Scuba Diving With Sharks On Shark Dives
Many scuba divers want to see sharks while some are afraid they will run into any on dives. The reality is that on most coral reef dives around the world, you will actually be very lucky to see even one shark as they tend to stay further out in deeper waters rather than around coral reefs which are usually at shallower depths. Some dive destinations like Bonaire are not even known for any big animals at all.
The best way to see lots of sharks is by liveaboard boats which take divers to more remote areas known to have lots of sharks. This was the case with my Galapagos liveaboard trip when I was in the water with hundreds of sharks at some dive sites. Destinations further away from North America such as Palau and Fiji will have higher concentrations of sharks at dive sites too accessible by land based dive operators.
In the Caribbean, only certain dive destinations offer opportunities to see a lot of sharks. Some of these land based dive operators have introduced special dive day excursions just to see sharks up close but not only does the area have to have enough sharks but specially trained divemasters need to be available to run such shark dives.
I did such shark dives at two Caribbean locations, off Nassau in the Bahamas and in Sint Maarten. In both cases, the boats go out to specific locations known to have sharks, usually white tip or black tip Caribbean reef sharks ranging from 10 to 15 feet in length. Once at the dive site, we were told to dive down and form a semi circle at the bottom. We were all given some extra weight in order to stay at the bottom for most of the dive.
Once we are in place at the bottom, the divemaster designated to feed the sharks come down with a pail of fish pieces (chum). Then out of nowhere, the sharks started to converge on us!
The divemaster, wearing special protective chain mail will then start feeding the sharks and sometimes even place a few in a trance. We were told to keep our arms folded or close to our bodies and not reach out to try and touch any sharks but of course some of us including myself, just couldn’t resist when the odd shark swam by past us (looking at the divemaster of course).
With these shark dives, there’s no way to prevent any sharks from coming up from behind since they come from all directions. At one point I recall quite clearly in my Bahamas shark dive, I felt something brush up along the top of my head and when I looked up, it was the belly of a shark that came up from behind. Of course it had no interest in me as it and all of the other sharks are focused just on the food offered by the divemaster.
We were told that the sharks here have become so use to these feedings that they know the routine well. Even some resident fish appeared and waited along the sides for food scraps with the odd brave one actually stealing food before a shark gets it. As shown below, one little guy near me obviously was waiting for a snack too.
The sharks are pretty smart as when the divemaster has no more food, the pail is knocked over on its side and the sharks know that no more food is available. Surprisingly, they all scatter away which further confirms their lack of interest in the divers.
In addition to Nassau and Sint Maarten, there are also shark dives in Freeport in Grand Bahama Island and in season, hammerhead shark dives in Bimini, Bahamas. These are all thrilling dives maybe not for all divers since some don’t want to be near sharks. But for all divers with a desire to see big animals, a shark dive is definitely a must do.
In recent years, dive operators in Mexico and South Africa have developed special cage dives to see great white sharks too. Divers remain in cages next to boats though so these are not really standard scuba dives.
Below is the video of my shark dive from Nassau in the Bahamas where it’s one of the longest running and most established shark dives in the industry.
I have since done a shark dive off Playa del Carmen on the Mexican mainland across from Cozumel. This dive was a seasonal dive specifically to see bull sharks. Shark dives might sound quite dangerous to the general public and to many scuba divers too but having done three of them, I can say that they are not dangerous at all especially with Caribbean reef sharks.
