Do strobes make certain types of sea life more aggressive?

Western Caribbean will be my next dive location (Key West/Cayman/Cozumel). Sadly, I have only logged about 100 dives since '96. Never have I taken U/W photos. Do strobes cause behavioral changes in sealife? What types of sea life should I keep my distance from anyhow? Though I have a great respect for the ocean, my concern is that I don't really have a fear of any sea life, as some think I should. Should I have a fear? Please educate me in these areas.

Thanx

Aaron Dean

Yes, strobes cause behavioral changes.

I've seen octopus and cuttlfish go from smooth skinned to bristle bumped display, and sea snakes tend to be very curious (although that's more of a problem here in Japan than you will have in the Caribbean.) Damsels and clownfish tend to strike more (probably because the strobe is large and gets close, compared to a normal diver's face.) All those are relativily harmless.

Grey sharks on the other hand, can get sort of annoyed.

http://lionfish.us/shark-oops

I thought I had a nice head on shot, but when the preflash fired, the shark twitched a lot. The fins down, back arched, twitchiness is not a good thing. We came back alive, but didn't do a second dive at that locataion once we had about 15 5 to 6ft greys circling us.

Dan

Damsel and clownfish are just trying to keep you out of their comfort zone. Sometimes they are protecting eggs, other times they just dont want you

that close. This happens with or without camera. Just my observations.

Terry

So if some sharks are annoyed, when is it ok to use a flash? Which sharks tend to be more aggressive? It has been my little experience that sharks are curious and not aggressive towards humans unless provoked. I have no experience with great whites or tigers, but of course I have had encounters with reef sharks on so on. Besides sharks are there other concerns I should have? Sharks tend to always get a bad wrap. Usually it is a case of mistaken identity. Of the reported shark attacks, I'm curious how many of those are actually divers that are not splashing around like a "seal" at the beach. Anyone else care to comment? Any biologists or experts care to chime in?

Thanx

Aaron Dean

Relax Man!

In my experience, flash is irrelevent to sharks, other than scaring then away even faster. This is about all the effects of strobes period - scaring things away, or into hiding.

Sharks are not a danger in the Carib. Fire coral and other pointy & stingy things are more of a concern.

Your dive guides will be pleased to fill you in on the local hazards.

In my experience, flash is irrelevent to sharks, other than scaring then away even faster.

There are quite a few shots in my sig, that I took with flash, while snorkeling (on the surface like a bobbing seal), of oceanic white tips. Much more aggressive than any reef sharks or greys. I loved it, since it was the first time I could get pictures of a shark that wasn't trying to get away.

Don

I am relaxed, I just needed some confirmation that I should be as relaxed as I am.

Theres too much "sub urban legend".

Didn't intend to sound paranoid. :oops:

Thanx

Aaron

I agree with Derway on shacks. If you're using the micronesian bottle trick, the flash of the strobe will make the shark turn-away - you're not likely to get another shot head-on, but if your strobes recycle fast enough, you might get anothers shot broadside. Anyway, the point being that the strobe fire repels them.

Sharks sense the electrical fields from strobes, and some people (Scubadru for one) maintains that shooters with live strobes are more likely to get bumped by coppers (bronze whalers) in South Africa.

Based purely on anecdotal personal experience, my biggest concern about strobes is with cephalopods. I've seen cuttlefish "act" dazed and sort of out of it after someone (guess who) fired strobes off in their face multiple times. I try not to do that now - plus I've probably got enough close-up sepias. The concern here, of course, is that the animal may be more vulnerable to other predators after being blinded or dazed by the strobes.

I know nothing about the Caribbean, but in general, as long as you don't touch things and don't stick your hand in or on places it shouldn't be, there isn't much out there that is likely to hurt you. You're far more at risk from your own mistakes, or those of people running the boat, filling your tank, servicing your gear, or other divers.

You're going to feel a lot more comfortable after you've got back into diving and have more recent dives. You shouldn't feel obligated to take the camera with you on every dive, either.

