Diving is a sport with a huge community of active participants. Most of those participants have been well trained and are well informed about the important truths of the activity. There is a small percentage of, mostly very novice, divers that have somehow gotten the wrong end of the pointer stick and harbor fears or misplaced notions about diving that are false and potentially dangerous. I have compiled a small list of usual misconceptions that I often come across on the boat or in the shop.

Diving is just swimming with a tank

Diving is a lot more than simply swimming around underwater, breathing from a tank. For one thing, people who are poor swimmers can be great divers and great swimmers can be terrible divers. Swimming doesn’t make you think about buoyancy, how to use equipment properly, how to navigate tricky dive sites, dealing with low light and poor visibility.

When you go swimming you start the second you jump in and kick your legs. When you go diving you start your dive before you get in the water. If the dive is tricky then you might start planning the dive the day before. You will be setting up gear, getting tanks filled and plotting routes. Diving needs planning which is what sets it apart from swimming. Never sell diving to friends by telling them is just swimming with a tank.

A lot more than just swimming...

SCUBA tanks are filled with oxygen

I don’t think I could count the number of times I’ve heard novice divers try to be smart and refer to the contents of a SCUBA tank as oxygen. I’m not sure where this misconception comes from but it’s amazing how many fresh divers make this mistake.

I will now, in an attempt to bludgeon this fact into the subconscious of every diver and non-diver alike, state quite clearly that the gas in a SCUBA tank is either compressed air (the air around us shoved into a tank very hard) or a blend of two or three gasses (nitrogen and oxygen at different percentages and sometimes helium in serious tec diving). If, by some massive error, a diver was to go down with only oxygen in their tank they would quickly fall prey to some form of oxygen toxicity which is extremely dangerous, especially pulmonary O2 toxicity.

Go diving with this and you'll be in trouble!

The biggest danger in diving is running out of air

Scuba diving is characterized by the fact that a diver will go underwater and breath from a finite air source. The fact that air can “run out” has sparked the imaginations of many, many new divers and non-divers alike. The idea that your air supply would simply stop, leaving you entirely without a lifeline gives people the creeps.

I understand the worry and can sympathize with it – it is a real risk that could cause harm. Though it is by no means a big risk, assuming you follow good diving practices and never dive alone. The number of errors a diver would have to make to end up with no air is formidable, and then you add this to the fact that a trained diver is shown how to breathe from another diver’s air supply or make a controlled and safe ascent if the other diver is unavailable. Out of air accidents are uncommon and should trained for but not feared.

Air is used up at the same rate as on the surface

This is another one of those items of dive theory that makes a big difference to a diver’s ability to plan dives and make responsible decisions when underwater, yet it is often missed out of early dive tuition because it is deemed unnecessary to a diver’s safety.

I will spare you the diving physics 101 lecture on why air is used up faster the deeper you go, simply put, the gas you breath gets denser as you go down so you get more air in each breath and thus you finish your tank faster. There are a lot of new divers out there who simply do not realize this correlation which leads to all sorts of problems and often a nasty revelation further down the line.

“I’ll just head to the surface if I have a problem”

The above is an actual quote I heard from a diver, said about ten minutes before he went on his deep dive for his advanced course…safe to say I sat him down and gave him the hard truth very plainly.

A non-diver or novice diver will assume that it is perfectly acceptable to go to the surface when they have a problem. Especially when they see that they are only twenty meters from the surface. This feeling that safety is only a thirty-second swim away leads to the most scary of diving accidents – uncontrolled ascents. A panicked diver might think that all problems are solved when they break the surface but that is obviously quite incorrect. A fast assent is bad news and massively increases the chance of the diver getting DCS. Eighteen meters per minute, end of lecture.

Inflate for up, deflate for down

Almost every student wants to use their power inflater as some sort of elevator button which takes you exactly where you want to go. This is an understandable misunderstanding being as the obvious logic suggests that an inflated jacket will allow you to go up while a deflated jacket will help you sink. This is true, but ridiculously dangerous. A buoyant assent is very difficult to control and will most likely injure the diver by sending them up too fast. It goes against logic to state that you must deflate your jacket to go up and deflate to go down, but that’s the facts… I didn’t make the rules.

