Sharks Behaviour re Bathers plus Divers

Professional Divers from USA Australia New Zealand, South Africa & Europe, loads of Shark types round us in Persian Gulf warning whilst Rigs & Jack ups plus Derrick Barges & Pipelaying increased with human discharge, Durban Brown Sharks turning up from time to time, whether they followed tankers slow steaming to P.G. to pick up Crude Oil Cargo, Hammerheads of both types seemed very plentiful around Ras al Kaimah.

I recorded relative notes Re Sharks.
Many thanks re yr response.

If the following Shark info is of no interest or you are too busy ?, chuck it in the bin/delete it.

You will probably be more familiar than me with your own sharks in your own area anyway.

I did look at the site content & noticed extensive Shark related matter, such a subject with changes per locations related to temperatures, visibility, situations, & TERRITORY of leader shark, all those TV Documentaries plus info on Sharks & re cages etc are all never to really apply to all sorts of locations areas & conditions. Currently Sharm el Sheikh ‘assumptions’ seem prepared by amateurish & sport diving folk not having a long term observation of unfished or untaunted Shark behaviour.

When we were originally recording attack records it was noted one side of Australia has the same sharks, types, numbers & had hardly any attacks, the other slightly warmer side of Australia ? has plenty of attacks. YET< MANY YEARS AFTER 1977 WHETHER THE STATISTICS WERE "MASSAGED" TO ENCOURAGE THE £10 IMMIGRATION BY THE LINER CANBERRA TO SETTLE AT THE LESSER ATTACKS LOCATIONS IS DEFINITELY A POSSIBILITY.

This was in 1977 when compiled, however since then other colder or distinct areas do have recorded Shark attacks plus other parts of the world & climate differences & temperatures plus sublittoral zones and marine wildlife foodchains have changed worldwide.

Professional Divers of USA South African Australian European origins had loads of shark types around us in Persian Gulf working whilst sharks increased in numbers as rigs & Jack ups were installed with human discharges & remained on locations, & became reefs to Wildlife we even had easily identifiable Durban Brown sharks turning up, whether they followed tankers slow steaming to P.G. to pick up Crude Oil Cargo.

I compared notes with the old Beedes?, S. African, Maclean & then 'Ozzies', inc. Evans's & Clark's Findings on sharks.

We were finding far more relating to their original observations & aspects, though they had not covered or introduced Ron & Valerie Taylor’s findings & their views seem far closer to actual shark behaviour than scientific input which state Sharks react to electrical impulse emissions from fish in shoals, (Ideal to avoid disproval unless by some machine ?.

This naturally does not seem to correspond to there being similar electrical emissions from humans whether bathers or divers cause it ?, basically the reason behind attracting Sharks is far plainer & more simple.

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Finding firstly:-

A, no shark attacks had been recorded to have occurred in below 72 degrees fahrenheit Worldwide.

B, Many attack Locations were near estuary to sea areas & most common at certain early day times were recorded, consistent with up river towns & populace rising, toilet usage & river discharge to sea prior then to Filtration plants.

***THIS IS the effect of a Seaside Resort which has early morning rising, toilets flushing, food, cleaning fish, preparation & discharges into the sea. Later the laundering & associated Toxin from cleaners etc is discharged & this has another poor effect on Wildlife like the present day scarcity of Black Sea Urchins, rarity of Carnivorous Starfish plus the level of poor life on coral, salinity seems up and Oxygen content down. Divers notice the raised salinity causes them to add weights.

C, Attacks on swimmers or surfers were away from estuarial zones, surf boards & such & for these, no common time span per day in particular is recorded or notes covering whether uric acid or urine discharge was being made around the time of attack.

N.B. When a Swimmer in shallows urinates, he or she seldom walks when doing so, attack locations on such are around the hip area from where the urine is sourced.

When a Surfer is on a board, they seldom ’have a wee when surfing & when laying on a board the attacks recorded are mainly lower down the board and surfer’s legs.

When a Snorkeller is attacked the attacked points differ, when swimming on Surface Diver wearing a suit is prone usually pauses for a wee rather than dives & the attack point can vary.

