diving with sharks

[leos_rule]

this might be a stupid question but do many people dive with medium sized sharks like hammerheads. id love to dive with em sometime but im prob goin at a bit ahead of myself as i have only dived once in a pool..... but im getting there.

thanks,
stephen

 

[cdiver2]

this might be a stupid question but do many people dive with medium sized sharks like hammerheads. id love to dive with em sometime but im prob goin at a bit ahead of myself as i have only dived once in a pool..... but im getting there.

thanks,
stephen

I think you will find that the combined experience of the people on this board have dived with everything, dont rush it it will all come to you as you move along in your diving. I envy you your fist encounters to come.

 

[Scubakevdm]

Hey! You know we have some hammerheads down here from time to time. It's kind of a treat to get to see them. Most of the hammerheads I've seen have been kinda shy. They seem to like to stay right on the edge of visibility and just skirt around us most of the time, but if they're motivated to eat, they don't seem to care to much about anything else. Hyperfocused, you know? Anyway, the ones I usually see are scalloped... 9 or 10' sharks. I guess that's medium large. Every once in a while we'll get a great hammerhead. They come in XL and XXL.

 

[DiverDave76]

Dove with Hammerheads and Whale Sharks in the Galapagos this past summer. The first dive I had with hammerheads was incredible. Before I knew it, they were everywhere, but they weren't interested in us. ocassionally one would come in for a closer look but for the most part they stayed away. We did 4 dives that day, each dive was full of hammerheads, but it wasn't until the 4th when we saw our firt whale shark. Suddenly as you get next to this thing you tend to forget about hammerheads! That first day of diving with those creatures will was the thrill of a lifetime and is forever emblazened in my memory! 20 year dream come true. I look forward to the next encounter with one of these majestic creatures...but there is nothing like the first time!

Dave

 

[pitah]

According to this link: http://travel.discovery.com/fansites/worldsbest/sharkdive/sharkdive.html


this are the best places to dive with sharks.

10. Singapore Underwater World, Singapore

9. San Diego, California

8. Dyer Island (Shark Alley), South Africa

7. Surin Islands, Thailand

6. Neptune Islands, South Australia
5. Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt

4. The Maldives

3. Papua New Guinea

2. Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

1. Cocos Island, Costa Rica


i´been at galapagos, lots of sharks (galapagos, hammerhead, white tip, silky)
and will go to baja california in search for some more sharks... also i now that guadalupe island, and revillagigedo both in mexico are great places to see sharks.

 

[DORSETBOY]

I dived with grey whalers in Oz and Bull sharks in Thailand.
Like anything else in the water you just need to respect the fact that they're in their natural element and we're not!

Your best bet would be to ask the operators where you'll be diving what procedures they recommend inwater and to dive under supervision of a local dive guide whose familiar with them/

 

[neilstewart]

Go to White Sands, Maldives in May and dive with some whale sharks, check out some prices it really is not as expensive as you may imagine.

Neil

 

[hammerhead man]

Know your feeling. The first sharks I saw were nurse sharks in Cozumel. Didn't want to get to close. Then we dove with reef sharks in the Cayman Islands and I realized that they were not interested in me, they were just curious. I no longer have a fear of sharks but I do have a respect for them. It is a tremendous experience diving with them. I recently took a dive trip to the Turks and Caicos and there were sharks on every dive (mostly caribbean and nurse sharks). Had a great experience on one dive when we were visited by a 12-14 foot hammerhead. He made 4 passes at our dive group and came within 7-10 feet of me. It was an awesome experience. You just never know what's going to show up on a dive!!!!!! You should just enjoy the moment when it happens.

 

[hantzu701]

In my limited experience, it's pretty tough to see a shark. They don't like our bubbles very much. When I have seen them, they are either close to the surface or circling on the bottom. Each time has been a true privilage!

The ones on the surface have been sharks that have come up to check my buddy and myself out. I think these encounters are a little more scary as 1) the reason ur on the surface or at 15 ft is because ur air is low. Descending to the coral is not an option. 2) they have the habit of just circling at the fringe of visibility.

I know sharks have a small brain, but they seem pretty smart to me. Almost every shark that I've encounter either 1) stays at the fringe of vis or 2) sneaks up on your 6 o'clock.

The sudden encounters have changed me. I am less scared and more respectful of these creatures.

 

[obxdivemaster]

I dive with sharks everyday during our dive season. The vast majority are sand tigers, but I've had encounters/sightings of 12 different species. These include nurse, black tip, white tip, hammerhead, bull, dusky, lemon, blue, mako, and a few others. I don't have my list handy - I'm like the birders. They have their bird lists, I have my shark list. It's one of my goals to dive with as many different species as possible.

The hammerheads I've seen are by far the shyest. With them is usually only a quick glance. The opposite end of the spectrum is the bulls and they've provided the scariest encounters. On more than one occasion I've had a bull circle me and get in my face with an agressive posture. Yelling and blowing air in their face from a spare second stage seems to discourage them, as well as, becoming agressive yourself and moving towards them. A good hard blow to the nose from a speargun butt, a dive hammer, crowbar, or whatever you have handy, seems to work well too.

The sand tigers are just there. They're curious and will come check you out occasionally, but mostly they could care less about you being there. Unless, of course it's breeding time and you're among a bunch of males. They will get very close trying to figure out if they can mate with you. They remind me of a bunch of human males in a bar when it's getting close to closing time.

At any rate diving with sharks is an exhilirating experience that, despite having done it hundreds of time, I still get excited.

If you're interested in diving with sharks, I'd definately check out the Hatteras, NC or Moorehead City, NC. I saw the show the Discovery Channel list came from, and I had to laugh at some of the locations. We put a lot of them to shame as far as the number and size of sharks. Plus you'll be diving historic shipwrecks to boot.