Newsgroups: bit.listserv.scuba-l
Date:         Wed, 27 Jan 1993 20:37:00 EST
From:         "Reef Fish (Large Nassau Grouper)" <RFLNG@CLEMSON.BITNET>
Subject:      Nassau Shark Dives (LONG)

An article in IN DEPTH (June, 1991) about Stuart Cove's Nassau Undersea
Adventure (NUA) bull-shark dive enticed me to take a weekend trip to Nassau
mostly to do that dive (2/1/92).  Unfortunately, the bull shark dive (which
was scheduled only once a week then) was aborted by rough seas on the day
we booked it, and was substituted by the much tamer dive with the Silkies.
I reported that dive in Scuba-L (2/7/92).

Last week, my buddy (wife) and I booked essentially the same trip (same
flights, hotel, dives) to try to do the bull-shark once again.  Our booked
shark dive was AGAIN aborted, for the same weather reason, and this time
substituted by the Caribbean reef shark dive instead, at the same site the
Silkies were last year|

Let me first repeat the paragraph from last year about the different shark
dives there, and update the info:

> NUA conducts 3 different shark dives:  Silkies ($70 for a 1-tank, at the
> Runway Reef which used to be the site for roving LARGE stingrays; now the
> site for silkies, black-tips, and an occasional hammerhead); Bull-shark
> ($70, what the IN-DEPTH article termed "real sharks", and the pettable
> silkies, at a more remote site);  and Tiger sharks ($500 for two, with cage,
> in May-July).

NUA is now Dive South Ocean (DSO), at a different location, with a different
team of staff and management, except Captain/DM Roscoe (who's been there
several years; and Stuart Cove who is still the owner, though no longer
there in person).

There're now 4 different shark dives:  Silkies (moved to the Shark Buoy);
the Caribbean reef sharks (C. perezi) now at the Runway, vacated by the
10-foot stingrays and silkies;  the bull sharks (C. leucas), still near the
deep walls, about 12 miles from shore;  and Tiger sharks from cages.  The
Silkies, Reef, and Bull dives are now $75 for a 1-tank dive.

The latest issue (Feb. 1993) of Skin Diver has an article that is fairly
accurate and up-to-date about the Stuart Cove operation and shark dives.

Now back to sharks.  The Runway reef is only about 5 minutes from the DSO
dock.  For the reef shark dive, an approx. 2 cu.ft. crate of chum (grouper
chucks) was dropped at the anchor ... divers then form a semi-circle, on
their knees, at about 50' depth, around the crate (two plastic milk-bottle
crates fastered by a nylon rope) while it's still closed, about 10 ft.
away.   The shark-feeding DM then descended, with multipurpose metal stick/
spear in hand -- to open crate to expose chum, spear chum to feed sharks,
to beat sharks away if they try to eat feeder, or to stab shark (as one of
the DMs did a few months ago) when one was his hands was in a shark's
mouth.  They (the chum servers) now wear steel mesh sleeves on both arms,
from hands to shoulders.

The reef sharks are definitely much more aggressive and dangerous than the
silkies.  DMs fed silkies waving fish in bare hands and the silkies (last
year) were such well-mannered dinner guests that they did not attempt to
bite their feed even once until it was released from hand ... and then they
were often beaten out by groupers in grabbing the released fish chunks.

Not so the reef sharks.  The DM was already spooked by them before our dive
-- he was quite new at the game and I had already heard him mutter that the
sharks were trying to bite him during those dives.   Perhaps that was why
his metal stick seemed extraordinarily long and he had great difficulty
using it to open the fish crate.  While he struggled with the stick, now
trying to poke the crate open, now trying to keep the sharks away from his
body and limbs, the two reef sharks (6-footers, one of them was unmistakably
the one in the photo on page 89 of the SDM because of the fish hook on the
side of its mouth) which had been circling the chum crate for awhile and
were getting VERY impatient with the bumbling host, finally decided to help
themselves with the servings ... as a result, hook-face had its hook
tangled on the nylon rope and took crates, chum, and all with it ... end of
THIS shark dive before it really began|

