Surfer Mark Healey fends off shark while freediving

Mark Healey makes a living as a big-wave surfer who spends most of the year chasing enormous swells around the world. But when the athlete isn’t riding waves, he often seeks solitude and adventure beneath the surface, freediving with a speargun, hunting fish for the dinner table.

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I’ve found that it’s worthwhile to make every effort (within reason) to not let sharks take a fish you’ve speared. They’re fast learners and when they are rewarded for a behavior they usually double down on it. That’s why they’ve been around for eons. Sometimes it’s unavoidable and the sharks beat you to your fish. This video is an example of how they act after being “rewarded”. I lost a fish to about five sharks earlier in the dive. Once that happens they have way less hesitation and they’ll shadow you all day. Even follow the boat if you switch spots sometimes. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t feel in danger at all here, but if I ended up shooting that Wahoo, you know this shark would have been all over it. Another good reason to avoid having the sharks take your fish (besides losing your food) is that you don’t want them to associate divers with food. It might not be a problem for you that day, but it may end up being a problem for the unwitting diver that that wild animal encounters next time.

A post shared by Mark Healey (@healeywaterops) on Dec 1, 2019 at 11:24am PST

This sometimes puts Healey in close proximity to sharks looking for an easy meal.

The accompanying video clip, posted to Instagram on Sunday, shows a large Galapagos shark approaching Healey, who ends the encounter with a firm jab to the shark’s snout with his spear tip.

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“I’ve found that it’s worthwhile to make every effort (within reason) to not let sharks take a fish you’ve speared,” Healey wrote. “They’re fast learners and when they are rewarded for a behavior they usually double down on it.

“Sometimes it’s unavoidable and the sharks beat you to your fish. This video is an example of how they act after being ‘rewarded.’

Healey told For The Win Outdoors that he was diving off French Polynesia when the encounter occurred. He had recently lost a fish to several sharks that had been close by, and Healey had been eyeing a wahoo (also seen in the video clip) when the Galapagos shark approached.

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RACING STRIPES ———————————————photo: @kanoazimmerman #wahoo #freediving #healeywaterops

A post shared by Mark Healey (@healeywaterops) on Oct 23, 2019 at 4:08pm PDT

“There’s no shortage of sharks down there,” Healey said. “This shark was shadowing me to see if it could get another easy meal. It doesn’t have an aggressive posture towards me, but they don’t mind a bit of physical contact once they’re fired up.

“It had a competitive feeding situation when it vied with other sharks earlier in the day to eat my fish. It’s kind of like throwing a French fry to seagulls. Once they’ve seen it they’re not afraid to get close to you because they’re more concerned about beating the other seagulls to the next possible French fry.”

Healey, 38, who lives in Hawaii, said encounters like this are not uncommon in locations where sharks are plentiful, and he generally tries to exit the water as quickly as possible after securing his catch.

“You just have to read the scenario,” he said.