Shark behaviour - Beqa Lagoon

[Wiggsy]

The shark feed dive at Beqa Lagoon offers a rare opportunity to see up to 8 species of sharks on the one dive. It was interesting to observe the behaviour of the different Shark species on this dive - the big, fat Bulls come in out of the gloom, hugging the bottom, slinking in and out of the feed...showing very little interest in the divers. The Lemon Shark moves in straight lines - a solo shark with an everpresent escort of Pilot Trevally...it moved swiftly through the feed and out the other side, off into the distance, before turning and returning, again close to the bottom. The Tawny Nurse Sharks were just greedy pigs - showing no fear and little intelligence (sorry!). The Grey Reefies and the Black and White Tip Reef Sharks kept their distance, looking nervous in the presence of the fat Bull Sharks and the much bigger Silvertips. The Silvertips owned the midwater - faster...more aggressive...and probably the snappiest of all. Often they would fly off after a Rainbow Runner or an unfortunate Remora - generally they got away, but one stumpy tailed Remora proved otherwise.

And then there was the king of them all (well, queen actually) - a 15 foot Tiger moved in and everything else paled into insignificance - a huge shark that pretty much went where it wanted, though the dive guides did manage to steer her away from getting too close. She was more curious than aggressive - I'm convinced she just wanted to play in our bubbles! I felt no danger in being less than 3 feet from her. I regard this as the most special moment in 30 years of pretty special diving.

I have a few photos of the 15 foot Tiger shark we dived with - also a 10 foot Silvertip Whaler - just one of the most beautiful creatures in the sea. They can be found in my small gallery here at Scubaboard - or there are more images in a picasa gallery at http://picasaweb.google.com/peninsula99

So if you get the chance - do the Beqa Shark dive. I've done a lot of shark dives before, but this is like nothing I've ever experienced before.

 

[Zeeman]

I hate you.

I did not see the any Tigers when I was there this time last year.

It was an awesome dive though - did you do the wreck? (forgot the name) the one at 30m?

that was also a very cool dive.

Z..

 

[Wiggsy]

Yes, sorry about that. I realise I am not very popular - some of my group insisted on doing the first shark dive (on the Wednesday) and missed out on the Tiger on the Friday. I didn't do the wreck this time round (I was on the shark dive instead). There are two wreck dives at Beqa - one at Carpet Cove and another at John's Tunnel. Both are great dives....but I just can't get the Tiger outta my head right now. I actually went to Tonga a week later and dived with Humpbacks Whales (for about 1 minute), but the Tiger was still so majestic...so impressive!

 

[Scram Bulleggs]

That is really amazing. I want to say I envy you but not sure if I have the nerves for that.

 

[Pegger]

What a great experience. Once in a lifetime!
I'm truly jealous!!

Cheers,

 

[Bill Fisher]

Bula,

Ahhhhhh...yes, SCARFACE.
Now you have me reminiscing of beautiful Beqa island!
I'm glad you were able to meet her.
I had the pleasure in 2006.
You are so correct...it is quite an awesome shark dive, isn't it.

Bula and Vinaka...Seqa na Leqa

Bill

 

[Antarctic-Adventurer]

The shark feed dive at Beqa Lagoon offers a rare opportunity to see up to 8 species of sharks on the one dive. It was interesting to observe the behaviour of the different Shark species on this dive - the big, fat Bulls come in out of the gloom, hugging the bottom, slinking in and out of the feed...showing very little interest in the divers. The Lemon Shark moves in straight lines - a solo shark with an everpresent escort of Pilot Trevally...it moved swiftly through the feed and out the other side, off into the distance, before turning and returning, again close to the bottom. The Tawny Nurse Sharks were just greedy pigs - showing no fear and little intelligence (sorry!). The Grey Reefies and the Black and White Tip Reef Sharks kept their distance, looking nervous in the presence of the fat Bull Sharks and the much bigger Silvertips. The Silvertips owned the midwater - faster...more aggressive...and probably the snappiest of all. Often they would fly off after a Rainbow Runner or an unfortunate Remora - generally they got away, but one stumpy tailed Remora proved otherwise.

And then there was the king of them all (well, queen actually) - a 15 foot Tiger moved in and everything else paled into insignificance - a huge shark that pretty much went where it wanted, though the dive guides did manage to steer her away from getting too close. She was more curious than aggressive - I'm convinced she just wanted to play in our bubbles! I felt no danger in being less than 3 feet from her. I regard this as the most special moment in 30 years of pretty special diving.

I have a few photos of the 15 foot Tiger shark we dived with - also a 10 foot Silvertip Whaler - just one of the most beautiful creatures in the sea. They can be found in my small gallery here at Scubaboard - or there are more images in a picasa gallery at http://picasaweb.google.com/peninsula99

So if you get the chance - do the Beqa Shark dive. I've done a lot of shark dives before, but this is like nothing I've ever experienced before.

Wiggsy, those picasa photos are amazing quality, what camera setup were you using? And darn, you are a lucky mother getting that close to a tiger shark...

 

[Wiggsy]

Thanks for the kind words - I was pretty thrilled at the time - when I first saw that image pop up on the LCD screen I was punching the water and screaiming into my reg....one of the fijian divemasters misinterpreted it as panic and rushed over to check if I was OK? He then saw the biggest smile and realised I was simply in my element - the sea....where I was meant to be.

The camera rig is good, but only 5 megapixel (small by today's standards.) I have an Olympus C5000z in an OLY PT 019 Housing with a Inon d180 strobe. I also hastily screwed on an Epoque wide angle lens as the shark approached. Very cool indeed! And she's not "scarface", but a new young female (yet to be named.)

 

[LIVES4SHARKS]

It's just one more thumb tack on my world map that I want to dive with my shark beauties! Nice report and I am glad to have a kindred spirit who loves the beauty of sharks. I hope you have many more exciting encounters!

Happy diving!
Carolyn:sharks:

 

[BlueDevil]

I was on the same trip with Wiggsy and I have to say that Beqa is a great place for diving. Apart from the shark dive there are some fantastic dive sites over there and some of the best diving I have ever done. Soft corals are certainly one of the highlights of the area.

As for the shark dive I did two days out of the three that we had scheduled for the shark dive. They were great dives but unfortunately the one day that I didn't go was the day the tiger turned up (ie the dive Wiggsy is referring to above). Shame about that! At least it gives me an excuse to return again one day to try to get up close with a tiger! Also as luck would have it the final of the 4 shark dives I did was clearly the best, but for some unkown reason the electronics on my camera "locked up" and I was unable to take any photos for the whole dive (of course as soon as I got back in the boat it started working perfectly again)

The shark photos I did manage to get on the other dives were not as good as I would have liked. I found the lighting conditions quite difficult and the fast moving sharks were creating problems for the camera to focus on. The need to photoshop them to improve colour and contrast has resulted in some graininess. Some of them turned out okay, but not brilliant. I have some general photos of Beqa, along with some shark shots in my Picasa Album at: http://picasaweb.google.com/BlueDevilfish
You will also find a few shark video clips (unedited as yet!) in a seperate album. Will add some more when I get time.

Dave.