Not long ago I had an opportunity to do a shark dive off the coast of Grand Bahama.
Our shark wrangler-shark feeder was Olivier. Olivier explained that on the dive we would drop to the bottom about 45 feet below the boat. We would line up with our backs to the Pretender wreck. Apparently the Pretender wreck got its name because there is so little left of the wreck that is just pretends to be a wreck.
Inasmuch I had the “big camera” they wanted me on the end of the line. Olivier explained that he would work his way across the bottom in front of our line and would start feeding at the other end of the line of eight divers. I thought that would be good since it would give me extra time to make sure I had selected the best combination of depth of field and shutter speed that I could use under the existing conditions. Inasmuch as I figured the Sharks would stir up the sand on the bottom, I decided to shoot natural light, but had my video light to throw a little extra light if I needed it.
We had a partly cloudy day with intermittent times when the sun would be exposed and throw a substantial amount of light on the white sandy bottom of the dive site. We would be kneeling during the shark feed.
Olivier explained that he would feed for a while, but then would try to put a shark to sleep and then would allow us to each feel the skin of the shark. He would then massage the shark some more and if the shark was malleable he would be able to lift the shark into a shark stand and then let the shark go.
After Olivier finished briefing the dive he began to put on the chain mail suit which he would use as protection from any shark that might otherwise try to bit him. The chain mail suit reminded me of something you might see on a knight in medieval times. The suit covered him from head to foot and included gloves and boots. All told the suit weighted 25 pound. Olivier said jumping into the water with the suit on was like jumping into the water with a boat anchor attached.
Between the suit and the container of fish, Olivier would make a quick drop through the water column to the white sand bottom below. The regulators that would provide air to Olivier during the dive were wrapped in what looked like electrical conduit so that Olivier’s air supply was somewhat protected from an inadvertent shark bite. The BC he was wearing was similar to most BCs but did carry a number of scars from where it had been bitten. While Olivier was gearing up, Shelly the official video-grapher was putting on her chain mail suit and getting ready for the jump.
The Sharks that were expected to show up for the meal were gray reef Sharks. What we saw were about 20- 25 Grey reef sharks and a couple of nurse sharks that converged on the dive site. Olivier had warned us that if any great hammer head sharks showed up, he would call the dive and the dive would be over and he would not continue to feed the Sharks. He explained that a great hammer head shark could make short work of his suit and would be far more to deal with than we would want to do.
Olivier said normally once the feeding was done, he would walk away from the group and the group could search the sand for any shark teeth that had fallen out during the dive.
Before we started the dive, Olivier asked if I would mind taking a few stills of him for his personal collection. He said that after the feed was over when he walked away from the group, I could follow along behind him at a safe distance to take some shots of him feeding the Sharks away from the site. I said sure that sounds like an interesting challenge. Besides I figured I had the benefit of professional curtsy so why worry.
The guests all geared up and then after the safety divers were in the water we began to drop to the bottom towards the pretender wreck. The Sharks had already begun to congregate in expectation of a meal. They tended to circle in a clockwise circle. As I headed towards the bottom, I started shooting. I figured that I needed to know if the shutter speed and aperture settings I had selected were going to work. I checked the camera display and the settings seemed to be a bit bright when the sun was out, but fine when the sun went behind a cloud. I decided to leave everything as I had set it.
As the divers settled towards the bottom, we lined up in a line on our knees in front of the Pretender Wreck. Not long after the last diver was lined up, Olivier appeared from behind a large coral head. It was no surprise to see him because just before he landed on the bottom the 20+ Sharks whom we had been watching changed their course to get closer to Oliver near the other coral head. I can only imagine that Olivier’s BC was struggling to keep him off the bottom based on the weight of the suit and the feeding container. It was not Olivier’s usual perfect body position in the water, but he made it work to move the 20 or so yards over to the pretender wreck. Shelly was right behind him taking video as Olivier made his way over. While they were trying to get into place, the Sharks continued to circle. Now instead of one or two at a time they were stacked up 3 or 4 abreast swimming through the site. Oliver began feeding the Sharks.
The action was fast and furious. At times Olivier would disappear in what looked like a shark vortex. Among the Sharks, there were horse eyed jacks and some yellow tailed snappers. All were looking for a free meal. Only the Sharks were big enough to muscle their way into the vortex to try to get in line for food.
After a while Oliver selected a smaller shark, maybe only 5 feet in length to try to put to sleep. He was successful and brought the shark around to the divers so anyone who wanted to feel shark shin could. I kept shooting.
After the main feed was over, I followed Olivier over towards the other coral head. I thought I was relatively far away, but Shelly made sure I stayed a bit farther back. Probably a good thing, since I was the only one in the frame without a chain mail suit. The action continued to be fast. At one point I had to stop shooting because the memory card had slowed down because there were too many shots stacked on top of one another to load to the card. I paused and let the memory card catch up and then started shooting again. What a blast. For someone who likes fast action, this was definitely fast. I kept watching and seeing different shots to take. In an ordinary dive of an hour or so, I take maybe 60 to 70 shots which usually gives my strobes a huge work out. On this dive without using strobes I shot a total of 320 stills and 10 video clips. Would I do it again – of course. Now I just need to figure out when.
This is why you wear the steel suit