Shark Diving in the Bahamas

The beautiful corals of the Bahamas

Almost every Scuba diver lists Tiger Beach in the Bahamas as a bucket list destination, and for good reason. It’s one of the only places where you can almost be guaranteed encounters with tiger sharks without the need to be in a cage. Having so much about this scuba diving mecca we decided that it was a place we needed to check out and after a long, cold winter heading to The Bahamas in April seemed like a perfect match - sun, sea, scuba and hopefully tiger sharks.

As my previous blog post suggests, diving in the northeast of the USA is tough, ice diving is not for the faint hearted, even if you are a complete scuba addict like myself, so while thawing out after that experience we decided that it would be a great idea to book a trip to The Bahamas. Having never been before we started by looking at how best to get there and found it was relatively easy to fly from Boston to Ft Lauderdale and then connect on a flight to Grand Bahama. Tiger Beach is located about a two hour boat ride off of the west end of Grand Bahama and so we thought that for this trip it would be best to base ourselves on just the one island and work it out from there. What became immediately apparent was that this would be different to booking a trip back in Southeast Asia - in Asia things were far more resort based and therefore less to try and book. Here the best options for Tiger Beach were live aboard boats, but this time they didnt really fit with out budget or timeframe so things would need to be land based. Researching operators who offered trips to Tiger Beach on a day basis came up with one standout operator, Epic Diving, who run daily trips out on there boat to Tiger Beach and had great reviews. Luckily they also had availibity for the dates we would be there and recommended at least two days to make sure that if there was inclement weather one day you didnt miss out completely. With that booked we managed to find a nice hotel at the west end, Old Bahama Bay which had space as well. Finally, we decided that as we had two days at Tiger Beach booked we would start out at an all inclusive resort in Nassau first to ease our way into things and it also had a dive centre too which made for bonus as we could get a few warm up dives under our belts as well.

With everything booked time fly by and soon it was time to depart. As we were flying from Boston, we took the opportunity to take in a Boston Celtics basketball game the night before so we travelled up and booked a hotel near the airport. The game was fantastic with the Celtics grabbing a win and thankfully it didn’t finish too late as we had an early flight to catch in the morning. Thankfully the alarms did their work and we woke up on time and caught the flight from Boston to Ft Lauderdale, even with an hours delay on the tarmac. In Ft Lauderdale we had to change terminals but managed to board our flight to the Bahamas on time without too much drama. The flight was only about an hour and I sat glued to the window watching as we flew over the crystal clear water - it felt like an eternity since we’d had the opportunity to go to a place like this! Once landed and through customs it was simple taxi ride to our first resort, a Wyndham all inclusive hotel which also boasted a Scuba diving centre as well. I’m not sure what I had in mind, in Asia all inclusive resorts were normally high end, luxurious affairs. Here, it was slightly different. Food was served in a central buffet and while not awful, was certainly not what I was expecting. However, the resort was perfectly fine and we made our way to our room and got settled in. I made my way down to the scuba centre to check in and say hello to the staff ahead of diving the next day. We were due to do one dive the following day and a couple the day after so which would be sufficient to ensure we were ready for tiger beach. I was super excited and after having a couple of cold beers on the beach and evening dinner we hit the hay early as we were pretty shattered from the day travelling. The next morning I woke up early and proceeded to set up my camera gear so that I knew it would all work correctly. After breakfast we headed back to the room to grab our gear and went to the dive centre ahead of our dives. The staff were friendly and showed us where to get ready and showed us our rental gear - because we only had hand luggage on the flights over I was limited to just my camera. Once all ready were headed to the boat where we set off for a reef about ten minutes away. I was super excited to dive in warm tropical waters again - I got into the water with a giant stride entry and soon was handed my camera from the boat - as soon as everyone had gathered we descended and I marvelled at the visibility - the water was so clear it must have been 30-40m vis which is outstanding. The corals looked vibrant and healthy too which was a great sign, although not as many fish as I had been expecting - I guess all the years diving in Asia have spoiled me and I expect every dive to be an aquarium! Still, I really enjoyed the dive, I felt relaxed and I was getting used to my new camera set up as well so the omens were good! The dive lasted about 40 minutes and I didnt really want to get out, but as they say, all good things must come to pass and so I hopped out onto the boat. If this was the fist dive then I was looking forward to the two dives we had the next day - one was due to be at shark alley which I was looking forwards to. Once we got back to the resort we showered off and went for lunch, however, while looking out of the window I could see the clouds gathering in the distance and it looked as if our luck may be about to make a turn for the worse. Unfortunately there appeared to be a storm rolling on which put diving the next day at risk. Still, there is nothing you can do to change it so I relaxed with a cold beer and reviewed some of the photos I had taken in the morning. The next day I woke up and looked out of the window to see palm trees nearly horizontal and white tops on the waves which meant that we would be diving, it was a shame, but it was our last day at the Wyndham resort and so I had my fingers crossed that we would miss out on much and the winds would die down. After spending the day relaxing, getting a massage and packing up we were ready to check out the next day and move onto our next destination at the west end of Grand Bahama and dive with the tiger sharks. We booked a taxi to take us up to our new temporary home, when we arrived I immediately felt at home, nicely kept, spacious grounds, beautiful chalets and a marina with a restaurant/bar there - the place was perfect. Unfortunately the wind still hadn’t died down and our dive operator for the next day, Epic Diving called to say that the next days diving had been canceled due to the weather but that they were hopeful for the day after, Thursday. Still, I consoled myself with he fact that there were worse places to be stuck in, far, far worse! We headed to the cute little tiki bar by the beach that was open for some lunch - it was a little windy, but the food was good as was the company of the staff who kept us amused. The next day was pretty similar, eat, sleep, relax, repeat, but there was good news, the weather was forecast to get better on Thursday and the trip was on! I was ecstatic to hear this and spent several hours preparing my camera gear again to make sure I didn’t miss a shot - having missed a couple of days diving so far I wanted to make the next days scuba diving count!

