Safely Scuba Dive With Sharks | 5 Rules to Stay Safe!

In my 15 years in the diving industry I've never come across a more polarizing subject as sharks. Some divers can't wait to get in the water with them. Others are scared to their bones of the thought of even encountering one. In this video we are gonna help you understand how a shark behaves and what you can do when you encounter one. Welcome to 50ft Below, where we give you some straight up scuba advice. My name is Arjan. I've been in the water several times with sharks. I was scared in the beginning as well but some great tips where given to me and I really enjoyed those dives. I wish you could do the same. One of the biggest tips I got was: Sharks think you're a weirdo. As a matter of fact most underwater creatures will think you are a weirdo. What is this slow moving blob, which makes a lot of sound and is blowing bubbles doing in my ocean. I can ensure you you're one of the strangest things a shark will ever see in his live. Because of this a shark may get curious because they are curious animals but mostly they are scared of you. This means that if they get a sense of danger they will b-line straight out of your way. This can be something small like: Clapping your hands or yelling through excitement that you see a shark through your regulator. I can assure you that most sharks will be gone by then. Because of this most smaller sharks will keep their distance from you and go about their business. There's no real threat so just enjoy them, look at them and try not scare them away. Bigger sharks don't see you as much of a threat as the smaller one's and tend to be a bit more curious. This means that they are getting closer and this is a great opportunity to get up close and personal with one of the most impressive predators roaming this earth. As long as you are not feeding the sharks and follow a simple set of rules, you will be OK. First rule is very simple: Keep you hands to yourself. If you are underwater and the sun lights your hand it might look, it does look a bit look a wounded fish. Try it next time you are underwater. So very easy, put your hands under your armpits. Tip number two is stay upright underwater. Remember being a weirdo to the sharks. When you stay upright underwater this amps the weirdness for the shark to a million. There is no other animal in the ocean which travels upright. Rule number three: Keep your eyes on the shark. Bigger sharks tend to attack from below and from your back. If you keep your eyes on the shark you will got that off right away. Rule number four: Stay with your diving group. Being singled out from your diving group can make you a target. When you stay with your diving group you will be seen as a whole which is more intimidating for the shark. There is a tiny small chance that a shark is getting too curious and wants to get to know you a little bit more than only his eyes. Since a sharks doesn't have any hands it will likely do this with it's nose or it's teeth. These rare attacks are always proceeded by a clear pattern which is easy to spot and easy to stop. What a sharks will do when it is getting too curious is it will circle round. Make a line straight towards you and divert. The next thing it will do, it will make a smaller circle. Get straight towards you and divert later. Next circle will be smaller, divert a little bit later and so on and so on. The next thing it will not divert and will bump you. This is a way for the shark to feel what you are. If it doesn't get a sense for what you are the next thing it is going to do is take a bite. This is simply tasting, feeling what you are because it can't feel it any other way. It will sense right away that you are not prey and will not eat you whole but sadly they have a big mouth with a lot of teeth and it will hurt like hell and might be fatal. What you want to do when you spot the cycle is stop it early on. This means that when a shark is within two meters of your personal space you want to stop it. Panicking and swimming away isn't the wisest of options because this will make you look like prey. Following these rules are the wisest option. The first thing you can do to break the pattern is: When it comes for you make a lot of sound and bubbles. You can yell through your regulator, you can clap your hands or you can just breath out a lot and this will nine out of ten times scare the shark away. In addition to this you can go to the seabed of that's an option of course. You cut off the attack route and you can easily keep an eye on the shark. If all this fails, which is very very very rare. There is one last thing you can do and it sounds a bit hilarious but it's totally true. The good old punch in the nose. Because when the shark comes in for a bump you can just punch it in the nose and this is the equivalent of kicking the shark in the balls. There is a lot of nerve endings in the nose and it will hurt like hell for the shark. Just remember the next time you encounter a shark to enjoy it. It is very very very rare that a scuba diver gets attacked. With these rules you are a little bit safer. Remember most attacks are on snorkelers, surfers and swimmers which look seals and turtles and most attacks happen in area's where people shouldn't swim because the area is closed because there are sharks in the water. All in all the chance of running into a shark becomes less every year. We are killing them by the millions and they are becoming endangered all over the globe. Next time you encounter one just enjoy it instead of fearing them. If you want to help preserve these awesome animals for future generations and score an awesome t-shirt in the proces, check out our website. It has awesome t-shirts in it and we donate 10% of the proceeds to shark protection.

Channel: 50ft Below

Views: 228,256

Keywords: shark diving, scuba diving with sharks, shark diving tips, scuba diving, scuba diving sharks, safely scuba dive with sharks, shark scuba dive, shark scuba diving, 50ftbelow, scuba diving training, diving, shark behavior, shark tips, shark diving rules, how not to be attacked by sharks, safely dive with sharks, rules to safely dive with sharks, tips that could save life, sharks, top 5, scuba diving for beginners, swim with sharks, shark

Id: EFZaROglgAE

Length: 6min 2sec (362 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 20 2020