Shark diving
- Thread starter RRbbb
- Start date
-
- Tags
- shark diving
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
Maybe we can buddy up and I’ll have the best of both worlds
tarponchik
Contributor
They say that sharks are likely color blind.
Dan
Contributor
No wonder we didn’t see Emma until the 5th dive day. MV Shear Water (Jim Abernathy’s boat?) was there in 4 of 5 days we were there. The boat left Tiger Beach on our 5th dive day. That’s when Emma showed up. We had a field day keeping eyes of 4 Tiger Sharks that day. It was a blast!
Wow, Emma is much bigger than I thought. She looked like a 12 footer to me, not a 15 footer as mentioned by Jim.
Wow, Emma is much bigger than I thought. She looked like a 12 footer to me, not a 15 footer as mentioned by Jim.
tarponchik
Contributor
This has got to be one of my favorite threads, and thanks to all who have contributed. I'm researching the very best month(s) and the very best shark dive operation to see hammerheads and tigers at Tiger Beach. I've read the season is October to May, and based on the sold out bookings on various operators' websites, it seems to be January and February. Are hammerheads still at Tiger Beach in March? What months have you seen them?
What dive operators would you recommend? I'm not a critic of shark feeding, so that aspect doesn't matter.
I've done shark feed dives at Stuart Cove's in Nassau, Exuma Cay with Aqua Cat, St. Maarten, and Belize, but my top pick is Tiger Beach.
To the original OP's question, I have hot pink fins and I wear a hot pink Lycra cap and no dive operator has ever told me I couldn't wear those. I have never experienced any excited or aggressive behavior by the sharks towards me wearing pink. Perhaps with the Tiger Beach operators it's just a matter of precaution not based in any science in order to help protect the divers if you appear to be in a solid neutral color.
What dive operators would you recommend? I'm not a critic of shark feeding, so that aspect doesn't matter.
I've done shark feed dives at Stuart Cove's in Nassau, Exuma Cay with Aqua Cat, St. Maarten, and Belize, but my top pick is Tiger Beach.
To the original OP's question, I have hot pink fins and I wear a hot pink Lycra cap and no dive operator has ever told me I couldn't wear those. I have never experienced any excited or aggressive behavior by the sharks towards me wearing pink. Perhaps with the Tiger Beach operators it's just a matter of precaution not based in any science in order to help protect the divers if you appear to be in a solid neutral color.
Dan
Contributor
From my limited experience with Sharks and what I have heard from the shark guide & wranglers, during the shark feeding, we are all smell like fish food to the sharks. Anything that looks like fish flesh (exposed white skin like hands without gloves and waving around like lightly weighted beginner divers on the sandy bottom trying to balance themselves in position) may be mistaken as you are offering food to the sharks. You would also need to cover blonde ponytail that would be waving in the water like fish flesh.
During poor visibility, the sharks may no longer be relying on their vision and starting to bump test anything. Even my blue fins were targeted. I had to push their forehead down to the sand and lift my fins away from their mouth, hoping my pushing down their forehead would trigger their tonic immobility response. In all the cases I have seen there, after you do that, the sharks would just swim away and make another round to the milk crate, where the guide put the fish food in.
The important thing is to keep eyes on the Tiger Sharks. You see what happened when a diver wasn’t looking at the Tiger Shark in my video previously. Luckily the Tiger Shark was just bump tested his air hose and let it go. Nothing bad happened.
During poor visibility, the sharks may no longer be relying on their vision and starting to bump test anything. Even my blue fins were targeted. I had to push their forehead down to the sand and lift my fins away from their mouth, hoping my pushing down their forehead would trigger their tonic immobility response. In all the cases I have seen there, after you do that, the sharks would just swim away and make another round to the milk crate, where the guide put the fish food in.
The important thing is to keep eyes on the Tiger Sharks. You see what happened when a diver wasn’t looking at the Tiger Shark in my video previously. Luckily the Tiger Shark was just bump tested his air hose and let it go. Nothing bad happened.
tarponchik
Contributor
My understanding is, the Hammerheads are watched at Bimini, not at Tiger Beach.
Dan
Contributor
The following video by Lax-Sharks has some very good info that may answer some of your questions.
Similar threads
