(I was replying to a child comment on fear of deep waters, seemingly deleted?)

I’ve heard this sentiment before, and can sort of intellectually follow, but man. I love scuba diving, I love the ocean and its varied and alien and multi-scale inhabitants. I’ve spent weeks on a live-aboard boat explicitly to seek out megafauna like sharks and rays (same subclass as sharks).

When I start my descent, I love to turn around and see my exhaled air bubble up, up towards the sun rays in the top layer of the water that slowly fade further away as the pressure on my ears builds and I enter the unknown ocean. It’s the most relaxing feeling, and I often remember it to go to sleep.

How beautifully individual our preferences can be. :-)

Curiously, I relate to both. I have a certain degree of fear or trepidation of sharks when swimming in the ocean. I feel vulnerable, and keep imagining a shark coming up under me or behind me. But I’m also a certified diver and have exactly none of those fears when diving or snorkeling! I think it’s because I have reduced awareness of what’s around me when swimming in the surface. In a sense it’s coming from the same place as a fear of the dark.

I thought sharks only attack stuff that looks like wounded animals. Would a shark really attack a boat?

They attack surfcraft. Not sure if they'd go for a bigger vessel though.

Do sharks have a history of attacking small vessels? I’ve had dolphins mess with my kayak over the years so I can believe it.

One fun thing you get to do in long distance outrigger canoe races in hawaii is crew changes.

Generally, outrigger races have 6 people in the boat and a 9 person team. An escort boat will hold your reserve people, and then drop them in front of the canoe when you need to swap people out.

The problem is that you need to drop people around 200m in front of the canoe so the canoe can have enough time to prep for the crew change, but with that distance, the wave height can obscure the crew from the person steering.

The solution? If you're the one being dropped, you're expected to splash violently. Create as much splash as possible so the canoe can see you, even behind a wave.

The fun part is what gives signal to the canoe is the same thing that gives signal to sharks. Our coach used to say the adrenaline helps us in the race.

I wonder why a balloon or an extra-long safety sausage wouldn't work.

The last thing you'd want is a balloon or an inflatable hampering your movements. Getting into the canoe as it's moving is a tricky, practiced and precise motion.

A hyperbolic example would be imagine a pole vaulter with a safety sausage attached to them.

Watching the videos on the race I was surprised that "Marlin strike", where Marlin fish poke holes with their bill in the hull, seems to be a problem at least now and then. There was a scene where they epoxy the hole with part of the bill still sticking into the vessel.

This boat isn't your regular kayak, it is larger than a great white shark (although certainly not heavier).