Trip Report Tiger Beach and Bimini on the Dolphin Dream, March 11-19, 2022

[Dan]

I think all 9 of us + Finch & Josh were in the water most of the time. I saw as many as 6 or 7 Tiger Sharks at one time. I’m checking my video clips when Finch raising his fingers as he counted the Tiger sharks and identifying them. I remember him raising as many as 8 fingers, but I was too far to see the other Tiger Sharks.

 

[scubadada]

Hi Richard,

On the first dive on March 16, we had 7 named sharks. On the second dive that day, we had 6 named sharks. We also had 5 unnamed sharks over those 2 dives. There were often 3 or 4 or 5 Tiger Sharks in the direct vicinity of the feeding station. Others would be circling, on their way back. Everyone had to constantly look to the sides and back to keep track of the sharks that were not to the front.

Jenn would often nudge some of the smaller Tiger Sharks out of the way if she was intent on swimming through.

 

[Dan]

You can actually see Dolphin Dream boat from Google Earth by zooming to Tiger Beach location, 25 miles north from West End, as shown, below:

 

[living4experiences]

Excelle

Sorry, no photos yet. My wife and I just became first time grandparents when our granddaughter was born two days after I flew home from Florida. I'll be leaving for a week on the Belize Aggressor IV a week from today. I will post some photos when I find the time to go through them, there must be a few good ones.

In the meantime, @Dan has some gorgeous videos, perhaps he will post them here

Excellent trip report!

 

[scubadada]

You can actually see Dolphin Dream boat from Google Earth by zooming to Tiger Beach location, 25 miles north from West End, as shown, below:

View attachment 715247

The Dolphin Dream has a permanent 2 pin mooring on the reef off the bow. We did our shark feeding dives not too far off the stern in the sand. I explored the reef with the mooring a couple of times on our free swims. There were a bunch of Reef Sharks, some Lemon and Nurse Sharks and a pretty good representation of usual reef fish. There was a huge school of Jacks and a school of Bermuda Chub

 

[Dan]

I must say @scubadada took good notes and wrote very thorough & detailed trip report, better than what I wrote for my last trip report to Tiger Beach, 5 months ago, Trip Report - Tiger Beach October 2021

On my previous trip, we were just staying in Tiger Beach and didn’t see Great Hammerhead, nor had a chance to swim with Spotted Dolphins. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to go early in the year, instead of later in the year this time and I have never been in Bimini also.

 

[Lorenzoid]

It says a lot that you did this twice in five months, @Dan. I guess it's a relatively easy trip for a relatively exotic experience.

 

[Dan]

I haven’t seen Great Hammerhead & Spotted Dolphins before this trip. So, this trip full filled my wish. I got the itches scratched. Also, going with 3 dive buddies that I know of, drive me to come back.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Sounds like a great trip. Glad you guys got to go. If I interpret correctly from the videos, the great hammerhead was a bit quicker moving, a tad more tense looking, than the tiger sharks tended to be. On my shark feeding dive trip to Jupiter, FL, I only had one dive with more than 1 tiger shark at once, and that was 2. Having more than 1 to watch out for upped the tension a bit. How many were you guys in-water with on a given dive?

Richard.

I haven't done Bimini yet, but we had Scylla/Patches (the name seems to depend on the dive op) turn up my second time at Tiger Beach. Most of the great hammerheads I've seen have been off Jupiter, where the usual rule is if you breathe too loud they won't come in. By contrast the big Bahamian ones are bolder, yet the rule "never chase after the hammerheads" is very much in effect - at Tiger Beach we had one photographer who ignored that; I was able to get some good shots staying where I was and letting her swim right over me. They have a much greater need for personal space than the big tigers, who have no qualms about bowling divers and other sharks over if they're in the way.

 

[Dan]

I haven't done Bimini yet, but we had Scylla/Patches (the name seems to depend on the dive op) turn up my second time at Tiger Beach. Most of the great hammerheads I've seen have been off Jupiter, where the usual rule is if you breathe too loud they won't come in. By contrast the big Bahamian ones are bolder, yet the rule "never chase after the hammerheads" is very much in effect - at Tiger Beach we had one photographer who ignored that; I was able to get some good shots staying where I was and letting her swim right over me. They have a much greater need for personal space than the big tigers, who have no qualms about bowling divers and other sharks over if they're in the way.

Princess, the Great Hammerhead in Bimini, is also called Gaia by other dive operator.

Bowling divers, that’s a good phrase to use. On my previous trip to Tiger Beach, I saw Daisy doing that, so I called her Dozer Daisy, as she would just bulldoze anything in the way of her snack. She just bit the head of a Lemon Shark when the Lemon Shark was in the line of fire, as shown in this video, below.