Went to Pensacola Beach yesterday; saw a 7' shark

Not far past Portofino, there's a drop-off of a couple of feet or more to a large expanse of shallow water. The shark came very near to shore...maybe as close as 30'. Only one person in the immediate area was actually swimming...got out...let the shark go by...got back in. I could see the shark clearly from head to tail...7' is a minimum.

Impressive... I've seen bulls literally a few feet from the shore. Seeing them under your surfboard is a rush.

I have never been able to figure out surfers in the gulf, or along out East coast for that matter.

Seems that's like riding a Vespa thinking you're on a Harley.

As for sharks, I dove with them for many, many years.  We were professional divers.  The only time we got out of the water was if they started getting overly aggressive.  Just their bumping against you at a reasonable speed can leave you with a pretty bad case of "road rash".

From what I've seen in the news over the past month.  We've had more people die from Ebola in the US and be ill from the virus than attacked and killed by sharks.

For some years I had one in an aquarium with two Ocellated moray eels.  The shark was friendlier than the eels.  The shark loved to have its belly rubbed.

Somehow, your affinity for sharks and Morays doesn't surprise me in the least.

Floridatexan wrote:
Somehow, your affinity for sharks and Morays doesn't surprise me in the least.

I'm sure you believe you have some sort of profound point.

Still have the scars on two fingers from a moray eel bite when I lived in Key West and was free diving for Florida lobster.

I also had a "best friend" when I worked at the SeaQuarium on Key Biscayne in Miami. That would be Carolina Snowball. She was an albino Bottle Nose Dolphin on display in a huge pool built for her. We'd play catch with her ball in the pool and "talk" with her. Sometimes I got to work in her pool and she loved to play or I'd dive in and swim with her. At the time I had no idea what a rare opportunity I had and how much I enjoyed the experience.

By the way, I also had a Piranha I had for years from a couple inches to nearly a foot. Beautiful fish his name was "Cuddles". He never reached the point where he could be hand fed although he preferred live food anyway.