[masraum]

Originally Posted by ramonesfreak

I was tarpon fishing in key west for my 40th bday May 2012. we had a guide in a 32ft center console, maybe a little bigger. I was on the bow fighting a tarpon for about 30 minutes. we saw it and the guide said wow, thats in the 180lb range, and probably longer than I am.

I got the tarpon close to the boat and the guide was about to get on his knees to try to land it hand in mouth, as you must and then it took off again quickly. As it did that, I looked down and saw a VERY large shark pass under the boat. looked like a submarine. immediately hairs on my body stood up. The shark took this tarpon in one bite and the line went limp. Only thing it left was a few shiny tarpon scales sparkling in the sun. At first I thought it was a hammer head but looking back it was clearly a very large bull shark. There was no chasing or thrashing about, not even a splash. even the seasoned guide was a little stunned, and he is out there every day. as i looked around at the parasailors and jetskiiers and paddle boarders all around us....I thought geez no way. these people are nuts and I am never swimming in the ocean again.

The shark ate that huge tarpon like you and I would eat a McDonalds french fry

Grew up watching Cousteau on TV. Still watch on youtube. I too love sharks and all things ocean - my mom even gave birth to me in March so I would be a pisces :-)

I grew up swimming at the beach in the Clearwater/Largo (Near Tampa/St Pete). I heard from my mom that they used to catch sharks off of the piers at those beaches. I never saw any sharks. When at the beach, I pretty much always stayed in water that I could easily touch bottom with my head out of the water, which meant <5' deep. I just didn't see any need to get farther out than that. I may have ventured out to a sand bar with a deeper trough a few times, but only if the sand bar was fairly close to shore. I just never felt the need to "have fun" in deep water that I couldn't see clearly through.

Most shark attacks occur in shallow water - because that's where the people are. I suspect there are more sharks in deeper water than shallow beach water. I'm sure if a bunch of folks were out swimming around in deeper water, shark attacks might be even more common. I'm not super likely to end up swimming around in water that's an inky blackness. I don't have any sort of phobia about going in the ocean or getting eaten. But I don't want to become a statistic either.