Bull Shark Diving in Playa del Carmen

[living4experiences]

Bull shark season starts in November. I'm finishing my week in Cozumel with a few days in PDC for cenote diving starting Nov.15th, but then I saw a few ops offer bull shark diving. Sometimes animal "seasons" are published a bit generously as to the starting and ending month, so I generally don't expect to see a lot of animals the first or last month of the season, but I haven't done this in Mexico.

Has anyone been bull shark diving in Playa del Carmen?
Is November too early?
Recommendations for a good dive op?

I'm booking with Cenotexperience for the cenotes, but they don't offer bull shark diving. This is my first time cenote diving and I want to be wowed!!

 

[Esprise Me]

I did the bull shark dive in December 2018 with Tank-Ha, and we saw plenty of sharks. (Some folks on the dive claimed it was only a half dozen individuals who kept on coming in and out of visual range rather than a few dozen sharks. I had no idea how to tell the difference. In any case, there was hardly a shark-free moment.) There are feeding and non-feeding dive ops; this was a non-feeding op, and I liked the way they ran their trip. One of the more experienced divers in our group thought it was a little lame, just kneeling in one spot as we were instructed to do, though as a new diver I had a great time. And I'd do it again. I don't know whether November is too early though.

 

[rick00001967]

2nd vote for tank ha. contact matt there.

 

[Ontwreckdiver]

I would ask Nico at CenoteXperience who they recommend for Whale shark snorkeling.

 

[Norwegian Cave Diver]

Shark dive is great to see and experience. But a Cenote - well that is an experience that could change your diving forever. Dos Ojos most likely. Let us all know how the dive go!! Enjoy.

 

[Kaveman]

Check out DiveMex. Great shop for bull shark diving. I did it last year with them, but I believe I did it in February or March, which was the end of the season. There were about 7 to 8 sharks that literally were swimming in circles about 5-10 feet away from me.
It was a gide and 2 of us. The other guy fricked out and went back to the boat so it was only me and guide. Great dive! Super fun. DiveMex have 90% rate of finding bull sharks. There is another diveshop with great rates, it's called Playa scuba. Check out both of them. You won't regret it.

 

[Rj1052]

We went last November and got skunked, but the sharks were there the week before we arrived. They thought a weather change may have spooked them off. We ended up going back in Feb and were surrounded by sharks every second of the dive. It was an amazing experience!!

We used Phantom Divers, which is one of the few ops that does feedings. There were 4 divers and 2 guides and I felt that they kept us very safe while putting a focus on the conservation of the sharks.

All of the ops go to the same “Shark Point” and are assigned time slots, so no matter who you go with, it will be at the same location. The site is at 80ft and for safety reasons, a negative entry is required, so AOW is a must. Phantom Divers is extremely close to the dive site and offers a partial refund if no sharks show up. If there aren’t any sharks, they will also let you hand feed the stingrays so the dive isn’t wasted!

And of course the Cenotes are always a blast!! Have a great trip!

 

[living4experiences]

We went last November and got skunked, but the sharks were there the week before we arrived. They thought a weather change may have spooked them off. We ended up going back in Feb and were surrounded by sharks every second of the dive. It was an amazing experience!!

We used Phantom Divers, which is one of the few ops that does feedings. There were 4 divers and 2 guides and I felt that they kept us very safe while putting a focus on the conservation of the sharks.

All of the ops go to the same “Shark Point” and are assigned time slots, so no matter who you go with, it will be at the same location. The site is at 80ft and for safety reasons, a negative entry is required, so AOW is a must. Phantom Divers is extremely close to the dive site and offers a partial refund if no sharks show up. If there aren’t any sharks, they will also let you hand feed the stingrays so the dive isn’t wasted!

mans of course the Cenotes are always a blast!! Have a great trip!

Great information! I was wondering if it was the same site for all the dive ops.

 

[Esprise Me]

FYI, Tank-Ha didn't do negative entries. We backrolled off the boat, gathered on the surface, and then descended together. I had a moment of feeling really overwhelmed and needed to just breathe for a few seconds on the surface, and our guide was totally chill about it. They were also willing to take me as a new diver without AOW if I just did the Adventure Diver (3/5 of the AOW course) including the deep dive, and they let me do the shark dive as the deep dive so I didn't have to wait. I ended up doing the entire AOW course with them and was really happy with the quality of instruction.

 

[Redfoot]

Just curious, is the negative entry due to top current or potential for a bull shark coming up for a nip?
Or something else?