"We came in to shallow water, 

 about 20 feet of water, and were diving 

 off the boat in late afternoon, about 100 

 yards off the beach," says Bruno, who's 

 been fishing North Carolina waters, 

 mostly for sandbar sharks, since 1989. 

 Only a few minutes after the last 

 swimmer was back on the boat, the 

 group witnessed a large tiger cruising 

 at the surface. 



It gave Bruno a shiver as he 

 remembered his previous brush with 

 the species north of Cape Hatteras. 



"We had a sandbar (shark) on the 

 line and when we got him to the 

 surface, a huge tiger shark came up 

 and swallowed the sandbar, which 

 was about 6 feet long, from the tail all 

 the way up so that the tiger had about 

 4 1/2 feet of it in its mouth," he says. 

 "It (the tiger shark) was looking at us 

 with its eye rolled up, and we were 

 yelling at this tiger shark, hitting it 

 over the head trying to make it let go." 



Bruno says the tiger shark contem- 

 plated the fishermen for about a minute, 

 "then it closed its jaw and there was 



nothing but a head left." 



Struggling or injured fish are 

 highly attractive to sharks. Erratic 

 movements, particularly at the surface, 

 may be one reason sharks attack 

 shipwrecked victims, surfers and 

 some swimmers. Sharks appear to be 

 attracted to vibrations. And from the 

 bottom, legs dangling off a surfboard or 

 below a life preserver — backlit by the 

 sun — may remind sharks of a favored 

 prey animal such as a seal or sea turtle. 



Because of sharks' tendency to 

 mistake identity, Lovin prefers to deal 

 with them at their level and establish 

 eye contact. Contrary to popular belief, 

 sharks have fairly good vision, although 

 it pales in comparison to their other 

 keen sensitivities to smell, electromag- 

 netic fields and sounds. But in their 

 territory and in the right circumstances, 

 a shark may sample human flotsam. 



"If I was in a plane wreck or a 

 shipwreck and floating around at the 

 surface, I'd be very nervous about 

 sharks," Lovin says. "As long as I'm 

 at their level, I'm fine. But if I was 



swimming with my family at Emerald 

 Isle and I saw fins in the water, I'd 

 react totally different." 



Although some people might view 

 Lovin's intentional contact with sharks 

 incredulously, there are more common 

 activities that he finds unthinkable. 



Moonlight swims in the surf, for 

 instance, are a romantic but unwise 

 notion, says Lovin. Many sharks feed 

 at night in the shallows, and it's probably 

 best to stay out of their dining room. 

 Knowing a little about the region you're 

 in, the types of sharks you might encoun- 

 ter, where and how they feed and how 

 to identify them is a good rule to follow 

 if you spend a lot of time in the water. 



For most of us, it's what we don't 

 know and can't see that scares us, says 

 Lundie Spence, North Carolina Sea 

 Grant's marine education specialist. 



"You have this fear of something 

 that's primeval just beyond that curtain 

 of visibility; it comes from uncertainty," 

 she says. "But as soon as you see a 

 shark and logic kicks in, then you are 

 more able to deal with it." □ 



Sharks Close to Home 



With its variety of habitats 

 — estuaries, coastal shallows, 

 rocky ocean outcrops and open 

 sea — North Carolina is home 

 to some 40 shark species. 



Sharks range in size from 

 a foot to more than 40 feet. 

 The biggest is the whale shark. 

 The largest known living fish, 

 this species can exceed the 

 length of a school bus. Harm- 

 less except for its sheer size, 



this shark filter-feeds on plankton 

 and small fishes. 



Small by comparison, other 

 large sharks — those exceeding 1 

 feet — are also found in Tar Heel 

 waters. The great white, tiger, 

 dusky, mako and thresher swim 

 offshore, and hammerheads and 

 sand tigers frequent reefs and 

 wrecks. Bull sharks, the only species 

 known to venture into fresh water, 

 are found in estuaries and even 

 some coastal rivers during spring 



and fall. One was caught in the 

 Neuse River near New Bern. 



Our most abundant sharks 

 are relatively small — 3 to 8 

 feet — and include the nurse, 

 Atlantic sharpnose, spiny and 

 smooth dogfish, sandbar and 

 blacktip sharks. Dogfish 

 sharks, which have knobby 

 bars in their jaws instead of 

 teeth, are common surf fishing 

 castoffs. □ 



COASTWATCH 9 



