# Which oceans don't have sharks thx



## afraidofsharks (Jan 17, 2018)

I actually had a similar landlubber based question but for bears and backpacking. Let me rewind a bit...

Hey all! I am a 32 year old male, life is going at light speed, and I work in tech around the SF bay area. I've had the dream of building a wooden boat most of my life, and sailing to far-off places. Currently, the desire to do coastal/south american/Hawaii and beyond voyages is my target.

I currently have a 1978 o'Day 23-2 that I picked up for cheap and spent way too much money and time fixing up. It's almost ready to go back in the bay again, and may sail it to Tomales/Bodega.

My experience: I sailed a few times as a kid at a summer camps. I've read many books on voyaging and a few on seamanship. Have gone out solo probably around 15 times including overnight anchoring and desperately want to go more. I also watch *all* the sailing youtube channels in the little free time that I have outside of work, real estate, fixing the boat, and music.

I plan on taking my first leave of absense/voyage in 1 to 1.5 years. I haven't managed to convince a girl (well beyond some hippie ones) to come with me yet. But I'm working on that too.
Fair winds


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## krisscross (Feb 22, 2013)

All oceans have sharks. They are in the Mediterranean sea as well. If you are really afraid of them, get one of those electric field shark repellentshttps://sharkshield.com/news/do-shark-repellents-work/


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## cb32863 (Oct 5, 2009)

Or go lake sailing..... Why the concern? They are not going to attack your boat like some other "sailors" said at the time of their "rescue"......


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## CrispyCringle (Jul 30, 2017)

afraidofsharks said:


> My experience: I sailed a few times as a kid at a summer camps. I've read many books on voyaging and a few on seamanship. Have gone out solo probably around 15 times including overnight anchoring and desperately want to go more.* I also watch *all* the sailing youtube channels* in the little free time that I have outside of work, real estate, fixing the boat, and music.


Then you must have seen "SV Delos" vids. They seem to dive around or near sharks all the time. Im not a diver, so I looked it up. Seems sharks arent as aggressive as we are led to believe on tv. Just dont make yourself look like a splashing target (wounded fish/animal) and dont approach or threaten a shark and (apparently) they leave you alone.

Id be interested to hear from some actual divers.


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## MarkofSeaLife (Nov 7, 2010)

afraidofsharks said:


> I actually had a similar landlubber based question but for bears and backpacking. Let me rewind a bit...
> 
> Hey all! I am a 32 year old male, life is going at light speed, and I work in tech around the SF bay area. I've had the dream of building a wooden boat most of my life, and sailing to far-off places. Currently, the desire to do coastal/south american/Hawaii and beyond voyages is my target.
> 
> ...


None.

No oceans are without sharks.

If you are such a gutless coward then sailing isn't for you. Nor women.

Go home and snuffle mums breast.


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## RegisteredUser (Aug 16, 2010)

Younger generations are on the scene now...getting an interest in sailing....
Shark apps are here...really


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## MikeOReilly (Apr 12, 2010)

MarkofSeaLife said:


> None.
> 
> No oceans are without sharks.
> 
> ...


Hmmm, I think someone's running low on his anti _old-crank_ pills. Someone, send Mark another bottle of rum!


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## afraidofsharks (Jan 17, 2018)

MikeOReilly said:


> Hmmm, I think someone's running low on his anti _old-crank_ pills. Someone, send Mark another bottle of rum!


I'm pretty surprised that anyone took the shark comment seriously! My style of humor isn't the most obvious I suppose.
But anyway, I have had my boat surrounded by sharks after I ran aground my first time solo sailing. I was a gutless coward and decided not to swim to shore in that incident (not that that would have helped me).


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## RegisteredUser (Aug 16, 2010)

NP

When you have a real question, just post it.


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## afraidofsharks (Jan 17, 2018)

RegisteredUser said:


> NP
> 
> When you have a real question, just post it.


I do. It's a long one about whether I should buy a boat and when, how that affects my business and job, and my cruising plans. It might be a little too financial heavy though...I assume that should go in the cruising section.

Thank you everyone for the replies.

Joking aside, I am actually afraid of sharks. My friend wants to do a swim to alcatraz for example. I'm not quite so sure...


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## colemj (Jul 10, 2003)

afraidofsharks said:


> My friend wants to do a swim to alcatraz for example. I'm not quite so sure...


The movies show that it is the swim from Alcatraz that will get you.

I say go for it. Seems like an enjoyable afternoon to me. I mean, when was the last time a great white was seen in SFB? Must be several days now...

Just swim with a sea lion for safety - attached is a picture my wife took last time we were in SFB of one eating a shark.

Mark


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## krisscross (Feb 22, 2013)

Sometimes you eat shark, and sometimes shark eats you. Seems fair.


