Bull Sharks of Santa Lucia
Posted By Greg Kerr on 27 December 1998
Carcharhinus leucas. Better known as the Bull shark. Three to four meters in length with a body mass of up to three hundred kilograms. Some authorities consider this the most dangerous of all sharks, even more so than their notorious cousins the Great White and the Tiger. Of all the sharks in the seas the Bull is the most versatile. With a world wide distribution in temperate waters they are the only shark that can live comfortably in both salt and fresh water. These sharks have attacked people in the Amazon 4000 kilometers from the mouth of the river. Other attacks on humans have been documented in the Mississippi, Mekong, Ganges and Zambezi rivers as well as Lake Nicaragua. Numerous attacks have occurred in Australian rivers where the Bull shark is known locally as the Fresh Water Whaler. It is now believed that many of the coastal attacks in that country that have been attributed to Great Whites, particularly around Sidney harbor, are actually the work of Bull sharks. Generally a shallow water shark and quite comfortable in murky water, some of these attacks have occurred in less than a meter of water. It is speculated that it may have been a four meter long bull shark that killed diver William Covert in the Florida Keys in 1995. Further speculation has also suggested that perhaps he may have already drowned and the shark was just scavenging as Bull sharks are known to do with human corpses when they are floated down the Ganges River. Although it is not to say it hasn't or couldn't happen, upon returning home from my encounter with Bull sharks I was not able to find a single proven documentation of this type of shark ever having attacked a scuba diver.
"Hey amigo, you look like you have seen a ghost". The words belong to one Ehidrich Perez Acosta, better known by his nickname "Macow". My girlfriend Stacey and I are on a two week Cuban dive vacation and the highly personable Macow is one of our dive masters. We are both experienced divers trying not to show our apprehension. Neither of us have attempted anything like the dive that we are about to do. We will soon be diving on a shark feeding. These organized shark feeds are now common in the Caribbean. The participants are usually small reef sharks but nowhere else in the world am I aware of another shark dive with these monster bull sharks. This will be a baptism by fire. In all the diving at various locations in the Caribbean I have never even previously seen a shark.
"Hey Macow", I reply," are you absolutely sure this is safe."
"Si amigo. Very safe. No one get hurt. Except for Pedro. Shark bite off his arm last week and now he can no work with us."
This joke brings laughter from Diego and Roberto, the other two dive masters who will be feeding the sharks. They are obviously reveling in our insecurity. Here we are a group of very nervous divers all going on our first shark dive. These crazy Cubans will soon be hand feeding these dangerous sharks without the benefit of any protection, not even a pair of gloves. Yet they seem so calm and self assured. Just another day at work to them.
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