Caribbean Shark Dive - March.2001

For a long time I was planning a dive trip where I could actually interact with sharks. From stories and reading articles, I found that one of the best places to do that is Nassau, Bahamas. I looked on the internet and also through the dive magazine to make sure I pick a good dive shop, and also find out more about the Shark Dive. I must say that on this particular trip I got more than what I had ever expected. I imagined seeing sharks on this trip, even the shark feeding dive explanation did not prepare me, to the wonderful experience I had on this trip. I must have seen over 35 sharks in one dive, and they all were swimming almost with us, many times less than 2 feet away, and some were 6-7 feet or more so it seemed.

Stuart Cove Dive Shop- A truly top of the line dive shop... Far right was the cage used in many Discovery Channel documentaries. Stuart Cove provided services for the movie Jaws 4 the revenge, James Bond movie, and other shark documentaries. I even have a picture of me and the plane that was used in Jaws 4 in the water.

My Interaction dive with the sharks was not suppose to be until Saturday, so I figured I will do some wreck diving or a wall dive, besides I brought in new equipment, and I wanted to get familiar with it before Saturday.

We arrived at the wreck site and I was the first to jump in the water , for some reason the rest of the divers took longer to get in the water. I then noticed at about 12 feet, that I was not the only one in the water. I felt that there was something swimming very close to me, behind me , above me. I turned around and I could not believe it was a really big and impressive Caribbean Reef shark who was swimming behind me. Before I could realize what was going on I saw 3 more sharks around me, maybe 10 feet away, and few seconds later I had about 10 sharks swimming around. In the beginning I thought about going up and try to get on the boat, but then when the rest of the divers came down slowly I just lost any fear whatsoever. By that time I realized the sharks had no interest in me (as food that is ) , and if they were, they had their chances already. Now I could just swim slowly close to them and just look at them, they were just beautiful, I could not get enough and I was constantly looking for more sharks. The 35 min. dive was totally accompanied by sharks, so the dive was spectacular.

Setting up the new equipment - I was so excited about the dive I was there 1 1/2 hours before.

The Shark dive.

Saturday morning around 8.30 am I arrived at Stuart Cove dive shop. I must credit this dive shop for an amazing service, they were prompt, crew is friendly and the atmosphere is just great. I rented an underwater camera from their photo shop. ( they have a full lab, video rental etc... I will give all the info later.)

My dive buddy was an Argentinean woman name Paula who was just wonderful. What is great about people who are instructors like she is, or dive masters, is that they truly love what they do for a living , and we talked a lot about sharks and you could see the passion she has for the marine life and the ocean.

Me and my dive buddy Paula (an instructor at Stuart Cove Dive Shop)

Most of the crew on the Shark Dive were instructors from Stuart Cove, and Paula actually fed the Sharks on the 2nd dive. (pictures are at the bottom of the page).


A pair of dive instructors from Stuart Cove	Our Dive master and an Instructor.

One of the best divers in the crew was this South African instructor who had some experience cage diving with the Great White back in South Africa.

We were heading to the site, the weather was kind of windy and I was worried the visibility will not be good enough for the many photos I was planning on taking. The day before the weather was just great, calm ocean and clear water.

The ride was bumpy and the water seemed to be colder than the day before.


Ocean was beautiful but it was wavy , and the water was real cold.	Irwin King is the guy who filmed the whole dive, he is a great diver as well, and very knowledgeable when it comes to the Caribbean Reef Sharks.	10 minutes before the dive, I cant wait to get in the water.

For my relentless search for great photos.... the Video guy Irwin threw pieces of fish to the water .. and within few seconds sharks appeared.

I saw at least 10 sharks while I was getting ready for the dive.

I just love this picture.

In the water with the Sharks

"I guess we are not in Kansas anymore...."

This shark swam right under my face.

Sharks during the end of the feeding,,,,we then searched for teeth in the sand.

This Shark should be a model..... look at this face...

This picture shows how close we got to the sharks....within inches away.

I like this picture .. I am just surprise the Flash did not piss off the Shark. Well I cant say the shark was smiling either.

This is my favorite picture ,,, the largest one of the bunch decided to swim right by me,,, it is definitely my favorite picture of them all.

Feeding frenzy

I counted over 30 sharks at one time while the feeding was going on, the video clips will show you even more, once I upload them..

More picture coming up next week. Also Video clips from the video we did of the Shark dive and the feeding.

Thanks

Max.