I have had two " close to home " shark encounters this year
One I was hitting flounder in 50 feet moved down current from the structure to work a few tanks picked off a grouper. Had about 12 fish on the stringer.
Did a free ascent because i knew i was only 20 yards from the boat vs going upcurrent back to the anchor line a couple hundred feet away. hit the thermocline at 15 feet to do my stop finning lightly in the current to hold position. BOOM !! arms length away a 10-12 foot tiger circled and left okay no big deal 45 seconds later comes back for more circles again we are eye to eye comes around the third time I know I may have a problem reach out to give her a little nudge with my speartip and as silently as she appeared she was gone ( at least for the 10 feet of vis i had )
Come to surface now about 100 yards from boat start finning to boat head on swivel, go through the middle of a school of about 100 cuda on the surface hitting them to move out of my way. About 50 yards from the boat a massive school of pogies runs me over with kings and spanish in the middle having breakfast. Back on boat everyone though I was making up stories.
2 weeks later in 95 feet exploring a new dive site on a navy ship on its side. Monster gag holes up no luck, no cobes cruising by start picking at the flounder have about 5 and come around the front side the sand is real soft and it looks like the moon except that all the craters are flounder shaped. Blast one the biggest i have ever seen he starts spinning right next to him in the explosion of sand i see two eyes sticking up he gets a knife though the head. Put them both on stringer look over not one not two but three fat tigers right there looking at me. WTF !! I reload the gun while they watch look down and see ( no i am not lying ) 6 flounder convinced i cannot see them in one spot. Okay I have three jacked up tigers 15 feet away that came in to investigate the commotion. Do I 1. ignore them and stick some more or 2. Call it a day and head back to the line ( keep