Wetpixel

Trip updates: Wetpixel Tiger Sharks 2015

After some stormy weather on the way back to the jetty last night, we were relieved to wake up the clear blue skies with little or no wind. Despite my not passing the message on to everyone that the start time had changed (!), we still managed to leave the jetty at a prompt 8am.

We have a few cameras on board….

An easy ride over flat azure water for an hour and a half brought us back out to Tiger Beach. It was immediately obvious that the visibility had improved significantly over yesterday (not that it was bad by any account).

The team from Epic started chumming the water, and almost instantaneously, the boat was surrounded by lemon (Negaprion brevirostris) and Caribbean reef (Carcharhinus perezi) sharks.

Personally, I think that the reef sharks present the ubiquitous profile of a shark. If you were to ask someone to draw a shark, it is likely that that would probably draw something that resembles one.

Vincent took down the bait crate, and pretty soon, we had tiger sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier) too!

Vincent and Debra’s handling of the sharks meant that they continued to be interested for the two or more hours that we spend with them. Once again, all the sharks are quite obviously not threatened by human presence and are very relaxed. If you have never been there, they are in “feed mode” not “hunting mode” and display no aggression or agitation.

Dan Norwood managed to spend nearly 4 hours underwater with the sharks today!

Tomorrow, we plan to do some reef diving for some more “natural” encounters with the sharks, together with some feeding too. Please check back for more updates.

  1. Introduction.
  2. Getting to Tiger Beach and diving at UNEXSO.
  3. Tiger Beach day 1.
  4. Tiger Beach day 2.
  5. Tiger Beach day 3.
  6. Tiger Beach days 4 +5.