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## krisscross (Feb 22, 2013)

MikeOReilly said:


> Hmmm, I think someone's running low on his anti _old-crank_ pills. Someone, send Mark another bottle of rum!


I think what Mark really needs is some fresh breast milk... or at least some fresh breast...


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## denverd0n (Jun 20, 2008)

afraidofsharks said:


> My friend wants to do a swim to alcatraz for example. I'm not quite so sure...


Swimming to Alcatraz seems to me like a pretty dumb idea for a whole lot of reasons that don't have anything at all to do with sharks!

Oh yeah... And, Mark, if you're anywhere near Tampa let me buy you a beer (or a whole bunch of 'em!). Sounds like you need to chill out!


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## CelticSailr (Oct 6, 2017)

denverd0n said:


> Swimming to Alcatraz seems to me like a pretty dumb idea for a whole lot of reasons that don't have anything at all to do with sharks!
> 
> Oh yeah... And, Mark, if you're anywhere near Tampa let me buy you a beer (or a whole bunch of 'em!). Sounds like you need to chill out!


There is a very popular triathlon that starts on The Rock, It's called the escape from Alcatraz Triathlon and starts with a 1.5 Mile swim to the San Fran shoreline.
It's all about the currents.


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## danvon (Dec 10, 2012)

when was the last time a great white was seen in SFB? Must be several days now...

Just swim with a sea lion for safety - attached is a picture my wife took last time we were in SFB of one eating a shark.

Mark[/QUOTE]

Actually it is the sea lions that have been chomping on people.

Sea lion bites female swimmer in San Francisco Bay, the latest in a spate of attacks | Fox News

I guess we are not protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.


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## jlcnuke (Jan 11, 2018)

CrispyCringle said:


> Then you must have seen "SV Delos" vids. They seem to dive around or near sharks all the time. Im not a diver, so I looked it up. Seems sharks arent as aggressive as we are led to believe on tv. Just dont make yourself look like a splashing target (wounded fish/animal) and dont approach or threaten a shark and (apparently) they leave you alone.
> 
> *Id be interested to hear from some actual divers.*


Actual diver here - sharks in general don't care about you at all. Some may get curious about "new" things in the water but even those are unlikely to harm you. In very rare cases, a shark that happens to be hungry AND that happens to eat things that a person can "kind of" resemble may attack (though generally even that is a "bite and run" once they realize you aren't a seal etc).

I was diving "with sharks" for most of the 18 dives I did over Christmas in the Bahamas. None of them came near me *except* for the sharks that were fed on our shark feed dive. Those, while very close to me and eating, also left all the divers alone (before, during, and after feeding them).


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## jlcnuke (Jan 11, 2018)

Here's one of the sharks I filmed on that trip (notice that it completely ignored even the divers right below it). 

well, I don't have enough posts to link the video, but here's the youtube video "number" jYcy4QTvpwQ

I have another one on my channel of the end of the shark feed where you can see how close the sharks are and how much they don't care about the people there.


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## colemj (Jul 10, 2003)

jlcnuke said:


> you can see how close the sharks are and how much they don't care about the people there.


Until they do. 2-3 people are bitten around these stupid shark feeding stunts in the Bahamas every year. They are silly and should be banned. They also put in danger swimmers in adjacent waters because it teaches the sharks to equate swimmers with food.

https://www.today.com/news/mom-recounts-losing-arm-bahamas-shark-attack-i-am-not-t112644
Another female bitten by a shark while snorkeling near Rose Island?. | Bahamaspress.com
Homer Township teen recovering after Bahamas shark attack - Daily Southtown

BTW, I dive and spearfish and am with sharks in the wild almost daily, so I have much experience with them.

Mark


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## rpludwig (Mar 13, 2017)

my ex, (who wasn't the brightest bulb in the chandelier), asked the divemaster prior to going over the side in St. John, "there aren't any sharks down there, are there?" The divemaster astutely responded: "well madam, this is where they live!"

~250 dives logged, never a problem with them, and have seen plenty...fwiw.


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## jlcnuke (Jan 11, 2018)

colemj said:


> Until they do. 2-3 people are bitten around these stupid shark feeding stunts in the Bahamas every year. They are silly and should be banned. They also put in danger swimmers in adjacent waters because it teaches the sharks to equate swimmers with food.
> 
> Mark


There are different types of shark feeds. The more responsible ones never involve people directly feeding the sharks, merely being present while they are fed away from the people. The ones that "hand feed" (directly, with a stick, etc) are the ones that teach sharks that people are food. The more responsible ones associate an "area" with food, while the people spectate from (generally) a safe distance. The hand feeding methods I consider dangerous and irresponsible. The more other is less definitive on whether it's helpful or harmful. It's harmful as people "could" still get injured (though I'm not aware of any such injuries to responsible divers engaged in such behavior or as a result of it) but also because it involves altering the animal's normal environment which could have adverse effects. Helpful, however, in that it helps to promote shark conservation and understanding, plus it helps to keep some people engaged in diving which correlates with an increase in the overall number of people with a strong desire to help/protect the environment they dive in.


