Shark Diving in the Bahamas

When it comes to close encounters with big animals, either on land or at sea, few things are as thrilling as having a big shark approach to within a few feet of you. While the mere idea terrifies most people, scuba divers are more aware that most sharks are relatively harmless and uninterested in humans, while at the same time sharks are often graceful, dramatic fish to watch. The result is that shark diving ranks high on any traveling diver's to-do list, and the Bahamas are one of the best places in the world for shark encounter dives.

Shark dives with Caribbean Reef Sharks are available throughout the Bahamas. These sharks are between five and ten feet long and for the most part harmless. Divers are usually only bitten by these sharks if the shark is harassed, cornered or in the midst of a feeding frenzy, and shark encounter dives are planned to avoid all three circumstances. Divers kneel on a sandy sea bottom while one of two tactics is used to draw in the sharks. Programs on islands like New Providence use chain mail-clad shark wranglers to draw in the sharks with hand-fed bait. In other islands, a frozen block of fish parts called a "chumcicle" is lowered into the water to draw the sharks in. Divers sit tight and enjoy the show.

The other dive format involves a far more dangerous shark, the tiger shark. The tiger shark is usually 12 to 15 feet long, and because of its propensity to try to eat anything it can get its teeth into, the shark is a known man-eater. In the seas off Grand Bahama is an underwater sand patch known as "Tiger Beach," due to the frequency of tiger shark encounters there, and it is the venue for cage diving with the tiger sharks. Liveaboard dive cruises from Florida make the trip out to Tiger Beach regularly, as do boat trips from West End in Grand Bahama. Some adrenaline-pumping dive charters even visit Tiger Beach and dive with the tiger sharks without the protection of an anti-shark cage.

Shark diving is available elsewhere in the world, of course, but few other places offer as many shark encounter opportunities, or the virtual guarantee of close encounters with sharks as the Bahamas. Combined with the other features of Bahamas scuba diving, it is no wonder that Scuba Diving magazine ranked islands like Grand Bahama and New Providence among diving's "A-List" of travel destinations.

Sources: www.incredible-adventures.com/sharks_bahamas.html; scubadiving.com/travel/caribbean-atlantic/2008/05/shark-identification