never saw the old topic from 2006,
til someone kicked it up now.
there are sharks all around the Island, along all 3 coastlines of the DR.
sharks of all kind.
deep water sharks a bit off the reefs(and for example here along PC we have deep waterbody right away once you clear the reefs) and the many smaller reef sharks.
somebody mentioned there would not be sharks around the Reefs,
well, think again about where the name Reef Sharks may come from?
and there is a good number of different big sharks feeding in the shallows around and also inside the reef barriers.
i can from own observations only talk about the Macao, Bavaro, Punta Cana and Cap Cana areas, but it will sure not be different on any other coastline around the island.
i saw a Tigershark chasing pray in waters as shallow as they hit the sandy bottom with their bellies(Macao Beach, back in 2000, my only confirmed Tiger til today, a few others been just a guess but nobody at the side to tell the same).
i shoot smaller shark species from my beach here, the Cabeza de Toro Bay. a year around supercalm Bay, completely closed off by a barrier reef a good distance from the beach.
we see frequently large sharks sweeping the Marina Basin at Cap Cana, which is full of food and on the MenMade deep entrance directly connected with deepest waterbody.
shark attacks may not appear often in any official records, the simple reason is that nobody reports such to any official station. i would honestly not know to whom report an attack to get such shown on statistics.
we have several attacks on spearfishermen here in the home bay on yearly bases, mostly the chased prey is the fishes on their belt and not the diver himself, but we have every year direct attacks on the speardiver itself. the last bad attack been this spring, when a diver lost half of his right arm 100ft from the beach in front of my house. the attack happened 4:30PM afternoon, such is not anything defined to nighttime hours or such.
we go once in a while for shark diving off Cabo Enga?o, that is the less than 20fathom shallows right off the airport, in less than 3miles of a distance to the rocks of the beach.
while fishing the shallows(not talking offshore fishing many miles off the coast, just fishing within a few hundred yards from a sandy beach) we get many times per year our "catch" taken by the nasty buggers.
they range all the way from 3ft youngsters(i prefer them for our famous shark-meat-balls snacks)up to 10ft big boys/gals, and when you spend enough time on the water along the beaches here day and night, you can't miss to see your share.
usual encounters are easy stuff, the shark takes note that you are there in the water, one observes the other, none get's suspicious that the other would chase the same prey, both walk along each's way, none is on the shopping list of the otha.
it been seldom that i sighted single sharks, for most times different kinds of sharks are present in the same area, chasing the same food/school of fishes to feed on.
to tell there are no shark attacks around the island, is a blue eyed denial of reality.
where ever you have open water/connection to the Ocean's waterbody, you have sharks.
where ever such area is in nice underwater health conditions, full of smaller species, you have a feeding ground for the bigger predators, like sharks and many others.
on the other hand,
in my good 20 years working on and in the waters of the area,
i never heard of any attack on any swimming visitor to the area.
we are not any natural prey for the ones sweeping the beaches for food.
they find a better menue, day and night, mostly.
Mike
