn't mean what they say is law. This is just another persons opinion and it should be treated as such. I am a spear fisherman and I have fished in places that have tourists dropped off by boats and while I do agree that the sharks tend to take interest in speared fish and will sometimes try to take the fish. The same sharks will swim right by a scuba diver and pay them no attention. I think this authors opinion is careless and I hope he thinks twice about what he writes in the future because not everybody knows the ocean and it's inhabitants and get to see the way they interact with humans. All most people know is what they see in movies and hear from articles like this. Making statements like this is irresponsible and dangerous to the fishing community because some people reading it will take it as law and blame fisherman. P.s next time you need to write an article stick with the facts.
Just because a politician says something, doesn't technically mean it's law either. Who here would seriously read this, and think this is "law?" Calm down there fella. The author is a fishermen as well, which was clearly stated. How is his opinion carless? He stated his opinion based on personal observations. You people that are crying because there are no facts and this was not written by a scholar, need to quit crying.
Dangerous to the fishing community? And you call his opinion careless? You sound like a fool.
I AGREE, and to top it off he is NOT a MARINE BIOLOGIST. He's a joke and needs to keep his opinions to himself!
yeah PetCO.. stop taking all our fish!!!!
It is easy to formulate an opinion regardless of your credentials. Does this "story" have merit, possibly but there are so many other mitigating factors at play here. As a responsible spear-fisherman my catch is never easy prey for any shark as I will display aggressive behavior towards any shark trying to take my catch. In the 12 years that I have been spearfishing I have only had a shark tale my catch once. I understand that constant free lunch will cause a learned behavior, we have all heard of Pavlov, but formulating a theory blaming spear-fisherman when only one of the attacks was on a spear-fisherman (belt kui) is detrimental and counter productive.
With this logic I will have to ask all the rental car companies to stop renting cars so we can have less tourist accidents.
I don't know whats causing the attacks or why theres been so many, all I can say is what ive experienced with the shark encounters ive had diving even with fish on my belt. I have seen multiple tiger sharks and even with the fish on my belt I have watched them swim past me calmly, 1 thing I have noticed is an increase in people in the water though, basic math, the more people that there are in the water the more likely it is that someone will run into a shark, even some of the places that I dive I see more and more people there all the time. Like I said though, im no expert and can only talk from experiences I have had and what I have seen and with how many people see in the water all the time its no surprise that people run into sharks, the sharks do live there
High school level essay…dissapointing
Why you folks need a reason? Spearfishing, Turtles, Tourist, Why some many turtles, Whales, Monk Seals? This is where they live! why you gotta know why lots of people getting bitten? Ask a bear why he bites, ask a mountain lion, snake…Why should you care? If you got a problem don't go in the water. You want answers? Animals of all sizes have been living in our water thousands of years before people, spear fishermen, tourist why you gotta know why so many? Why don't you shut the hell up, sit on the beach get a tan, go store and buy fish and you never going have a problem.Trying to explain it is like pissng in the wind…
I just want to float on my air mattress and watch the whales breach. I love maui!!!!!
You actually posted such a thoughtless comment? Take your air mattress to you condo pool, please! Maui is a community and not just a destination location for those wanting to enjoy it without being a responsible part of caring for the beauty here!<div style="display:block;margin:6px 0 0"><a class="a2a_dd" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share_save"><img src="https://static.addtoany.com/buttons/share_save_171_16.png" width="171" height="16" border="0" alt="Share/Save/Bookmark">
I think this is an excellent observation and should be researched. In the Makena area it is pretty common to have sharks going after divers fish and hanging around. A rather large shark grabbed by sons fish by little beach and just today they closed the beach because some divers reported an aggressive Galapagos shark that followed them and grabbed their fish despite the divers attempts to protect it. It makes perfect sense that some sharks in some areas learn to hunt in new ways and some may have gotten used to associating divers and kayaks with easy food. Thus the "mistaken bites" may happen more frequently because the sharks are hanging around more and expecting to eat, even if their intention is not to bite people. The research that has been done shows the most attacks occurring during the times of the fewest visitors so it may not just be about "more people in the water".
Now the sharks are agressive? Touist dies?
Maybe the Hawaiian shark god is upset that Neil & Blake pushed SSM/SB-1 to fast with the special session? nah,
JOKE!
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