Trip Video - Maldives, February/March 2024

[CWK]

Jawdropping, bravo!

Could you give a bit more detail on your itinerary....?

Best,

Rene

The cruise started in Male, going through the eastern side of North Male, South Male, Vaavu, Meemu, Thaa, Laamu, and Gaafu Alifu atolls before crossing to Fuvahmulah and finally to Addu atoll.

 

[Dan]

My experience of tigers in the wild that have not been conditioned by feeding is that they are quite shy.

When you said that you went to 35m to have a closer look at a tiger, I thought it would be on a blue water dive. I would never in a million years have thought that would happen at a baited shark dive at Tiger Zoo. To me, dropping to 35m to have a closer look at a tiger during a baited shark dive would mean that you have ignored safety protocols.

I don't find it at all necessary to provide a defination of blue water diving, which I consider self explanatory.

From my perspective, the Elphinstone video is indicative of a videographer who chases subjects. You are welcome to a different interpretation.

Did you watch my Elphinestone Longimanus video? None of us chased the sharks. We just stay vertical in water column and videod / snapped pictures of them when they swam around us. One of them swam towards us & we had to back off a bit and stay vertical to keep some distance.

Did you watch my Fuvahmulah video? The DM was right behind me to make sure that no Tiger Shark sneaking behind me. There are divers below me too.

Here are two more videos of unbaited Tiger Shark in Cocos. Do those Tiger Sharks look shy?






I have seen Tiger sharks quite a few in baited or unbaited dive sites and none of them shy or skittish like hammerheads.

Diving with Tiger Sharks you need to be aware where they are. Stay vertical to make you look big to them and most importantly keep your eyes on them at all time otherwise, they may bump you from behind like this guy in the video, below. The diver was lucky as the Tiger Shark was just bump on his tank instead of biting a chunk of his shoulder.




It’s useless and stupid to swim towards hammerheads as they’d sprint away and you get nothing good shots. I had to hold my breath, stay still and use no video light to get those skittish sharks coming closer to me.

 

[Dan]

If Tiger Shark in the wild is shy, please explain how this accident happened:

Russian citizen mauled to death by tiger shark off Egypt's Red Sea coast in rare attack

Russian citizen mauled to death by tiger shark off Egypt's Red Sea coast in rare attack CAIRO — A Russian man died after being mauled by a shark on Thursday off one of Egypt’s Red Sea resorts, Egyptian and Russian authorities said. Egypt’s Environment Ministry said the man was killed after being...

scubaboard.com

They are not shy. They are sneaky.

 

[CWK]

Did you watch my Elphinestone Longimanus video? None of us chased the sharks. We just stay vertical in water column and videod / snapped pictures of them when they swam around us. One of them swam towards us & we had to back off a bit and stay vertical to keep some distance.

Did you watch my Fuvahmulah video? The DM was right behind me to make sure that no Tiger Shark sneaking behind me. There are divers below me too.

Here are two more videos of unbaited Tiger Shark in Cocos. Do those Tiger Sharks look shy?






I have seen Tiger sharks quite a few in baited or unbaited dive sites and none of them shy or skittish like hammerheads.

Diving with Tiger Sharks you need to be aware where they are. Stay vertical to make you look big to them and most importantly keep your eyes on them at all time otherwise, they may bump you from behind like this guy in the video, below. The diver was lucky as the Tiger Shark was just bump on his tank instead of biting a chunk of his shoulder.




It’s useless and stupid to swim towards hammerheads as they’d sprint away and you get nothing good shots. I had to hold my breath, stay still and use no video light to get those skittish sharks coming closer to me.

I'm about to depart on a month long trip that will take me to Socorro and Galapagos so I this will be my last response to you.

I have watched part of your Elphinestone Longimanus video. I'll describe the first part of the video involving one shark and lasts about one minute. The video starts with the shark swimming straight towards the camera before veering to the right of the camera. The camera pans to follow the shark and two divers in vertical trim come into view. These two divers are quite still. The camera pans further and a diver in horizontal trim comes into. view. This diver in horizontal trim has a camera and he does a helicopter turn to follow the as the shark swims past him, but he remains relatively static. From the beginning of the video until about 30 seconds, your camera is relatively static, but from 30 seconds until about 1 minute, the camera is in motion. Firstly the camera moves towards the diver in horizontal trim. As the camera moves past the diver in horizontal trim, the shark can be seen heading up the water column and the camera follows the shark up. As the camera almost reaches the same depth as the shark, it starts moving towards the shark. It is the camera that moves towards the shark. My opinion of this is that you were chasing the shark. Please start a new thread if you want to discuss your Elphinestone Longimanus video or any other video that you have posted in this thread. Further discussions of your videos and of you swimming towards sharks belong in a separate thread.

My experience of seeing tigers in at dive sites where no feeding occurs spans from Socorro, French Polynesia, Christmas Island and Maldives. I have yet to. see the tigers at Cocos, but will be doing so later this year. Based on my experience, tigers that are not conditioned by feeding are shy and will flee quite readily. You are at liberty to describe them in any way you choose. Please start a seperate thread if you wish to discuss tigers in Egypt, Cocos, or anywhere else. This is not a thread for you to discuss tigers.

Lastly, please start a new thread if you want to discuss breaching Maldivian depth limits during the baited shark dive at Tiger Zoo. This is not a thread for discussing your behaviour or misbehaviour during that baited shark dive at Tiger Zoo.