The World’s Best Shark Dive
When someone finds out that I photograph sharks for a living, they invariably ask two questions: Have I ever been bitten and where is the best place to dive with sharks. I’m pretty good at answering the first question: “No, I haven’t. In fact, most sharks want nothing to do with me. I have to hold my breath and avoid eye contact just to get close to them”. This often leads to a period of confusion and disbelief followed by a funny look of disappointment. Then they generally walk away nursing their shaken preconceptions. I can’t be sure but I think a lot of them are thinking; what does he know? He just photographs them. I’ve seen Jaws. This guy is an idiot. The second question is vastly more difficult to answer because I have never been able to decide where the best place to go shark diving is. It [...]
Categories: featured, Scuba diving destinations, Shark Diving, Types of Diving Tags: Cocos Island, Fish Rock, Guadalupe Island, jaws, shark attack, shark dive, shark diving, sharks
Cano Island Diving
Cano island is on the south pacific coast of Costa Rica. From my base in Manual Antonio it is around a 2 hour boat ride south, but that is going to reduced soon, thanks to the arrival of speedier transport. Cano island is a national park in itself so is subject to certain rules and regulations when visiting. You have to make reservations to start with , no rocking up the day of, and even when you are there you have to check before you dive, as there are limits to only 10 divers per sight. The north side of the island is the side that is open to the public and home to a ranger station and some very basic facilities. The reef runs all around the island but there are 7 specific dive spots that are drop points for diving. Saying that, most of the diving seems to [...]
The Dogfish Debate
The spiny dogfish Squalus acanthias is not the type of sexy shark that Spielberg would make a movie about. No one has ever been terrorized by a mud shark. Fishermen sometimes get jabbed by a fin spine when they are trying to remove dogfish from their nets but other than that dogfish are more or less harmless. Perhaps that was true until a few years ago when (according to fishermen) spiny dogfish became public enemy number one. If they are to be believed, dogfish are now the biggest natural threat to the survival of Western Atlantic fisheries. The problem arises from a potential miscalculation on the part of researchers. Fisheries surveys conducted along the eastern seaboard of the US some years ago, indicated that although there were quite a few dogfish still at large, almost all of them were male. This led to fears that the population was heading for [...]
Categories: Shark Diving Tags: over fishing., sharks, spiny dogfish
The Official Shark Diving Jedi
As the official Shark Diving Jedi I want to welcome everyone to the most exciting section of Scuba Jedi! Whether you actively seek out encounters with the ocean’s top predators or if you just bump into the occasional reef shark you are a Shark Diver and in my opinion that makes you a very lucky person. If you have yet to see your first shark then stay tuned. Over the coming months I will be writing about some of the sharkiest places on the planet. Places that you will want to visit. Places where you’re guaranteed to see more than your fair share of sharks. But, before I launch into stories about adrenalin drenching encounters with sharks there are a couple of things that I want to make crystal clear… Firstly, sharks are not monsters. If you’re hoping to read about ferocious, man-eating, blood thirsty beasties you should head over [...]
Categories: Shark Diving, Types of Diving Tags: shark dive, shark divers, shark diving, sharks
