JAWS!

[Mdlerth]

Every summer for years, my youngest daughter and I collect on the couch to watch "Shark Week" on the Discovery channel. Ever since she was little, she's been fascinated by marine life. She even has a set of bull shark jaws mounted on her bedroom wall.

Now that she's grown, we are ready to get into the water with our finny friends. I'm considering everything from caressing reefies in the Bahamas to cage-watching great whites in the Farallons. Anybody have any experience with shark-related trips?

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

I think its the unintended encounters that scare me. I saw Jaws too many times to make me want to play with them.

 

[CoolChange]

I've never done a specifically shark focused trip but did see quite a few (reef or nurse, cannot remember) on a several dives out of Playas del Coco, Costa Rica.

This was a different kind of diving for me, cooler water without coral. It was not the kind of thing I would want to do on a regular basis but excellent for something different. Pleanty of rays, turtles, fish, eals and interesting rock formations in addition to the sharks.

 

[Donny68]

On my honeymoon the wife and I went in a shark cage in Hawaii. North Shore Shark Adventure I think it was called. I'm pretty sure we picked that company because Hulk Hogan was on their website at the time. They go out to a path that the fishing boats take that the sharks also follow. We spent about 20 minutes in the water. They swam all around the cage the whole time. My wife loved it, she is also a shark week fan, but after about 10 minutes I was ready to move on. There is only so much time I can spend bobbing around the ocean looking at them I guess

 

[erkevin]

I've done Shark Junction in the Bahamas (excellent) and the Blue Hole off of Belize (not advertised as a shark dive, but it is!). Between the two, i would chose the Bahamas as it is not a decompression dive and doesnt take several hours to get to.

 

[Scuba]

We have done a few:
- shark feeding dive in the Exumas (Bahamas) where they sink a frozen bait ball and you kneel on the sea floor and watch the sharks eat. Very cool.
- Reef hook diving in Palau, where you hook your BC to the reef at a point with a lot of current and watch sharks and manta rays feed. Amazing!
- Shark and ray feeding snorkel in Bora Bora
- Dove with lots of reef sharks and nurse sharks in St. Croix, Utila, and other Caribbean islands.

I don't know that I'd want to do a great white cage dive. Seems scary, plus they generally inhabit water that's colder than I like. YMMV

 

[Moemg]

I did a shark feeding in Bora Bora many years ago . Once was enough.