Trip Report My Review and Video of Bull Shark Dive

[Tina L]

I had previously done shark dives in Bahamas, Sint Maarten and of course, saw tons of them during my Galapagos liveaboard trip. For my final dive during my recent, long awaited return to tropical dive trip in Cozumel, I decided to take in the bull shark dive over in Playa del Carmen on the mainland since this was during the season when pregnant female bull sharks are found there from November to March. For this special shark dive, I used Phantom Divers.

The briefing for this bull shark dive was at their dive shop and one of the things I had to do was borrow some of their rental fins since my new orange Scubapro Seawing Nova Gorilla fins were considered too bright for this dive and may attract unwanted attention from the bull sharks to my feet. There are two types of bull shark dives offered here.

The first is a shallow dive that is done near where the bull sharks are thought to be but the better experience that will have divers right up close to them is the feeding dive where the site is deep at 85 feet. For this bull shark feeding dive, we were to remain stationary at the bottom holding onto a rope set in place for 25 minutes. We were overweighted in order to help remain at the bottom. The Phantom Divers crew were great at checking each diver to make sure their gear was okay and even assembled our weights for us.

Each dive shop in Playa del Carmen that runs bull shark dives are allocated specific times during the day to do them in order to have only one boat at a time at the feeding site. So we had to wait our turn for the 3 pm start and had to get to the bottom quickly since the clock was ticking for our dive time.

Since it is a deep dive, the divemasters warned us that our dive computers might go into the red zone for decompression and that's exactly what happened to mine towards the end of the bull shark dive. When it was time to go up, my dive computer just went into the red zone even though I had lots of air left at 2,000 PSI. My Atomic Cobalt 2 dive computer flashed a safety stop of one minute at 40 feet then a second safety stop for three minutes at 15 feet. By the time I did both safety stops, I was at half tank at the surface which was still lots of air remaining in my tank.

When I saw the bull sharks, I found them quite entertaining to watch mainly because of their body shape. Compared to all the other sharks I've seen before, the bull sharks were quite boxy in my opinion which made them look even a bit comical. They sort of reminded me of Sherman from the comic strip Sherman's Lagoon.

One thing different from this bull sharks dive and the other shark dives I've done, is that there were a lot of greedy smaller fish including a small stingray at the dive site all hoping to get some food action. Personally I found them a bit distractive since the real stars are the bull sharks and as you will see in the video footage below, sometimes they blocked out the views of the sharks. This was certainly not the case in the other shark dives I went on.

Here the fish and the little stingray were not shy as they circled around the feeding site very close to the divers. I even felt a couple of nibbles on my gloved fingers from some of these little fish.

So even though I've seen many sharks during past dives, I'm really glad that I did this one since I've never seen bull sharks before and they looked quite different from other shark species I've seen mainly because of their boxy shapes. If you are into sharks and in Cozumel during November to March, I would highly recommend that you get over to Playa del Carmen for a day or two to do this bull sharks dive.


Phantom Divers are one of the most experienced dive ops running bull shark dives (they claim they pioneered them) and I would recommend them. Note that you will need to meet at their shop with your gear if you are bringing your own and they are a 30 second walk to the beach where their boat will be (so not a hotel pickup op). Like with the other dive ops, this bullshark feeding dive is pricey at $160 US (for a single dive) but it's a rare chance to see bull sharks. Also if you are bringing a DIN regulator, I highly suggest that you bring a DIN to yoke adapter because their DIN tank on the boat failed and they did not have an allen wrench to remove inserts from the yoke tanks. Fortunately I brought my own adapter which saved the dive.

I want to thank you for this. I'm just begining to research this exact dive. I will be going in December. I thought I would do Cozumel, while there. Did you do that? Can I hire a photographer for the perfect shot? Did they let you use a GoPro for the video? I wonder if I can get a still pic. I would like to blow it up, and put it on canvas for the wall. Where did you stay? Did you like it?
Once again, a humble thanks for the post.
Your friend in salt water,
Tina

 

[Volleyball]

I want to thank you for this. I'm just begining to research this exact dive. I will be going in December. I thought I would do Cozumel, while there. Did you do that? Can I hire a photographer for the perfect shot? Did they let you use a GoPro for the video? I wonder if I can get a still pic. I would like to blow it up, and put it on canvas for the wall. Where did you stay? Did you like it?
Once again, a humble thanks for the post.
Your friend in salt water,
Tina

I did this in 2020 with Phantom and am planning to do it in late Dec this year

You asked about Phantom Divers, I only know of them as they're the shop that feeds them, they go out of Playa Del Carmen. I have no idea if Coz has boats that go out directly from there but worst case, there is a Coz to PdC ferry, just need to ensure the times align

Again, I can only speak for Phantom, they allow you to bring your cameras and there will be a pro photographer selling footage. Maybe you can even book a special photo session with phantom

FYI, never believe any dive shop's BS that says because their DMs/guides don't feed the sharks, they're somehow more responsible or ethical. You're seeing the sharks because one dive shop (Phantom) is feeding them. If they stop feeding them, you wouldn't see them so you are directly supporting human interaction with marine life by diving with shops that don't actually feed them

 

[cleung]

The thing that is different with these bull shark feeding dives compared with the other shark dives I've done in Bahamas and Sint Maarten, the bull sharks are seasonal. Therefore outside of November to March, they don't come around which suggests that the rest of the year, they have not become dependent on handouts from humans.

As for why I selected Phantom, they just seemed to have a combo of the experience, schedule and location for my trip. I stayed at an Airbnb that was within easy walking distance. My stay in Playa was after my stay over in Cozumel. I took the ferry to Playa after my Cozumel dive days (I wrote a report on Scuba Club Cozumel) and was picked up near the ferry terminal by Ghost Divers whom I used for a cenotes dive day. Then I did the bullshark dive with Phantom the next day.

 

[Volleyball]

The thing that is different with these bull shark feeding dives compared with the other shark dives I've done in Bahamas and Sint Maarten, the bull sharks are seasonal. Therefore outside of November to March, they don't come around which suggests that the rest of the year, they have not become dependent on handouts from humans.

As for why I selected Phantom, they just seemed to have a combo of the experience, schedule and location for my trip. I stayed at an Airbnb that was within easy walking distance. My stay in Playa was after my stay over in Cozumel. I took the ferry to Playa after my Cozumel dive days (I wrote a report on Scuba Club Cozumel) and was picked up near the ferry terminal by Ghost Divers whom I used for a cenotes dive day. Then I did the bullshark dive with Phantom the next day.

All the PdC bulls are pregnant females coming to their "ice cream" hence why it's seasonal. Phantom, as of early 2021, was the sole feeder but I'm now told multiple shops that feed them