Remember: deflate down, deflate up

I can just do a “re-compression” dive if I get DCS

Here’s a myth that applies to some of the more experienced but misinformed divers, if you get decompression sickness from missing a safety stop or from ascending too fast then you can simply strap on another tank of nitrox and jump back in to finish your deco stops. This is a fallacy, to fully allow nitrogen to come out requires 100% oxygen, a cocktail of drugs and intravenous injections and a very carefully controlled hyperbaric chamber to gently surface you over a period of hours. If you try to do it DIY in the sea you will end up freezing to death, go into shock or simply get too thirsty to do any good. Don’t waste time, go straight to a chamber.

Anyone can wreck/cave/deep dive if it’s within their depth rating

This is another big issue with the slightly more experienced divers – “the diver card says I can dive to thirty meters so that means I can dive any wreck, drift dive or cave system that falls within that range!” It also means that, although I learn to dive in a three millimeter shortie in the Maldives I can easily do a night dive in a dry suit in Norway… Nope!

Don’t hide behind a dive card, it simply states you have been given basic training to a certain standard, it is not a free pass that allows you to forget your responsibility – if it is beyond your abilities then train for it first and then go for the dive. Challenging dives are great but only when you are fully prepared for them.

Sharks will eat you and your whole family if dip your toe in the water

Ok, this is a short one. Everyone knows that sharks hate humanity and are actively building water filled suits so they can amass a land army and hold us hostage for our indiscretions toward the underwater environment…or maybe not.

Sharks are big animals that will protect themselves if they are threatened but this is no different from any other animal. They are not actively seeking to gore us Jaws style, nor are they going to steal your car keys and go drink driving. I think sharks are awesome creatures that deserve respect, not fear. I am much more worried about jellyfish than sharks…those things give me the willies!

This is the only exception to the rule... sharks with lasers are scary!

When disassembling your gear you should blast your first stage

I saved my biggest pet peeve for last. When you take your gear apart after a day’s diving you should always use a blast from your tank or a clean towel to dry your dust cap on your first stage to ensure there is no grit or water that could destroy the delicate inner workings of the regulator. What you should not do is blast air from your tank into the open first stage as this does not purge it clean, it forces drips of water and grit that have fallen into the opening since you took the regulator off the tank right into the filter and gradually this ruins your first stage.

Your Thoughts?

I hope this guide to misdemeanors and poorly informed myths has been informative and might have reminded you of a few anecdotes where these exact things have been said or even practiced. If you have any of your own diving myths that bug you then please feel free to write them in the comments section below so we can all benefit.

By Jamie Campbell

I bet you guessed at once about what I was talking above. It’s already 24 years since we saw the first of “Jaws” movies. It was seen by millions and till now the word “Shark” associates with worst shots in that movie. There is a stereotype: shark is an ominous monster, ruthless, all devouring machine, sharp teeth, evil eyes, ready to tear the human flesh at once.

This image was created and it is being sold even now. Following the «Jaws» there were «Jaws-2», «Jaws-3» and «Revenge of sharks», a novel, which served as the primary script, went all over the world. This is how special layer of mythology had been formed during decades: A great white sharks with a length of 20 feet, weighing 6 thousand pounds with teeth which can be a good knife for cutting meat.

Several years ago a popular story about Shirley Ann Durdin was a big  shock for naive people who tend to believe in such stories blindly, as they think of sharks as awful monsters. Also I remember another quite popular story that diver’s suite was discovered in the stomach of a tiger shark.

Perhaps horrible details like these are sufficient to complete a mythical image. No doubt, many of such facts are quite accurate. However a lot more evidences serves as a counter balance of another side of these animals. You can read my another article  – Myths about Sharks.

Shark experts believe that great white shark do not hunt on human: it sometimes takes a big man for marine mammals, like seal  (especially surfers with board).

An interesting evidence of well-known researcher of marine depths Jacques-Yves Cousteau who met a Great white shark : «Shark saw us, its reaction was unexpected. Frightened, it released a cloud of excreta and disappeared with incredible speed ».

And that is true,  sharks have far more reasons to be afraid of people than people to be afraid of them. Millions of  sharks are being killed by humans every year. The extermination of these animals  has reached such alarming proportions, that scientists have already started to use such frightening (at least for me) terms: «observed decline», «the probability of extinction».

Probably it is true that in the near future we will live in a world where sharks will be nothing more but just another part of our history. Anyone who wants to see how realistic this forecast is, just watch the bloody battle: Man vs Shark.

