Sharks & Kites, Spring Is Here

[ricki]

Glad you are OK and had a nice session Mike. We didn't have any bird activity, bait kicking up the surface or much in the way of jumping, spinning spinners off Delray. If we had I probably would have missed all that great wind and waves. If you have those signs your risk of attack goes way up even if kiting particularly if in poor visibility and/or waves that can mess up shark perception. Confuse things further with charging bait and plunging birds and you get the idea. It is tough but I would try to force myself to sit out such sessions. The odds are during this migration is that there could be a few dozen sharks close by (within a few hundred feet) at any given time. Every time we hit the water, it is likely that there are latent sharks not so far away at all and with easy striking distance. The buggers are FAST.

The problem with shark attacks, the non-fatal variety, is that you don't know what will be bitten or how much? If it is a mouthing of some thick, muscled area it may not be all that bad if things go well in treatment and rehab. What if there are loss appendages, function, nerve damage or worse, severing of a major blood vessel, you could bleed out or suffer some major shock issues. We supposedly aren't menu favorites for many sharks. They taste and spit us out often enough. Still, there is a lot of damage that can happen in one tasting.

Intellectually, sharks are a bit lacking too, what if another or few other sharks note one buggers interest in you? So, one hits you and then another and perhaps another still? This can impede or destroy your ability to get in on your own and others may not be able to react in an acceptable amount of time. That is a lot of rapid damage to sustain.

Sorry for all the doom and gloom, bad stuff doesn't happen all the time. Just often enough to make it worth talking about and thinking over. Enjoy the wind and avoid snacking with sharks!

[HIGHFLYN]

Originally Posted by RickI

The buggers are FAST.

You better believe it!


The one that I saw was defiantly curious, I'm sure if it had been more aggressive. I would have never seen it coming till it was too late.

Though my years of surfing here in South FL. I've seen PLENTY of sharks while out in the line-up from my home break @ Lake Worth to Sebastian Inlet.
The most impressive one that I'll never forget.... It was a beautiful beach day, No surf pretty much oil clam sunny mid day. I was up on Lake Worth Pier flipping a live sardine to the snook cruising among the pilings and a large shadow caught my eye in 8-12ft of water about 100ft North of the pier, This was between the two shelters just to the east side of the sandbar. The fish was heading North in no hurry. I had a closer look and MY GAWD I couldn't believe my eyes. It was every bit of a 15' TIGER SHARK in 8-12ft of water cruising just outside the beach bathers by 50-75 yards TOPS. The Lifeguards never even saw this. I could plainly make out the entire fish, Beautiful actually. Dark gray w/darker gray to black "Tiger stripes" w/it mouth agape. You could see the pilot fish swimming around it's mouth. That's when I saw something else, COBIA all underneath this HUGE shark. I flipped my sardine in it's direction and 3 cobia shot out from under the shark and were in HOT pursuit of my bait. I snatched it away from the to smaller ones and picked up the follower that weighed in @ 32lbs. The shark never broke it's stride North bound, slow and steady. There were a few other cobia caught that had also come off that shark. But I was the only one to actually see the shark (so no one believed it was 15' Tiger)

Until the following weekend (one week later) I was out at the end of the Pier fooling around with the cruising snook again, Not much was happening. So I headed into the surf to see what I could do in there. Next thing I know I see a flurry of activity out at the end, rods bent everywhere. Then some of the anglers start dragging more cobia down to the bait house to have there pictures taken and to tell me as they passed that. They too had seen that very same Tiger shark off the end of the Pier cruising south this time and LOADED w/cobia again.

That was the one and only time I've seen a Tiger shark and I'm great-full for this as that fish was defiantly a MAN eater


I have two friends that have been hit over the years. One was @ Jupiter Inlet south side that got it on the hand (not bad a few stitches) the other was up in Vero and took it on the calf (40+ stitches and some muscle damage) Both still surf but are ALOT more cautious during the spring and fall bait runs

[ricki]

Tigers, interesting stuff. I've seen cobia hang out with large stingrays but didn't know about the shark association. You come from a background of serving platter riding uh surfing. That's different then, your tolerance to the hazard is higher then. Sebastian, aren't there plans to build a shark fast food outlet there, "Surfers To Go" or something? I think they are to specialize in fried "human tenders" with an appetizing selection of shark sauces.

Sorry for the irony but the shark attack experience in this lightly populated area involving a lot of surfers over the years hasn't been too good as shown in:


From: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/

I will dive with sharks, ideally while not in feeding behaviors but wouldn't choose to surf with them. The whole struggling bait imitation thing that you go through when paddling in puts me off. Sharks can be beautiful UW, particularly when they are cruising in that special disinterested way they have. Here's to interesting time on the water without excessively memorable tiburon encounters!

[ricki]

It's not quite spring but the spinners are apparently rounding the Keys heading north. Wonder if they'll be next to the beach this year AND if wind will be served up again? If so, hope nothing goes amiss.

[kites4food]

[ricki]

I first saw that a while back. Now that you mention it, it DOES look like Hamish. The kiter not the tiburon that slid in later on.

[ricki]

The spring migration is one thing, the rest of the year is another at least around here. Do folks see many sharks off the SE coast outside of migrations while kiting?

[Citispider]

This is very interesting stuff in regards to Sharks. I moved to Florida about a year and half ago. I live in Coral Springs and have been kiting in Mathseson all this time.
I have been wanting to go to Delray since its a shorter commute, but this shark business is spooky. Are sharks around here abundant during the Spring?

[Safe_Cracker]

Dude there is so many sharks out there it isn't funny! I saw a report a few years back after the attacks on the east coast about the amount of sharks around and how they swim amongst us, we aren't even aware. I think the report was there to show basically if they wanted to eat us they would, there would be a whole lot more attacks then there is. Funny I saw an aerial video that showed A LOT of sharks swimming amongst bathers, kinda freaky but I have also seen some really scary baracuda lOl. Honestly, I myself would fear a large man o war sticking to my face than a bite from a shark, JMHO... Polo

[ricki]

Originally Posted by Citispider

This is very interesting stuff in regards to Sharks. I moved to Florida about a year and half ago. I live in Coral Springs and have been kiting in Mathseson all this time.
I have been wanting to go to Delray since its a shorter commute, but this shark business is spooky. Are sharks around here abundant during the Spring?

Regarding sharks, there never has been a fatal shark attack on a kiter, ever, to my knowledge. I have heard about six attacks worldwide over the last 8 years, only one of which was considered serious but not life threatening. There have been dozens and dozens of riders lost to hazardous wind and hundreds more injured. Tragically, I heard of another one today. It is best to keep things in perspective and watchout for the greater threat. At the same time, I have always assumed that there are sharks within sensory range anytime I have gone in the water off SE Florida over almost four decades.

The spinner migration is an annual thing, likely has been for millennia. The year this thread was started was unusual with so many so close to the beach for so long. This year I never saw one spinner while kiting instead of dozens or hundreds per hour. Despite that, they usually ignored riders except near sunset or if someone stayed in the water for an extended period of time. I think I've seen sharks at other times of the year while kiting off Palm Beach Cty, but rarely in the areas I ride including Delray. So, bottom line, I wouldn't worry about it at Delray, at least outside of a nearshore mass migration which in itself is somewhat rare. When they were running nearshore I think it went on for less than seven days.