Hello Dennis,
Nicely put. But I believe you forgot one little fact. While you are in the
water, you are in the "incredably huge, insatiable shark-type toothy
fish's environment. While down there with them, you are just an oddity.
But intheir eyes, you can change from oddity to main course real easy.
Afford them their respect? Good idea. But you should also throw in
caution, common sence, and good old fashioned parania too. I have to deal
with them on a daily basis. I know from which I speak. But you did say an
awful lot that made sence.
On 05 Apr 97  02:44:30 Dennis Seavey wrote to Todd Jaspers...
 TJ> you, im still trying to get my C-Card but i have been doing a little
 TJ> scuba diving with my uncle and aunt just for practice, and i dont
 TJ> think iu would ever even consider doing a shark dive.
 DS> When I teach the basic open water class I have a little cartoon 
 DS> book that I give out that describes the most dangerous aquatic 
 DS> animals that you are most likely to encounter as a diver.  The 
 DS> first on the list is the barnacle, for a number of reasons.  The 
 DS> second, is the sea urchin, also for a number of reasons, all 
 DS> sharp. The third is listed as "Carcharadon Imaginus" namely, the 
 DS> incredably huge, insatiable shark-type toothy fish that resides 
 DS> in your imagination.  This particular fish is always worse than 
 DS> anything most of us will ever encounter, emphasize the word MOST 
 DS> in overwhelming fashion.  New divers in particular have a 
 DS> heightened case of carcharadon imaginitis which effects your 
 DS> resoning ability more than anything else.  The bottom line, no 
 DS> pun intended, is that sharks are no different than any other 
 DS> large preditor that we share this world with.  They are driven 
 DS> pretty much by the same set of forces that govern any other 
 DS> animal on this planet, ie survival instinct, some form of 
 DS> interpersonal social interaction within their own species, etc.  
 DS> As part of the ecosystem we certainly need to afford these 
 DS> animals the respect that is their do, without getting carried 
 DS> away.  As for my thinking, it is one thing to observe something 
 DS> in its natural habitat, under normal circumstances, with whatever
 DS> reasonable precautions are due the situation, and the calling 
 DS> together of a batch of preditors with food related stimulus so 
 DS> that I can have a floor show of granadose (?) scale.  I have 
 DS> worked with and socialized with a number of fairly well known 
 DS> practitioners of the latter practice who think that I'm being "a 
 DS> wimp" but since it's my own stress level I'm dealing with they 
 DS> can call me what they like to no avail.  This is not a critisism 
 DS> of those folk who wish to participate in these activities per say
 DS> , but we all have our own flavor of diving that turns us on and 
 DS> takes us down 
 DS> Jeesh, enough already.
 DS> 
 DS> Be wet and well.
 DS> 
 DS> Dennis
 DS> -!- Alexi/Mail 2.02b (#10000)
 DS> ! Origin: BrickYard BBS Gonic, NH  603 332-0419 (1:132/243)
Regards,
-=Scott=-
... Every time I have all the answers, someone changes the questions!
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