Frogfish

I've had my strobes bumped loads of times by grey reefs and silver tips. But that is only when feeding and doing the bottle at the same time, and of course placing myself a foot or two away from the feeder :shock:

If you watch the unedited videos of these feeds (which we did hundreds of) you can hear us laughing like little girls when the sharks bang into us, great fun!

In normal conditions, never had a shark affected by my strobes...but did have a white tip bite the camera out of my hand during the night dive white tip frenzy at Cocos Island, COsta RIca. Still have the scars on my 15mm....

But you have no reason to worry about strobes and sharks, literally thousands of people go into the water with strobes every day and nothing happens to them.

And i agree with Robert and the Cuttlefish, i feel sorry for those little fellas when they get swarmed by camera toting divers...sleeping turtles too.

So, I'm glad everybody else has never had a problem with grey sharks.

My experence was one one dive (out of about 40 that trip) where we were on the ocean side of the lagoon of Kwajelien atoll. It was farther north than most folks go diving, and fishing is common. The sharks are known to hit the gamefish on the way in (so you end up with 1/2 of a 150lb tuna in the boat.) I suspect they followed the boat when it stopped, with hopes of finding a big fish on a line being landed, but instead found 5 divers dropping into the water. Some of the grey sharks were aggressive (as in, groups that would circle a diver and bump you in the back of the head) even before the flash. More of them dropped the fins and arched the back afterwords.

I had a good 10 other dives in more frequented areas with 10+ sharks around, and the sharks acted as described by others (flash and they flee, minor inquisitivness) but this was an off the beaten path site, and the predators were not acting in a post meal fat and happy manner.

Odds are good that you can fire away on a normal trip and have no trouble. It would be very lame to always blast the strobes and not know what to look for and end a dive with a trip to the hospital.

As for dazed animals, just watch the eels on a night dive in Hawaii. They follow the divers and wait for some poor cardinal fish to get caught in the light cannon and "slurp" free meal.

Dan

As for dazed animals,  just watch the eels on a night dive in Hawaii.  They follow the divers and wait for some poor cardinal fish to get caught in the light cannon and "slurp" free meal.

Dan

The other guys that do this (in the IndoPacific) are blue-fin trevallies. I've had a pair of them follow me for an entire night dive, and eventually called the dive. Trevallies are cunning predators who appear to cooperate in complex ways, operating in pairs and sometimes even in packs - the standard with Giant Trevallies. Nobody watching trevallies hunt (with or without a helpful diver to scare up game and stun it with his/her lights) will ever be persuaded that fish aren't smart.

I'm going to respect any shark that goes into a threat display. (It seems hardly fair if they're bumping first and threat-displaying later, though.) I remember once trying the bottle trick in PNG, a grey reef instantly materialized about 10 meters below us and to the right. We were a group of four divers, all within 4-5 meters of each other, swimming across a saddle on a seamount in Kimbe Bay.

I think a lot of us have a picture in our minds of grey reefs just lazily swimming along, slow and easy. But when I kept up with the bottle, the shark suddenly darted towards us, passing right through the through the middle of our group. It happened in an instant, incredibly fast. When he passed through, he was close enough that any of us could have touched him, had we been able to move fast enough. Had the shark actually attacked, none of us would have had time to react or defend in any way. No reason not to respect these guys.

On the other hand, I don't think I've heard of any confirmed incidents where grey reefs actually attacked divers where feeding wasn't involved, but I stand ready to be corrected.

Robert

Robert-What is the"micronesian" bottle trick?

thanx

Aaron

Aaron,

If we told you, we'd have to kill you.

8)

One time in the keys, there was a large barracuda under a coral outcropping that charged out about six feet towards me with his mouth open after I fired my strobe at a subject 90 degrees away from him. I also noticed the bars on his sides darkened noticeably, which is reputedly a sign that barracuda are irked.

When my Strobes don't fire - Man, that irks me!

Not sure if that counts tho.

Just don't wear anything shiney, you could become a human lure

Joe