Are there any sharks around St Martin?

Land Sharks or sea sharks?

FYI there are both.

It's the sea for goodness sake, not a backyard swimming pool. lol

Don't swim after sunset or before sunrise.....don't swim after a heavy rain or at the mouths of rivers or streams. Don't carry a string of fish on your belt or wear flashy jewelry......barracudas are even more troubling than sharks and watch out for those jellyfish and purple urchins..ooooouuchh.


But most of all, be careful of those land sharks wearing hawaiian shirts and gold chains, they'll leave you heart broken and without funds.

Aloha and Mahalo

Never seen a shark while there and I've never spoken with anyone who has seen a shark while there.

of course, there are sharks in the waters, but they do not come in close to shore.
occasionally someone sees a small sand shark, but that is very rare.
I certainly have never seen one myself.
If you go out diving and are on the reefs, you would see some reef sharks.
In fact one of the dive companies here offers a shark feeding dive.
[www.thescubashop.net]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/19/2006 02:58PM by Barbara1.

They used to have a dive operation that fed the sharks so they gotta be there. Personally I never thought that was too good idea and I dont know if their still doing it but from some who did scuba diving there, yes there are sharks. Killer man eaters? Thinking not.

Yes they are sharks, but I have never seen one while swimming or even snorkeling. But diving is another thing! I have gone diving once and my husband twice many years ago, and both times he saw sharks. So they are there! We also saw what looked like a 5 food Baracuda while on the Random Wind anchored off the beach at LaSamana! That thing looked mean!

Why do you guys have to scare me like that? I told my wife I'm never going in water in Fla anymore due to sharks and inland due to alligators. Now you'll have me a nervous wreck in SXM. I'm a lousy swimmer anyway so I stay pretty shallow in the waters.

don't get scared scottie.
we're talking about out on the reefs and far from shore.
the way things are going in Florida, I definitely would watch those alligators though :-)

I'd be much more worried about gators than sharks in St. Maarten! the first time we went boating on the Indian River I had a blast, then I found out about gators in the inlets! Forget it, I won't ever get out of the boat!

Sharks are definately not a concern. My wife and I are avid scuba divers and have dove the waters around SXM MANY times and rarely have we seen sharks. By the way, we did the shark dive offered on the island and it is conducted as an eduacational dive not merely a tourist trick. The shark dive helps educate divers and is done infrequently so as to not associate divers with food which would be a bad thing. I would not be concerned whatsoever about sharks around SXM. You have a better chance of getting struck by lightning twice while in a plane crash than getting bite by a shark. And as far as staying shallow, the shark attacks that happened in Florida last year that the media blew out of proportion happended in shallow water and the culprit was the notoriously aggressive bull shark. Oh and by the way, one of the people attacked was fishing in waste deep water with bait in his pockets, REAL SMART!

The only sharks I've ever seen were on Front St. in the jewelry stores.