Let’s take a look to this website http://www.marktheshark.com/, this jerk is making money killing sharks on daily basis. Well it is very sad but it’s all about money. And it is not only his “fault”, he is doing good business because he got clients with deep pockets, the rule is quite simple.

“I guarantee a hunted shark for all customers” says Mark Shark. “Full refund will be given if no shark will be caught. Previously it happened that in a day we caught five or six sharks, but now only one.”

Ah it’s so pity that I’m not a hacker and it is even worse that I’m not a judge either

But sharks are also being killed because they “taste good” and are considered to be a “magical drug”.

There are rumors that soup made of shark fins (very popular in Asian countries) not only strengthens human health, but it also increases male sexual potency.This led to the catastrophic reduction of number of these predators in seas and oceans as a result of increased catch from year to year. Near are the days when sharks will be in the Red Book of endangered species of animals and we can see these impressive predators just in movies.

According to Bite-Back, UK’s sharks protection organization, each year more than 100 million sharks are caught for their fins: the fishermen cut off fins and throw mutilated fish in the sea, for them the  age of shark  doesn’t matter at all. The cost of 1 kg of fins exceeds $500 (the dorsal fin of whale shark is estimated to be 15 000 dollars). Now, in more than 125 countries around the world, products made of sharks are available.

In doing so, we make sharks vulnerable marine inhabitants. Unlike many other fish species, they mature slowly (the majority of sharks reach sexual maturity at the age of seven), giving only little offspring.

It’s difficult to imagine that these skilled predators are threatened to be extincted, but this is the actual situation.  Year 2009 is almost in past ( it was declared as  “Year of Sharks”. ) , so that’s why I’ve decided to devote this article to this magical animals .

Also I would like to ask all my readers to spread the word , via linking to this resource ( use small banner code below ) as sharks deserve it.

<a href="http://www.dailyscubadiving.com/protect-sharks-from-extermination"><img class="alignnone" title="Protect Sharks" src="http://www.dailyscubadiving.com/images/protectsharks.gif" alt="Protect Sharks" width="80" height="15" /></a>

Other Good Resources about Protection of Sharks:

Protecting Sharks – Organizations and Activists

Shark Protect

Roca Partida mean Broken Rock in Spanish. This stark volcanic pinnacle rises from the depths of the Pacific 200 miles (320 km) off the tip of the Baja Peninsula. This is truly wild diving, with powerful swells, big currents, and large marine species at one of the most isolated dive sites in the world.

The most remote outcrop of the Archipelago of Revillagigedo (a group of four islands), Roca Partida rises starkly from the wild surface of the Pacific Ocean, its rugged silhouette reflecting the characteristics of the reefs beneath. Steep walls plunge into deep, dark water, with very little life encrusted on their barren surfaces.

The rock is gorgeous and I’m sure you’d be happy to watch it as longer as you can , however the smell of guano usually force you to make your immersion as soon as possible. Roca Partida is not big and its achievable to swim around it several times (the current and surge) during one dive.

There are several small caves on one side of the rock where whitetip sharks are usually sleep until being disturbed by divers. Large lobster can be seen quite often in this place. Going further away from the Roca Partida hammerhead sharks can be spotted in large numbers. Incidents where the hammerhead sharks approach very close to divers have been recording in past. The rich upwellings from deep water around Roca Partida provide plentiful nutrients and oxygen for circling fish shoals, including huge black jacks and dense schools of barracuda. These in turn attract silky, white-tip, silver-tip, and hammerhead sharks in great numbers. What makes this dive site so special, however, are the manta ray encounters, which are among the best to be had anywhere; these magnificent animals almost seem to seek out divers, resulting in some extraordinary interactions. It’s very likely that divers will meet this amazing creatures. It seems that they can be attracted by some divers,  sometimes they are even playing with divers , swirling around  and swimming directly toward them . Some people believe that mantas can identify you by looking into your eyes and will remember you when you’ll be back. Diving center SolmarV  video in which Manta Rays are playing with divers.

Whale sharks have also been spotted at Roca. Humpback whales are stopping in this place during their migration to and from Alaska. Roca Partida is a great diving destination and quite often is being compared with Darwin and Wolf dive site in the Galapagos islands.

