Bull Shark diving in Playa del Carmen

[Mermaid2003]

Has anyone tried the Bull Shark diving in Playa del Carmen? I’m really excited to try it and I’m thinking of doing it with Xico Dive Center because I’ve dived with them a lot and have already built a lot of trust and confidence with their team. I’m torn between the Shark Observation and the Shark Feeding. The feeding dive seems amazing and full of adrenaline, but I love the idea of the observation dive for seeing the bull sharks in their natural habitat. Does anyone have any advice?

 

[NorCalDM]

I've done the Bull Shark dive in Playa about 6-7 years ago. It was fun at the time but looking back it was a little sketchy. We were just laying in the sand in about 60 feet of water with some tuna laying in the sand for the sharks, the safety stop was an adventure in itself. I've done several shark dives around the world and this one was probably the least "controlled". I prefer to see sharks naturally and not baited.

 

[Nitrogenius]

I think no matter the choice you make (feeding or observation dive) the biggest issue is that in fact there is operations that are feeding, so no matter what the shark are associating divers with food, which is the main issue for accidents. So you should be aware of that. Then if you still want to pursue it, the question becomes what is better, them actually getting food and divers present or them having divers present but not getting food (and thus potentially having a higher expectation of being fed). Likely if you want to go observation the best timing is AFTER they have been fed and hopefully well. The latter is what the operation did that I chose, but still as NorCal stated also mine was quite sketchy. On the other hand you don't read a lot about shark attacks in Playa, so maybe it works well..

 

[halocline]

I wouldn’t do it. I would not want to support the practice of feeding the bull sharks. Eventually, this will end very badly for someone. Even if that doesn’t happen, I’m just opposed to the idea of feeding wildlife to facilitate viewing.