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## svHyLyte (Nov 13, 2008)

Humm... One cannot be in/on the sea and avoid sharks. So, the best defense is a good offense and the best offense is a shark of one's own protecting her/(his?) ship as it were. So, we sail with our pet shark, "Toothy", close aboard. She/(he?) is a black tip, about 8 feet, quick as a whip, and fearful of nothing save dolphins which have no use for sharks at all, and particularly Black Tips. When dolphins arrive, Toothy abandons ship!


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## zeehag (Nov 16, 2008)

some species of shark are quite delicious.
beware of land sharks
great white is not a delicious species of shark.


ps. been sailing since 1955 without any shark attacks.


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## travlin-easy (Dec 24, 2010)

I was a diver for many years in the US Navy and the only time I was worried about sharks were when I had to dive in zero visibility water. 

As the for the taste, the best are spiny dogfish, which only grow to about 50 pounds, followed by mako, dusky, sand tiger, and sandbar. Most of the other species are not fit to eat, which is why they are not being commercially exploited. spiny dogfish were, and possibly still are, used in fast food fish sandwiches. Why? Because there are no bones to contend with, thus no law suits for bones lodged in someone's throat.

Most sharks usually let go of their prey when they realize it's not a fish. Kinda a bite and release deal. A few, however, especially the most aggressive, such as bull sharks, go berserk when attacking any prey. Bull sharks will swim up to 600 miles into fresh water in order to find food. Some have even been found in freshwater lakes that had river outlets. 

Gary


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## dwedeking (Jan 28, 2007)

I always take one or two "sacrificial" slow swimmers with me when I dive...

I did some research online when I first moved to Hawai'i and found a document that showed shark attacks in the state for the last 100 years. My take away, don't dive Oahu (more population = more attacks) and most were attacks of people swimming on the surface vs diving. 

And like Travelin-Easy said, stay away from murky water.


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## MikeOReilly (Apr 12, 2010)

colemj said:


> Until they do. 2-3 people are bitten around these stupid shark feeding stunts in the Bahamas every year. They are silly and should be banned. They also put in danger swimmers in adjacent waters because it teaches the sharks to equate swimmers with food.
> 
> https://www.today.com/news/mom-recounts-losing-arm-bahamas-shark-attack-i-am-not-t112644
> Another female bitten by a shark while snorkeling near Rose Island?. | Bahamaspress.com
> ...


Wow &#8230; I had no idea these "shark feed" things even existed. Sounds about as smart as feeding a wild bears just so people can see them. It's not about conservation. It's about spectacle and money.

Wildlife should almost never be fed, and that includes all the cute, cuddly critters as well as the ones with big teeth. It is usually the kiss of death for any wild animal to become habituated to human proximity.


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## Chas H (Sep 6, 2013)

The only way I would sail a 23 footer from SF to Bodega would be on a trailer. I don't like sharks either.


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## hellosailor (Apr 11, 2006)

Aren't the polar seas fairly shark-free? 
Safer in the Antarctic, with no polar bears either, for that matter.

"I haven't managed to convince a girl (well beyond some hippie ones) to come with me yet."
Well, yeah. "Girl" implies somewhat younger and less serious, and women usually aren't going to gamble a month or more on being isolated with some guy. They may also be making more serious life plans, for home, career, and family. So...what you think is "hippies" may just be those women who aren't making serious conventional life choices.

I don't think "sharks" matters so much to them.


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## krisscross (Feb 22, 2013)

hellosailor said:


> Aren't the polar seas fairly shark-free?
> Safer in the Antarctic, with no polar bears either, for that matter.


Yeah, but who wants to go swimming there? :|


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## johnny buddha (Jan 12, 2016)

If you want to be safe from shark attack, dress as a lawyer -- sharks won't eat them out of professional courtesy.


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## svHyLyte (Nov 13, 2008)

krisscross said:


> Yeah, but who wants to go swimming there? :|


Jeeze--Absent swimmers of course there's no sharks. Nothing to eat! Sharks aren't dumb ya know. It's not like they haven't learned anything in the last million years or so, eh?


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## capecodda (Oct 6, 2009)

Some of my friends fish for sharks. They go out maybe 30-40 miles, they anchor, and they throw bloody fish guts off the back of the boat for a couple of hours, then a shark shows up. Yep, shark infested waters if you have a few hours for chumming. 

In Chatham, off the cape, we get a lot of great whites. Of course, there are perhaps 10,000 seals out there, and they like seals you know. One guy got bit there after swimming amongst the seals. Yup, shark infested waters, if there's enough attractive natural bait.