The reputation of Roca Partida is spreading, and it is rapidly becoming
an iconic site in the diving world. Divers willing to make the journey to this remote and wild location will find themselves amply rewarded.

Water Temperature: 66–77°F (19–25°C)
Ecosystem:  Subtropical
Visibility: up to 30m
When to visit:  Roca Partida has good, year-round diving, but cooler winter water is best for shark diversity.
Expected to be seen:  Manta rays, sleeping whitetip and silver-tip sharks, black jacks.

Some Good Resources:

SolmarV Luxury live-aboard dive vessel
Provides good articles , photo gallery , video materials and much more

Nautilus at Sea
I liked this divers blogpost about Roca Patrida , mainly he is describing his dive at Roca Partida

In other words, a few million dives per annum with less than two fatal accidents because of shark attack. Deaths caused by lightning strikes are much more likely and I’m not talking about deaths caused from car accidents, but everyday we drive car not fearing about death, right?

In addition I want to add that there are areas where the chance of being attacked by shark is higher than in other places. The most frequent cases of attacks occurred on the continental shelf of the USA (mainly Florida and California), Australia, as well as two-thirds of the coast of South Africa.

Sharks are one the most mysterious creatures of Ocean waters and still there are many thing which are not even investigated. They exist for over ten million years and during this period they changed very little.

There are about 370 varieties of sharks, ranging from 15 cm (Dwarf Lanternfish aka Etmopterus perryi ) and reaching up to 13 m ( Whale sharks ) .

Sharks are fearsome predators, with amazingly sharp sensory system. They can feel very weak electric fields, low frequency sounds (such as issued by dying or wounded animal). Sharks are able to detect the smell of single drop of blood which dissolved in million drops of water. At the same time the vision of sharks are not well developed.

Most of sharks are not dangerous for humans at all. There are only about 42 species of sharks which have ever been detected during attacks. Mostly attacks occur with presence of Great White Shark (call me crazy, but I adore this animal). According to ocean researchers, these sharks are often taking people for seals (their traditional food). In fact, people are not “good choice” for them. They pay much more attention to animal with rich fat such as seals and sea lions. After the Great White Sharks, Tiger and Bull sharks are leading.

Attacks mainly occur from the bottom or from rear, thus sharks are not visible by diver. But if the diver is able to see the shark, he can understand sharks intention from its be. Usually nervous shark is S-bending his body while swimming: Curving it’s back, pectorals descent, the tail fin is straining, sometimes (rarely) it is possible fluctuation of head from side to side.

What to do when a shark becomes aggressive

If you see a shark, who have taken the above posture, try to go back to the boat, if it is possible, if no, slowly go to the bottom, or push yourself to the wall reef.

If a shark is approaching very close to you, let the train of bubbles from your scuba gear directly on the fish, as well try to scream.

If nothing helps and shark still approaching you, try to hit its face, but only if you have gloves on hands or any solid object (eg, camera). The skin of many sharks is very rough and can easily make your hand to bleed ( there no need to describe what will happen in that case )
How to avoid shark attacks

You can reduce the already tiny chance of an attack by following these simple tips

* Do not dive in places where there fishing is taking place, particularly near the submarine hunters. Diving seabirds are good indicators of such activities.
* Immerse with group and not alone. – Sharks most often attack lone individuals
* Do not open the deep and shallow places near stall deep.
* Avoid the water at night, dawn, or dusk – Many sharks are most active at these times and are better able to find you than you are to see them.
* Do not dive in troubled waters.
* Avoid wearing shiny jewelry and dresses with contrasting colors. – The reflected light looks like shining fish scales.
* Do not disturb sharks.
* Do not dive if you have a bleeding wound.
* Go back to the boat when the shark becomes too inquisitive or take an aggressive posture.

Most likely the case is that the local dive guides are constantly hand feeding tiger sharks, and marine predators are beginning to associate man with food, so perhaps they are indirectly responsible for the attack.

Although the authorities banned, but they are not able to verify all the dive operators who bait and feed tiger sharks almost every day. Hand feeding sharks, dive operators are seeking profits through the sensations and underwater photographers who need a guaranteed meeting with sharks. But these marine animals, which are great and beautiful, are also extremely dangerous, and they are used to hunt for people for food.

Scientists argue that the feeding sharks both bad for people and for the sharks. «Feeding sharks alter their behavior. The same situation with the bears in YelloStown National Park. They learn to associate people with food. This makes the animal more aggressive, and thus endanger people».

