This guy is incredibly brave or dumb as a box of hair....

[Big_Fred]

Either way, he seems to know what he is doing.

[Warren]

Man I got tons of stories of sharks. Diving in Mexico is always a great plce to do some crazy shit.
A commercial diver using tanks with powerheads against a injured, tangled up White (while BAD ASS AS IT IS!!!) aint nothing compaired to these guys.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GO4xCUd_ ... re=related
March 13, 2009 -- On a sunny day last June, spear-fishermen Ryan McInnis, Craig Clasen, Brian Head and Cameron Kirkconnell boated 60 miles into the Gulf of Mexico in search of game fish. McInnis is a videographer. The group was accompanied by photographer D.J. Struntz, who was working with McInnis on a video about the sport.

The outing went as planned, says McInnis, until a 12-foot tiger shark approached the group aggressively, resulting in a two-hour wrestling match that ended in the shark's death. An account of their experience appears in the March 2009 issue of Outside magazine, and here, McInnis tells Discovery News' Jennifer Viegas what happened that day.
DN: Some media reports say the subsequent wrestling fight lasted for two hours. How can that be? And why aren't there any bubbles visible in the photographs?

McInnis: We are free divers, so we work without scuba gear. Craig was going up and down in the water, breathing at the surface whenever he could. You must realize that as spear-fishermen, we have an obligation to finish the kill, otherwise the fish would suffer. Craig did try to knife it in the brain for a quick, humane kill, but he had to continue to spear it.

Editor's note: Other accounts report that Clasen was forced to slide under the shark's belly, wrestling the shark by holding onto its pectoral fins. Clasen told Outside, "I had to bear-hug it to keep it from biting my head off." Clasen said Kirkconnell threw him a rope, which he placed around the shark's tail. The three men then dragged the tiger shark behind the boat until it drowned, he said.

DN: If the shark was dragged behind the boat, why do the images show the shark with its nose pointed up?

McInnis: We recover fish by pulling a float line that's attached to a buoy. So the shark was at first suspended by a line suspended to a float. The line was, in turn, attached to the spear. We were initially trying to recover the shark by bringing it to the surface.

DN: What did you do with the shark once you were sure it was dead?

McInnis: We only spear what we eat, so we each took a bite of the shark. We still feel remorse about the situation. We hope that our story will bring light to ocean awareness, to inspire others to have respect for the ocean and the species it supports. I still also believe that spear fishing is the right way to fish.

DN: Since you frequently encounter sharks, why do you think this situation went so awry?

McInnis: Tiger sharks tend to investigate potential prey by biting. And there also might be an element of surprise, since some tiger sharks may have never even encountered humans before. White sharks are very different. If you make eye contact with a white shark, it will usually go away.

DN: What do you say to skeptics who think you killed the shark first and then posed for the dramatic pictures later?

McInnis: That's a tough one to answer. I can only tell you that we have spent most of our lives in the ocean.

As free-swimming spear-fishermen, we're not daredevils. We're just trying to eat. I bet some of these skeptics go to the grocery store to buy fish, not even considering how it got to the market, which could have been through environmentally damaging means. And again, I'm a videographer too. It was just second nature for me to film the shark.

DN: Do you continue to go out into water where such sharks are known to exist?

McInnis: I will continue to spear fish. What happened to me was as rare as getting struck by lighting. I was lucky to have a tight buddy team with me. It's also important for others to know that we all have tremendous respect for the ocean and its marine life. Killing the tiger shark was our last option.


Discovery News: Please begin by explaining why you and your friends had gone out to fish at this site in the first place.

Ryan McInnis: Between the three of us, we have 60 years of water experience. We're not trophy hunters. We spear fish, which we believe is the most ethical way to put food on the table.

Editor's Note: The oil rig Medusa, near the site, has a coral reef that attracts multiple marine species.

DN: Did the day begin like any other for you?

McInnis: Yes. In fact, we'd gone to the same spot, several miles off the coast of Louisiana, for two days. And I should add that encounters with sharks are nothing new to us. I often dive in North Carolina waters, where I can see sharks every day and all day.

I have a degree in marine biology, so I enjoy, value and appreciate sharks. That June morning, I even swam with a silky shark, and we saw a hammerhead earlier.

DN: What then happened later that day?

McInnis: We were just finishing our fishing for the day. Our catch was in the boat, so there was no bloody chum in the water, as other reports have suggested, and there weren't any struggling fish. I was filming a pair of playful squids near the surface. I didn't realize that a tiger shark was parked just 15 feet away. It charged me.

DN: How did you react?

McInnis: My first thought was, 'Wow, it's beautiful.' But then I thought, 'Oh my God, I'm in a bad situation.' I flattened myself and kicked toward the shark, trying to scare it off. I'm also a videographer, so I instinctively hit the record button on my camera. As an underwater filmmaker, I capture footage all of the time, so that was just my natural reaction. I figured that no matter what happened, I might as well keep filming.

DN: Did the shark retreat?

McInnis: It did momentarily turn away, but then it began to swim in tight circles around me.

DN: Do you think your camera or its light could have somehow provoked the shark?

McInnis: In hindsight, cameras maybe do emit an electrical field, as well as vibrations from the internal components moving, which perhaps increased the shark's curiosity, but that's difficult to say.

DN: Did your friends see what was going on?

McInnis: I yelled for help. D.J. and Craig were about 100 feet away. We gave the shark opportunity to leave, but it didn't. Craig had his speargun. He pulled the trigger. That didn't kill the shark, so he had to struggle with it.