- Animal
- Time of year
- Area, Country or Location
- Type
- Experience
- Can see
Bull Sharks are known for being unpredictable and often aggressive making it an obvious choice for caution for divers, although they are very unlikely to be a danger unless provoked or excited by chumming activities. Bull Sharks have been implicated in attacks on bathers but these attacks are generally an exception and people are not usually harassed by bull sharks unless spear fishing (the vibrations of the fish flipping around/distribution of blood tends to excite sharks).
Divers should pay particular attention to the visibility while diving. In low-vis conditions the shark's vision is restricted thus increasing the chance of an undesirable encounter when a shark mistakes you for something it actually wants to eat.
The Bull Shark, also known as Zambezi Shark, is a powerful preditor common worldwide in warm shallow waters. They generally range between a meter (at birth) and 3.5 meters in length when fully mature. An adult shark can weigh in excess of 300 kilos and have a thicker/chunkier look than most other sharks. They generally eat boney fish but are not too fussy and have been known to eat Turtles, birds, dolphins and land-based animals and sometimes other sharks.
Bull Sharks can live in freshwater as well as saltwater and have been known to swim quite a distance upstream along many rivers especially in Australia. There are more than 500 Bull Sharks in the Brisbane river and in the 2010/2011 floods one was even seen swimming around the flooded town!
Bull Sharks have been found in depths up to 150m but they rarely go deeper than 30m and prefer staying in the shallower water closer to shore and in rivers. This close proximity is one factor as to why they tend to be more dangerous to humans.
More detailed information about Bull Sharks can be found here.
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