Scientists opposed to shark feeding, not because of the danger of feeding itself, but because it trains sharks to expect food from people, not to be afraid of them. Predators lose their natural habit of avoiding people. For the same reason, it is not advised to feed the alligators or bears. This changes the behavior of sharks and environmental picture, concentrating sharks in one area.

Videos on YouTube (honestly, the adrenaline in the blood from one view only):

«I put myself between Ryan and the shark, and had moment delay, hoping that it will leave, – explained the 32 year old diver – I noticed that the shark, circled around us, coming ever closer, and behaves aggressively. The shark made a roll and looked like it was going to charge us so I just went ahead and took the conservative route and put a shaft through its gills.

And Cameron, and I have are many years familiar with the sharks, experience is enought. But this time I had a special feeling. I clearly felt that a shark is looking for a lunch, but I was not satisfied that role. After the first shot in the gills, I realized that I need to bring the case to the end.

I shot at this fish, as in any other, and made every effort to kill her so quickly and humanely as possible. To harpoon a shark in the gills would have died anyway, so I tried to get into his head to achieve it rapidly. I shot her six times, but I was not lucky, so the process was delayed. Sharks are very tenacious of life – no wonder they have survived for millions of years. The best and fastest way to kill the shark – that tie her to the tail to the boat and drag it along until it dies. In the end had to finish her with a knife as soon as I was able to pick up quite close to him – after attempting to drown her».

Mr Klas is a freediver and underwater hunter, born in Mississippi, raised in a fishing family, and is an expert in all fishing disciplines.

Despite the experience, Dr. Klas m not very happy with the outcome. «This is one of those moments, which then you are sorry – explains Dr. Klas – Personally, I never kill what I do not want to eat. We saved the tail and head, cut a big piece and ate part of it.

I’m not going to hunt the shark, it was a protective effect, and I will do it again. Unfortunately, it was necessary, but it is not something to be proud of. So the circumstances. It was one of the rare cases where it was necessary to defend themselves.

In the minds of ours myths are mixed with reality, and we don’t differ facts from superstitions, and all this is because of usual human fear before the unknown.
Divers respect sharks as they are very smart animals, and at the same time are primitive predators. We admire and fear, while observing these creatures in their natural habitat, forcing divers again and again seek a meeting with them. If we add to diving with sharks a little more knowledge, it only increases its value and fun. Below are twenty real facts from the life of sharks:

1. A large white shark grows about 25 centimeters in a year. Adult great white shark can have a length of more than 12 meters.
2. More people die from the attacks of dogs, pigs and deer, than from attacks by sharks.
3. Shark bite has a pressure of six and a half tons per square centimeter.
4. Sharks change their teeth constantly, replacement of teeth of sharks occur at a frequency of once every eight days.
5. During their life, some species of sharks can replace up to thirty thousand teeth.
6. A whale shark has approximately three hundred rows of teeth. Each of these series contains hundreds of tiny teeth.
7. Dried shark skin in the past was used as sandpaper. In Germany and Japan, shark skin was used in the decoration of handles of swords.
8. In 1937 the discovery was made that shark visceral fat is very rich with vitamin A. For the production of vitamin A shark fishing was very active until 1950 – when was developed a method of synthesis of vitamin A.
9. The typical life duration of sharks is 25 years. However, some sharks can live up to 100 years.
10. Some sharks are called «dog», for their habit of attacking the prey dense with a bunch, as do dogs.
11. Great white sharks can live without food for up to three months.
12. Not all types of sharks need to move constantly to breathe.
13. Book sharks can live in water of varying salinity and can often be found in freshwater rivers and lakes in Africa and South America.
14. The maximum size of sharks Pygmies is 30 cm.
15. A shark has no bones. The skeleton of sharks consists of cartilage tissue.
16. In the world there are over 340 known types of sharks.
17. The first fossil traces of sharks date back 400 million years.
18. A significant difference between the modern sharks and shark antiquity is their longer jaw. It provides modern sharks with a much more bite force and makes them dangerous than their ancient predecessors.
19. Shark skin is covered with leather similar to the teeth.
20. Shark Mako is probably the fastest creature in the world ocean: its speed can reach up to 100 – 120 kilometers per hour.