A Tiger Shark swimming across the white sands of the Bahamas

I awoke the next morning feel very excited but also slightly nervous, was I really paying good money to jump in the water with 16ft apex predators just to take some pictures? Was I crazy?! After breakfast we got our gear and then waited by the marina, the team at Epic had been good enough to say they would come and pick us up on the boat from the marina as it was on the way and they needed to refuel there. As the boat moored up alongside us to refuel we hopped aboard and met the team on the boat - Epic diving is run by a husband and wife (Vincent & Debra Canabal) team from the US who are super passionate about what they do - it really does show in how they go about their business. Once we had set off towards Tiger Beach which was roughly 2-3 hours away from the West End of Grand Bahama Vincent came and gave us a briefing about what to expect and safety precautions. It was at this point that I started to question my sanity again, was I really paying for the privilege of swimming alongside a fish that could eat me?! He explained that the diving was safe, if we followed a number of simple guidelines - always maintain eye contact with the sharks, keep something, such as a camera or white plastic pole in-between you and the shark and you should be good. Once we got close we all began to kit up and get ready, we had to wear a lot go weight on us to keep us anchored on the bottom, we wouldn’t be moving about, but staying in a “V” formation not moving about too much. While we were kitting up the captain and Vincent added some chum to the water and soon enough a number of lemon sharks began to appear and pretty soon after the main event - the tigers! We performed a giant stride off the back of the boat and sank down to the bottom very quickly due to the weight we were wearing, thankfully it was only around 8m deep otherwise with the rate of descent it could have caused some problems being able to equalise in time. I could feel my heart pumping, partly with nerves, partly with excitement as we got into formation. However, as soon as the first shark swam by all the nerves evaporated away - they really were majestic and I felt awestruck by being able to see these magnificent creatures in their natural setting. I began to quickly take a few shots to adjust my settings on the camera, having not dived properly for a while it took a few minutes to get everything dialled in - the first few shots were definitely over exposed. But, it didn’t take too long to get everything dialled in to where I was happy and from then on in I could shoot happily. On this dive, two sharks turned up to swim around us, which was quite reassuring as to have more being a novice at this sort of thing would have been difficult but time flew by as the tigers swam round us and took the fish from Vincent who was at the centre of the “V” formation. It really was unlike anything I have ever done, once the dive had finished we swam as a group back to the surface and exited the water one by one - due to the amount of weight we were wearing it was a little bit of a strain on the leg muscles climbing up but I managed and sat down with a huge smile on my face. We enjoyed our surface interval having a light snack and watching the lemon sharks play around at the surface and before long our time was up and we were ready to head back down for our second dive. Everyone kitted up quickly and strode off the back of the boat for the second dive, this time four sharks decided to show up and swim around us - I did feel like I couldn’t relax and had to watch them to make sure one didn’t try and sneak up on me - again the time flew by. Just kneeling on the sandy bottom watching the sharks soon by us was such a thrill, a turtle even swam by in the distance, being careful to keep its distance from the Tiger Sharks and a regular grouper also showed up feeling on the bits of fish that weren’t hoovered up by the sharks. He must have been brave as one of the sharks could have decided to swallow him whole in a fraction of a second. All too soon the dive was over and we again headed back to the surface - what an experience! The boat turned around and we headed back to Grand Bahama, thankfully the water was now like glass, not a wave in site as we cut through the water basking in the warmth of the sun. Everyone was talking excitedly about what we had just done and how amazing it was. We soon arrived back at the dock and unloaded everything from the boat and headed back to our hotel with huge smiles - we swam with Tiger sharks and survived to tell the tale!

Up close & personal!

The whole experience was amazing, it was a shame that due to bad weather we lost a day of diving with the sharks, while I got some good shots I would have liked to do a second day to try and get a few better angles, however, I really must not complain - we were so lucky to be able to do what we just did. It’s an experience I really want to repeat and hope to do so again soon, as for our tour operator - I cannot speak highly enough of Epic Diving and would thoroughly recommend them to anyone.

A Tiger Shark swims across a sea grass bed