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Her bait attracted not only the sharks,
but also a cloud of fish that seemed so
dense I didn’t know how she could even
see the tank-like animal approaching her.
When she moved the fish moved, creating
a swirl of life always surrounding her.
After getting its treat, the shark passed
behind us, circling back to the start of the
runway and coming in for another. Then
another shark joined in.
The blunt nose of the tiger shark,
viewed head-on, is massive. It’s this big,
rectangular frame coming straight at you,
but slowly, calmly.
Some of the divers were “armed” with a
white pole that they kept in front of themso that it could help direct a shark away if
they felt it was too close.
Those of us with big cameras could do
the same. We were told to maintain eye
contact with the sharks at all times.
It was nothing short of amazing. These
humongous animals almost seemed to
line up for their fish snacks, getting one
and then waiting their turn for another.
The open-pool dives were blocks of
time in which we could jump into the
water for as long as we wanted, and
included some of my favourite dives.
Without having to be positioned
around the feeder, I had more freedom
to find better photographic angles and
lighting situations.
While the tigers would cruise by
occasionally, the other shark species
tended to be the stars of these dives.
I was entranced by the smug-looking
lemon sharks that seemed to sneak up
behind me, always low to the sand.
There were also grey reef sharks and
the occasional nurse shark (which were
known to suck the fish out of the bait-
crates hanging at the surface).O
N ONE DIVE,I was kneeling in the
sand looking off into the distance
and at the edge of my view could see a
small shadow emerging and heading
straight towards me.
It continued to move head-on towards
me, and the box-like shape of the head
implied a giant size, even though I had yet
to see the entire mass.
Camera flashing, I took shots as themore than 600kg. Fun fact: their stripes
fade with age, so basically they go grey
when they get old. We were likely to see
only females, and from the previous
week’s reports, several were pregnant.
The sharks of Tiger Beach are
becoming so well-known that many have
been given names. Our dive-crew spoke
lovingly of Princess, and Emma, and how
to identify them and others.
Finally, it was time to enter the water.
With the safety diver positioning us, we
formed our semi-circle around the
feeder, with the area in front of her open
for the sharks.
It didn’t take long. About the time I got
situated in my spot (we were deliberately
overweighted to keep us anchored to the
bottom) one was swimming right into the
open space between us.
The tiger glided towards the feeder like
a model on the red carpet laid out in front
of us. Cameras flashing, she went straight
to the feeder and was handed a fish.
Seeing the tigers here was so different
to what I had expected. I had seen brief
glimpses of tiger sharks in other places,
including a few slightly nerve-racking
dives in Hawaii where their behaviour
was questionable, and remarkably
different to what I saw at Tiger Beach.
These tigers were like puppy dogs –
well, 500kg puppies that moved like
trucks. Their massive bodies moved
slowly in a straight line towards the
woman with the fish-bucket in front of
her. She looked like little more than a wisp
of black neoprene compared to them.Above: A tiger shark glides
past Brandi’s dive buddy.Below: A shark glides
overhead.divErNEt.com