My Adventures

I have been nicknamed “Shark Bait” since August 2006 when I had way too close of an encounter with a Bull Shark.

I was on one of my weekend dive trips to Morehead City, NC  for what was supposed to be a great weekend of diving, but that was about to change.  The first day out was great, dove two shipwrecks and the visibility was decent.  Tons of Sand Tigers were all around the wrecks but that was nothing unusual out here.  On the second day the water was getting churned up from an approaching storm and the visibility sucked, probably only about 20 feet.  We were anchored about 20 miles offshore on the W.E.Hutton wreck.  My dive buddy had the brilliant idea of trying out his new spear gun and doing a little fishing while we were down.  We were at about 60 feet when he shot a nice size Spade-fish.  It was an excellent shot and he had his first fish using the new gun.  Here is where the fun begins.  Instead of taking the fish up to the line, He kept down and with visibility that low, not a good decision.   When visibility is the usual 80-100 feet its great because you can see everything around for 100 feet in all directions, this day we were limited to 20 feet.  Next thing i notice a few seconds later was the spear gun floting in the water and my buddy swimming away from it.  I grabbed the gun and swam over to him and tried to hand it to him.  He started freaking out, shoved the gun away and frantically pointed below us. All of a sudden out of freaking nowhere comes a huge Bull Shark (it was easily 9-10′ long).  Probably drawn by the smell of fish blood in the water, he was looking for an easy meal.  Now my dive buddy was dragging this dead fish on the spear line ad I was about 3 feet above where the fish was dangling.  Normally I really have no fear from sharks as its a level of mutual understanding and respect for their nature.  This shark however was definitely looking for that damn fish or anything else there it thought was the fish.  He first swam close to the fish then came up towards me.  I used my fin and kicked him in the nose and he swam off for a few moments, but then came back for another round.  Again, I shoved his nose with my fin and he swam away again. At this time I grabbed my dive knife off my leg and cut my buddy’s spear line and let the spear and fish fall, again he comes the shark, but this time he swam below us and grabbed the fish, then disappeared into the blue yonder.  I rather too quickly ascended and I proceeded to clean the crap out of my wet-suit :-)   Ever since that day I have been nicknamed Shark Bait.