Sharks in Cancun II - Creepy Shark Encounters!

I recently posted another entry about sharks in Cancun. It's easily my most popular post & it's not bad, but when I wrote it I hadn't met Dan Garcia...

Black tip sharks in a feeding frenzy!

Dan, who used to work for a dive company here in Cancun, has had a couple of close encounters with sharks. Almost too close...

I asked him to share those, and here's what he said:

Shark encounter #1:

"...i was diving at this reef called the tunnel. it pretty much speaks for itself, tunnels through the reef.. and just as i'm coming out the tunnel, i slice my leg open a little bit and start to bleed a little bit. I didn't really think anything of it at the time, but later on i saw 2 small black tip sharks swimming away from me about 50 yards away.. they were about 5 ft in length so i wasn't sure if they had a mother swimming close by.. i was with some customers so i figured we best be getting out of that area soon too... "

No kidding. Here's a fun fact: Sharks can smell blood in concentrations lower than 1 ppm (part per million), up to a quarter of a mile (400 meters) away.

Shark encounter #2:

"...i was at marlin beach [aka Playa Marlin, a haven for sunbathers, at 13 km in the Hotel Zone] just swimming in some waves when i happened to look down in chest deep water and see some shadows moving in front of me. at first i thought it was a shark, then i thought it was the sand stirring up with the waves.. well i ended up just moving aside like 5 meters but then i saw more shadows there too, so i said @#$% it! i went back to where the bigger waves were and attempted to find out if they were sharks or sand. So i stepped forward towards one, it moved back then i stepped back and it came right up to me and bumped me in the leg.. i said @#$% this again and got the hell outta there. i figured the next thing it was gonna do was taste me and i wasn't so down with that..."

No kidding. Fun fact #2: Sharks have several rows of razor sharp teeth that @#$% hurt when they take a chunk out of your leg or just bite it right off! Which they are more likely to do in waist-deep, low-visibility (sandy) water!

Scary, no? If you don't think so, just try to imagine being in Dan's shoes (or flippers)...

Dan, if you're reading this, I'd like to thank you. I'm glad you lived to share these stories (& hope you have more scary stories to share in the future :)