FL Diver Gets Warm And Fuzzy Over Encounter With Huge Bull Shark

JUPITER, FL — The close dance Capt. John Moore had with a huge female bull shark who showed her sharp, serrated teeth not long ago off the coast of Jupiter, Florida, was more awe-inspiring than frightening.

It might scare the stuffing out of amateur divers to come face to face with a shark whose open mouth spans from one side of the head to the other to reveal a row of serrated triangular-shaped teeth that could be the instrument of their deaths.

But not Moore, a 55-year-old diver and boat captain for Florida Shark Diving. He has a special relationship with sharks. He thinks you should, too.

Moore writes tenderly and passionately about sharks as he describes on Instagram his close encounter with a bull shark — a pregnant female who probably is carrying a few too many pounds because of easy access to bait fish at this time of year.

Ever so carefully, Moore removed a hook and leader from the pec fin of the pregnant bull shark, an act many could never fathom but which Moore said filled him with joy.

“The lack of compassion and disrespect for wildlife is baffling to me,” he wrote. “Almost every day I see sharks with bullet wounds here in Florida.”

Another bull shark he encountered had a massive injury caused by a shotgun cartridge from a “Bang stick,” he wrote. A lemon shark swimming nearby had two wounds from a small-caliber handgun.

Bull sharks aren’t for the timid, though, no matter how passionate they are about shark welfare.

These fish are imposing, reaching lengths of up to 11 feet and weights of up to 700 pounds. They feed on several species of bony fish, small sharks both terrestrial and marine mammals, seabirds and, occasionally, sea turtles. Adult bull sharks, which don’t fully mature until they’re 15 or 20 years old, have no natural predators.

Able to swim easily between salt water and fresh water, including particularly far upstream in large coastal rivers and in freshwater lakes, bull sharks have more contact with people and are responsible for more fatal bites to humans than any other shark species.

In all of 2020, there were 57 unprovoked cases of shark attacks around the world — far fewer than the average of 80 a year between 2015 and 2019, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History, which maintains an international shark attack tracker on its website. However, the museum, housed at the University of Florida in Gainesville, noted that fatalities were up in 2020, and all but three of the 13 shark-related fatalities in 2020 were unprovoked.

The museum dismisses the increase in unprovoked shark fatalities as a blip, says short-term trends show both fatal and non-fatal bites by sharks appear to be decreasing, and points out that sharks have much tastier prey than humans.

“The total number of unprovoked shark bites worldwide is extremely low, given the number of people participating in aquatic recreation each year,” the museum said. “This year’s increase in fatalities does not necessarily constitute a shift in the long-term trends. Fatality rates have been declining for decades, reflecting advances in beach safety, medical treatment and public awareness.

“This underscores the importance of global efforts to improve ocean rescue, medical care and shark education.”

In Florida, Moore is doing his part.

And he wants the cruelty to sharks to stop, writing on Instagram that he often sees injured sharks “peacefully cruising” along in the ocean waters.

These apex predators are a tonic for the ocean and vital to the health of the ocean — something Moore says too few people understand.

“It may be annoying to hook a fish and have them eat it, but removal of them will inevitably cause an imbalance and ultimately the collapse of this ecosystem,” he wrote.

As important, “there’s also the savage impotent inhumanity of doing this.”

Sharks are “amazingly resilient” and many of their wounds will heal, Moore wrote — noting, though, that the lead from shot “is obviously not good for them.”

Sharks have another special quality: a forgiving spirit.

“These big girls were calmly swimming up to me,” he wrote. “They don’t hold a grudge because of what other humans did to them."