A Snorkeller without a suit however often becomes vertical in the water, getting breath back or ‘having a wee !!’ & the warm urine naturally rises in the water, often stirred by arms actions & in cases like this, often ARMS & SHOULDERS have the scent’ & are the very often recorded attack points.

A Swimmer of either sex has the same types of attack locations.

D, Key seemed to be from fish, FISH do not use a male or female organ for producing or emitting URINE they emit pure uric acid from beneath scales & more heavily when they are wounded or struggling.

**** Commonly believed from Shark Fishing Rod vessels is that blood in water mainly is what attracts sharks, yes, it does and is associated with it, but actual content level it is likely to be with, though dilutedly is naturally FAR LOWER than purer URINE discharges.

In Australia e.g. at ports & towns near the sea in the past, there were no Filtration plants for Urine/Sewage hence when towns ‘woke’ in the morning & rose to prepare for the day, toilets were used & the river took all discharged to the sea, those standing wd be hit around waist height & those treading water swimming or snorkelling wd see the effect of warm urine rising & the attack points higher around waist to chest or arms being waved.

Dubai, Ajman, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Bahrein, Ras al Kaimah? etc. had much the same levels originally, however had no sharks that near CREEKS estuaries, neither did they have a comparable number of swimmers & surfers whilst mechanical engineering affected discharges & vessel traffic plus oily discharges into & out of Creeks was also far heavier & different, shallower inshore areas with heavier natural & shoals of fish related food may cover this & where fishing is light & in more primitive forms. ?.

ABATTOIRS & such plants opened on the Australian Coast recorded as more prone to attack were washed down & again, with a slight change, all flowed out to the sea, visibility lowered, temperature rose a little & when mid morning Bathers took to the beach.

Many shallow water Australian & South Afrikaan attacks recorded, SURVIVORS showed leg or hip located attacks, virtually ALL ATTACKS WERE TO STANDING BATHERS, swimming bathers had the uric acid flowing diluted along their legs, away from upper body parts etc, moving forward & recorded damage area was lower on legs.

(Naturally a shark cd not easily bite feet in such situations as easily as where source was located circa hip height, however it was a while after such records when someone by chance noted it was shortly after the attack victim had urinated in the water with urine flowing, strongest where it came from edges & sides of bathing suits.

When in surf, similar for surfers. A common factor then emerged to humans, >>> we do not run or move around rapidly WHEN URINATING, Human animal instinct. so surfers & swimmers were attacked similarly without definite time or visibility link & a feeding Shark heading for strongest urine source of emitting victim, ‘shark with the eyes nictitating membrane in place end of hunt lets it concentrate on what the nostril guiding flaps assist to that single strongest most definite source.

Offshore Dubai at storage tanker BARAKA anchored beam on to tide flow we once had a feeding frenzy whilst a Diver (Geordie George Gill ex Brit. Navy) was down on a surface controlled Operation, using a hose /KMB9 Mask with Dark Green Welding facia, so he was not aware of what he was dragged to the surface through.

Diver was down welding & we had to haul him out THROUGH THE FRENZY, untouched or harmed, the fish & sharks were feeding on each others, virtually all sea beasts, a bit of a surprise to all, & near where the accomodation & toilets discharge was located & where cooks threw refuse in a large black bag.

ALWAYS if a diver jumped in there he would IMMEDIATELY have a known old resident Tiger shark (named by divers who ‘knew it’ as Kadish, >see Rameses 2 Battles !) inspecting if he could eat the Diver or whatever splashed into the water there, LUCKILY THOUGH THE ‘TIGER’ OWNING THE AREA was always in the tide flow downtide of the accomodation & Galley,

HOWEVER Kadish WAS ALWAYS KEPT FULL OF FOOD. Plus we Divers Wearing only Diving overalls not Dive suits knew NOT TO ‘PISS’ IN THE WATER WHEN DIVING! or particularly when on the warmer OIL PRODUCTION hoses to tanker from seabed 165ft MSW to over 250ft whilst decompressing!!.(this was normally dived on Heliox or Trimix. Along as deeper fields around there

What seldom seems pointed out to Scuba Gas users is that when a Trimix or Heliox mix is made, checked & tested in Normal USDivers or similar Air Diving Cylinders, the valve DOES LET THE PERCENTAGE MIXTURE CHANGE ** HELIUM is such a thin gas it leaks through air valves & in time lowers the Helium level as it raises the O2 proportionally..