Seems like a little common sense and you can take your .0000001% chance of getting bit to an even lower number .


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## travlin-easy (Dec 24, 2010)

hellosailor said:


> Aren't the polar seas fairly shark-free?
> Safer in the Antarctic, with no polar bears either, for that matter.


Actually, the polar regions hold numerous sharks, some of the world's largest. The Greenland Shark resides deep beneath the ice cap of the northern Atlantic, and is among the rarest sharks on the planet. The meat is toxic to humans, but after processing, the locals feed it to their sled dogs.

The southern ice cap, home to most of the world's penguins during their brief summer, holds huge numbers of sharks that forage on the penguins as they travel to sea in search of food for their newly hatched youngsters that reside upon the ice cap until they are old enough to forage for themselves. While leopard sharks are the top of the line predators in the Antarctic, there are visits by great whites there during the warmer months. Neither species resides there full time, though. During the dead of winter, there are no sharks in Antarctica.

Gary


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## Capt Len (Oct 9, 2011)

More frequent reports of great whites on the BC coast as oceans warm but still they haven't eaten many swimmers .Salmon sharks and blues are more common but they seem to prefer fish. The spiny dogfish is hugely numerous and hard to keep off a hook while fishing. Good to eat if you skin right away to lessen the urea (no kidney) Mercury content can be above Canadian standards so it's marketed in Germany as BC ground salmon . A major source of income for First Nations was supplying oil to lubricate the loggers skid roads Before artificial vitamins there was a market for their livers As a kid I gutted thousands and harrowed the carcasses into rows of corn I still decant off fine oil from a close shark cousin ,the rat fish. .


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## sailforlife (Sep 14, 2016)

I heard Florida has no sharks you can come here and do some swimming. Our lakes and rivers are even better than the ocean in terms of safety from animal attacks. Good luck with the new boat search partner.


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## MikeOReilly (Apr 12, 2010)

Lake Superior has no sharks. This is inland sea is a “lake” in name only. It will generate seas and winds just like the oceans. You can cruise for many lifetimes and never worry about sharks.

… big ugly sturgeon though. And monster pike have been known to chomp down on swimmers toes, and other dangly bits


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## travlin-easy (Dec 24, 2010)

sailforlife said:


> I heard Florida has no sharks you can come here and do some swimming. Our lakes and rivers are even better than the ocean in terms of safety from animal attacks. Good luck with the new boat search partner.


:laugher


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## Saltwater Taffy (Aug 31, 2016)

Reminds me of when I convinced an Australian mom and her daughter to go on an octopus hunt with me on the island of Milos in the Aegean. 'course octopus hunting is most successful at night.

The Aussies were a little hesitant to jump into the pitch black water, not surprising seeing as everything in Australia can kill you - especially once the sun goes down.

Anyway we took the plunge and had an incredible snorkel through the tunnels at Kleftiko Bay - watched bioluminescent sparks swirl from our fingertips - but no octopus. 

Fortunately no sharks either. You see, I was mistaken in my belief that the Mediterranean was free of sharks. They are few and far between but still present.

Here's a quote that might give you pause: 'In recent years, sharks have been found or caught around Milos, Symi, and Crete.'

Well, we survived.

I never told the Aussies that I was wrong about the sharks....


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## Capt Len (Oct 9, 2011)

Remember reading about the waters around Malta were once a major nursing area for Great White but they got fished to local wipe out.


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## Capt Len (Oct 9, 2011)

ON the island of Koh Phangan Sue and I were swimming from reef to reef. In about 20 ' of water noticed about 6 large bull sharks below us. Sue suggested we leave quietly. WE did . Some time later a German tourist bleed to death before he could get to shore, same beach. Bite and release or just eat it are much the same from the swimmers view . Now jellyfish,, there's something to be concerned about.


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## Saltwater Taffy (Aug 31, 2016)

Here's one of four bulls I was diving with in Cuba.

This was at about 80'.

We were only about 20 yards from a concrete breakwater from which kids were jumping and swimming.


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## travlin-easy (Dec 24, 2010)

While most jellyfish do produce painful stings, very few are fatal. Usually, just wiping the sting area with vinegar will quickly alleviate the pain, but the box jellyfish sting is supposedly fatal within a very short period of time. Fortunately, they are mostly found around the Great Barrier Reef. I was in Oz back in the early 1960s and was amazed at the number of things there that could quickly bring about your life's end. 

Gary


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## RegisteredUser (Aug 16, 2010)

Well, when you play with fire...be careful...


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## Capt Len (Oct 9, 2011)

The climate changing has brought the box jelly north and now is on the coast of Thailand. Nasty stuff ,even fatal by drowning in pain/shock but even an encounter with the Portuguese man o' war can be attention getting. (get ashore and piss on it) Maybe not as much as a shark nibble but worthy of attention.


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