We had the most spectacular baited shark dive over the weekend. Ocean conditions surprised us totally as we had expected reasonably poor visibility, which has been linked to our rivers opening up to accommodate the recent inland rains.
We arrived at our usual spot to find at least 15m on the surface and all the way to the bait drum at 8m and then the visibility dropped off beyond this, to what looked like around 8m or so. A stunning water temperature of 27 degrees C awaited us on the bait drum and this was a top to bottom water temperature. Unbelievably fantastic!!
We enjoyed the company of at least 35 blacktip sharks at any given time, on occassion this number was slightly more. We had a very interactive female tiger shark, topping the 3.5m size mark come in and out on our dive many times. At times she came in close to take a better look at us and at times she spent a bit of time below us, checking out the bottom scenery. She was great to spend time with as she just did her thing throughout the dive, and at one point she used the 6m water column to allow us to view her in and she would sink down to just below the bait drum again, ever so slowly and then cruise in again from whichever side she felt was appropriate for her at the time.
Our surface viewers had a blast with all of this action and we had people on the boat that just wanted to witness this fantastic encounter and were definitely not disappointed.
This is the time of the year that our tiger sharks shine. They love the warmer waters and so it would appear, did our large numbers of blacktip sharks on this day.
Thank you mother nature and yet again, a hugely successful shark dive wherein everyone that was present marvelled at the sheer beauty of these sharks and how they allow us, so easily, into their world to understand them better.
A massive thanks to Tamlin, Eric, Eleanor & Claire for wanting to learn more about these amazing animals and for them, an education and enlightenment of a lifetime and “a life changing experience”
, to quote Eric.