Do not store Mixed gas in cylinders long, also recheck before using. (Most users know anyway)

‘Jacks’ averaging 25 or more Kilo each we would shoot these when INSIDE JACKET LEGS since sharks do not naturally enter Oilfield Jackets which have possible obstructions to their path or way out/exit, these too wd be very well fed from Gulf fish shoals they hunted.

When a Diver recovery Zodiac (rubber boat) is tied to a Jacket or rig leg it drifts outside inner confines of a Jacket, Sharks wd always try to grab a struggling fish outside the structure so rules were observed & fast Shark passes at the catch wd be certain from the blacktips, never either type of Hammerheads.

Occasionally we would see a 'Jacket entering Shark' when Jacks were being ‘ hunted’, only a hungry one though with arched body & fins down only when we were shooting Jacks, the Oilfield canteens & shoreside loved them & gave us free Beer for this sly work .

SELDOM wd we find one of the indigenous or ‘local’ ‘resident’ sharks behave like this, only a Hungry Shark acted like this & usually we regarded it as a travelling shark from elsewhere & we needed to be wary of such.

Flare stacks however due to HIGHER warmth of their gasses along the bottom and up the jacket leg even before the flare flame WARMED THEIR IMMEDIATELY SURROUNDING WATER & DIVING ZONE on those was FAR MORE imposing & unpredictable where larger Sharks & others were not within range of local fishermen & also had far more unhunted fish to go for and such territories seemed to be prime & inhabited by regular Bigger wildlife..

The Dubai & Sharjah Creeks would seem initially to be like Australian & South African estuarial zones, NOT SO, religiously, swimmers were far scarcer & Pollution from Engineering & martime repair plus construction premises was of a far more unpleasant level & in spite of the Halal Abattoirs content.

Sharks were also too vulnerable in Shallows unlike S Africa & OZ to constant Dhow & Supply boats traffic etc & Sharks seemed to keep further offshore around a fish plentiful area.

Further 'down Persian Gulf' to Ras al Kaimah both types of Hammerheads were plentiful,there along with Sawfish, plus outside Straits of Hormuz in Indian Ocean where vessels up to ULCC sizes anchored. Assorted Sharks behaviour primarily seemed to be to get warmth,& stay out of direct sunlight near the Anchored ship’s flat bottom steady laminar (Hull surface flow speed) wd be normal plus close proximity to the Cook’s black rubbish bag of food hittting the water nearby.

Sharks wd be very common close to anchored VLCC/ULCC tankers flat bottoms & this also stopped those stick on 'Remora' fish attaching themselves to the Sharks.

A large & lovely Whaleshark was always around us, having a scratch on Oilfield Jackets in a field 35 miles or so off Dubai, close to 20 metres max long, a lousy pic. during a job on a ship.

When I started Maritime Offshore work well out in Indian Ocean we were very exposed so far offshore & those big ships have Toilets too for attracting large fish!, I was photographing a propellor on a tanker drifting in Indian Ocean & a huge Marlin, (Sailfish). came out of deep blue depths to about a metre away, turned on its side for about half a minute & then sped down into the Blue again, absolutely beautiful beast, I was too surprised to take pic.

We had most Sharks, Manta Rays & others, Turtles many types of Morays plus Sea Snakes & worst hazard we had yearly was Jellyfish, concentrates & sting effects & swellings lasted several months & the number in work zones were serious enough to perhaps even disable if sufficient protective cover was not worn etc.

NO NEED AT ALL TO REPLY, I am busy as well as u & need to get back to work here.

Lynn Isaac.