By Jett Britnell
Travel Editor, Dive News Network
I contemplated, as we stood on the dive boat swim grid surveying approximately eighteen lemon sharks circling on the ocean’s surface. All I could think was, “Ahh huh, we’re going to plunge into the middle of that?” And if that was not enough to test ones nerve, lurking closer to the sea floor, we could see two ominous-looking dark torpedo shapes moving around beneath the lemon sharks. I have dived with different sharks all over the world but I had never experienced anything like this before…Tiger sharks! At long last, I was only moments away from a shark encounter that I had long only imagined.

We were diving with Jim Abernethy’s Scuba Adventures, a diver charter operator who specializes in liveaboard shark diving expeditions in the Bahamas.  We cleared customs and the 65-foot boat, M/V Shear Water, with over 500 lbs. of crated fish to be used as shark bait, set sail for Little Bahama Bank, approximately 20 miles off the northwestern tip of Grand Bahama Island.  The Shear Water dropped anchor over shallow white sand and a sea grass covered bottom and the crew quickly placed bait crates of bloody fish parts overboard. We had arrived at fabled “Tiger Beach,” perhaps one of the greatest places in the ocean realm to dive with tiger sharks.

After a two-hour plus dive briefing on the do’s and don’ts when in the vicinity of big sharks, we were anxious to don our gear and get in the water. We waited until Captain Abernethy, determined whether we had a “player” in our midst.  A “player” in shark diving lingo refers to a tiger shark that can be chummed in and who will stay around long enough to be photographed.  Finally we heard “pools open, time to jump in the water.”  Indeed, it felt as if we were about to plunge into the world’s largest shark infested swimming pool, armed with nothing but our camera rigs and a shark stick (PVC pipe segment) to be used to fend off a persistent shark who may be getting too close for comfort. 
One by one, divers quietly slipped off the swim grid and quickly descended to the sandy sea floor twenty feet below.  If there was ever a place that could be called shark nirvana, this is surely it.  There were more lemon sharks milling around than I could count.  Some would swim just beyond the perimeter of the divers while many were close enough to touch.  The rapid urges of adrenalin subsided somewhat once we realized that the lemon sharks, though impressive in size, were ambivalent toward us and did not even seem to acknowledge our presence. It was a different matter with the tiger sharks however.
We had two “players” with us, swimming in close proximity and performing tight loops around some divers.  A large tiger shark that Captain Abernethy had affectionately named “Kate” swam into the scene escorted by a school of large cobia. With camera strobes furiously flashing in a sort of aquatic paparazzi frenzy, the tiger sharks were the red carpet stars. Every now and then a tiger would tentatively move in to mouth the bait boxes and our shark wrangler would shake his two bait crates like maracas in order to generate more fish scent. Unable to get their mouth completely around the boxes, the tigers would return to try again a few minutes later, thus providing some exceptional shark photo opportunities. During some dives we had as many as five tigers in view along with the passing parade of lemon sharks. As one of the oceans’ most feared predators, Tiger Sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier) are often accused of being man-eaters. While there are many shark supporters who would vehemently debate against this point, there does seem to be some slight behavioral differences between tiger sharks in the Pacific Ocean vs. those inhabiting the Atlantic Ocean. Pacific tiger sharks are viewed to be generally more aggressive than Atlantic tiger sharks; however tiger sharks in Bahamian waters seem to be more cautious and wary. 

 
At one point on our second day when all my fellow divers were topside enjoying lunch, I alone remained in the water with our shark wrangler.  We had one tiger with us, a “player” who had remained by the boat since the day before.  As the shark wrangler would entice the shark close to the bait, I would snap off some pictures.  My jaw dropped in wonder when I saw the shark wrangler, or shark matador as I prefer, allowed the tiger to swim between his legs. 
While tiger sharks may be the Holy Grail for some, dedicated shark diving expeditions allow divers to get close to other shark species such as Caribbean reef sharks, great hammerheads, bull sharks, black tips, nurse sharks and lemon sharks. Caribbean reef sharks are one of the most photographed and abundant sharks that patrol coral reefs in the Bahamas. Deemed to be non-aggressive, this is the shark that is most often the star of organized shark feedings. They routinely swim within touching distance and seem to pay no mind to divers in their midst. At a fabulous dive site called, “The Arena”, I counted more than twenty of these five to six foot long sharks during one dive. 

Sharks are not the angry dragons of the sea, nor are they the terrifying malevolent killing machines of myth and legend. They are apex ocean predators who have evolved to do what they do in the extremely well in order to survive. Sharks help maintain a healthy balance in the marine ecosystem by culling the genetically weakest members from the stronger ones.  Remove sharks from the food chain, and we could see an imbalance or population collapse of other marine species. A Bahamas shark safari offers shark worshippers an opportunity to experience sharks in their own element. Best of all, you don’t need no stinkin’ cages to enjoy this once in a lifetime experience.