Ryan, for my part, there's no need to apologize to me. I understand the duress you've been under.
I do think that it merits examining the basic different views of spearos vs photogs.
Photogs go into the sea with nothing to protect themselves except a shiny housing ( which, according to some, actually attracts shark attention). For those who dive in chummed dives, they should know and accept the risks involved. In fact the photog wants the shark to be close as to get better shots. The concern of conditioning doesn't really matter as the shark encounters are encouraged rather than discouraged. Obviously, accidents happen and humans being so fragile, the possibility of severe injury or death in encounters is very prominent. Strangely though, most participants accept that risk and do not dive with powerhead spearguns or shark shields.
Spearos, on the other hand, are in the water to hunt fish, and this activity brings them in contact with sharks. Many of them will fight for a fish kill against any predator. Some hang fish around their waist and thus have a different personal space distance than photogs. Many a spearo truly believe in the Pavlov conditioning and would fight off sharks rather than surrender their catch, believing the sharks will frenzy and be more dangerous, and worse, will be conditioned to hearing the click of a speargun and associate it with mealtime. That, the need to protect the catch and the fact the catch could be on their persons means the tolerance for shark encounters are lower. For a few, even the need to project humans as alpha creatures to sharks makes them want to fend the sharks off aggressively.
The very fact that a photog has no speargun to shoot puts them in a better position to not harm the shark. Armed with a housing as the only defence, the encounters tend to be well within the 2ft range with big sharks. I can only speak for myself in that my heart pounds pretty hard when I'm encircled by C.Brachyurus, Limbatus, Leucas, Obscurus or G Cuvier. My encounters are often in natural feeding conditions so the sharks are pretty riled up. They've charged at me at good speed but break off when I react with my housing. I'm sure anyone who's done the Aliwal Shoal dives know how the C. Limbatus take snaps at fins frequently.
If one goes through forums like spearboard.com, there are quite a few stories of people admitting to using powerheads or spearing sharks in self-defence or to protect their catch. So the phenomena does apparently happen.
The higher tolerance of photogs to close encounters with big sharks does give pause for spearos to think whether their comfort levels are too low. It is up to the individual to decide for themselves but the examples of photogs experiencing very close encounters with big sharks in similar circumstances (chummed water) hopefully will give spearos some food for thought.
Better yet are examples of spearos who champion shark conservation like Andre Hartman. His work with C. Carcharias and the very close encounters he has with them speaks volumes about what can be learnt.
In my observation of tiger sharks feed, they tend to circle and test bite cautiously in the beginning. This was my observation with a dead green turtle carcass in Oz. My own experience in water with big sharks is that they will tend to approach from behind for such test bumps. They also tend to back off once discovered and there is a threatening reaction. I've only gotten up to 5 runs before the boat arrived to haul my butt out of the water. 3 of them were very similar to what was depicted in Ryan's video.
I'm wondering if anyone else can share their experiences with tiger sharks, especially when they are deemed as aggressive.
