The variety of underwater activities is incredibly broad: from exploring coral reefs to visiting caves and exploring shipwrecks. Among them, diving with sharks holds a special place as one of the most extreme types of this hobby.
If the art of underwater diving is mastered at the highest level in general, you can go to such a complicated form of this entertainment. Increased attention, precision movements, risk with caution, a sea of adrenaline and vivid entertainment – all these are the constant components of diving with sharks. Only strong and brave divers with lightning quick reaction to changes in underwater conditions and no fear to challenge the most bloodthirsty predators of the seas and oceans can afford such water recreation.
Basic varieties
Diving with sharks provides two standard options: the safest with the use of bait and more extreme – without the bait, when the object of attraction of marine predators act as divers themselves. Also, diving to sharks can be carried out in metal cages for maximum safety or without protective structures at your own risk. It is worth considering that in some regions free diving with sharks is prohibited, and such extreme diving is only possible in protective cages.
Sharks can be baited in advance by employees of those diving centers, which offer this kind of entertainment, or divers, going on such an extreme walk, take a prepared bait. Usually the food is spread on the bottom, and predators run to the smell of the bait. It is not safe to feed from hands, because you can easily lose a limb (and such unfortunate cases are known). In addition, being near sharks, arranging serious battles for food – is also not very safe for divers. Therefore, a better option is to throw a piece of meat into the water from the boat or yacht to attract sharks and dive from the boat only when the predators are satiated.
Diving with sharks without feeding is carried out at your own risk by those extremists who do not mind to tickle the nerves of a thrill. But still most often such an extreme is allowed only in areas where there are the safest species of sharks for humans. Usually it happens this way. When near the boat with divers flashed fins sharks sound the command “Sharks!” and, if the predators are not large, carried out a dive. In this case, both divers and the captain of the boat should not forget about the safety of diving from the boat.
With a large number of divers, the sharks usually behave playfully, but a cunning tactic is used. Sea predators tend to wrest one of the divers away from the group. Such a person is guaranteed more vivid impressions, but you should remember the rules of conduct in such cases, so as not to accidentally turn from an actor and a spectator of this underwater theater in the banal meal of sharks. Extreme diving is extreme, but safety underwater, as well as on the water, should always be in the first place.
Tips for safe diving with sharks
– Calmness on the part of the diver going on a date with sharks is one of the basic rules of safe diving. It is important to exercise caution, but not fear. Like any other predators, sharks attack only those who are afraid of them.
– It is not necessary to attract the attention of marine predators with unnecessary gestures. Being near the sharks, you should make smooth slow movements. It is even better to observe the marine predators, freezing in place, thereby creating an effect of invisibility to them. It is also important to remember not to turn your back to the sharks.
– Under no circumstances should you dive with fresh cuts and wounds.
– It is not necessary to touch the sharks and try to take pictures with a flash – the consequences may be very sad.
– For diving with sharks is desirable to use dark suits and equipment – as little metal parts as possible.
– Diving with sharks is not recommended at dusk, when these predators are particularly active. With changes in depth and in turbid water such an entertainment is extremely undesirable.
– When doing scuba diving in those areas where you are likely to meet with sharks, it is desirable not to drag a harpooned prey, and immediately lift it into the boat on the surface.
The best places for diving with sharks
The most popular places for diving with sharks are South Africa, Australia, Cuba, and California. Depending on the location of the site you can meet with different representatives of the bloodthirsty predators of the seas and oceans, ranging from whale sharks to hammerhead sharks. For example, you can swim with whale sharks in the Maldives, Mexico and Vietnam. In the Bahamas, you can swim near harmless lemon sharks, and in the Philippines and Seychelles, you can dive with whale sharks, considered some of the most tranquil.
The Bahamas are considered a true paradise for divers. Here connoisseurs of extreme underwater entertainment are offered the opportunity to admire a peculiar “underwater rodeo”, when the slightly baited sharks arrange fights with each other. Bull sharks can be found near Bimini Island and tiger sharks near Tiger Beach. But like in South Africa and Australia, shark diving here is only possible in sturdy iron cages – free swimming is not allowed. But in Hawaii, there are up to 40 species of sharks, and diving with them here is possible both in a cage and in free float.
Experienced extreme divers claim that diving with sharks among underwater entertainment gives one of the most vivid impressions and with these feelings no other dive is comparable. This kind of entertainment is not for the faint-hearted, but as you know, he who does not take chances does not drink champagne, and a real diver is not the one who has not tasted all the facets of this hobby.
Practical Tips
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