Unless the weight of the crate and chum pulled the hook from that shark's
jaw, the animal seen on p. 89 of Feb. 1993 SDM was history as of 1/23/93.
The DM (whose hand had gone through one shark mouth) said the shark might
roam the area with the crate on its face for awhile before it becomes a
meal for other sharks.  What a shame|

Since the bull sharks sometimes come in that site, the video photographer
was telling everyone that hook-face was a bull (perhaps to lessen our
disappointment over the aborted bull-shark dive; and then the aborted
reef-shark dive), even though I gently reminded him that I thought either
it wasn't a bull, else an anorexic one having had a nose-job and cosmetic
surgery done to its dorsal fin. (Not in those exact words :-)) However,
most of the divers on that dive couldn't tell a nurse shark from a bull or
tiger, were quite happy to have dived with sharks.  In retrospect, I think
that was probably the REAL reason for not having done the bull shark dive
12 miles from shore (choppy sea was just an excuse); but I decided not to
make a fuss of it ... just wrote the experience off to a combination of bad
timing and bad luck.  Two years in a row?? Yuck||  At least I've now done
the silkies and the reef-shark dives (well, part of the latter anyway).

Our rotten luck finally turned, on our last day of diving on this trip, on
which we booked a regular morning two-tank dive.  It wasn't until we were
about to get on the dive boat that we were told a group of Europeans (pros
in dive equipments) just came from DEMA and made an impromptu charter of
a boat (the day before) to do the bull shark dive, at Bull Shark Alley,
12 miles off shore.  The DSO management, without us asking, put us on that
dive (and without charging extra for it -- which we would have gladly paid
extra for), and we were the only ones so switched from the regular two-tank
group of divers.  Well, whether it was because the shop realized we had
missing our booked bull-shark dives two years in a row, or whatever, we
were thrilled at the opportunity and unexpected GOOD LUCK, for a change.

The site was along the shelf dropping 6000 ft. off into the Tongue of the
Ocean.  The SDM article described an old site, in 50 feet of water, named
Bull Shark Wall, where the IN DEPTH article (1991) made a big deal of that
as the "secret site".  The site we went to was a two-step ledge ... we
gathered on the sand-flat, low-profile reef, named Bull Shark Alley, at
75-80 feet, to watch the feeding.  That ledge has a dropoff to a narrow
shelf at 130 feet, and then to 6000+ feet.  The bulls and reef sharks (and
an occasional 12-foot hammerhead which came on this occasion though we
didn't see it; and on rare occasions, a 15-ft tiger) come up from the deep,
conditioned by the sound of the boat (and later smell and taste of chum).

We were thoroughly briefed about our kneeling formation, keeping our hands
tugged away, and just close our eyes if the bulls get too close (from a
couple of feet to brushing bodies, and they DID) and they would disappear
(and they DID) since they were much more interested in the cut-up groupers
than divers with dive-skins and wetsuits|  We would retreat (DM banging on
tank) only if an unexpected tiger shark shows up.  Our DM was the one whose
hand was shark-bitten a few months ago.

Unlike the other silkies- and reef-shark dives where the chum crate was
dropped with the anchor (to attract sharks) before divers descend, we
descended along the anchor line to already-circling bull sharks and reef
sharks and two huge black groupers long before any chum was introduced.
Presumably they heard the boat, and that was sufficient cue for them.  The
groupers/jewfish were holding their own among sharks ... easily 120-150
pounders, according to my visual estimation of their sizes by recalling the
size and weight of the famous late-Sweet-Lips of Grand Cayman.  One of them
had a big scar on its body ... curtesy of one of the bull sharks a few
months ago, according to the shark-bitten DM.

After the last diver had descended (one couple took nearly 10 minutes
before they made it down| while we were sucking air at nearly 80 ft
watching a parade of a dozen sharks, two large groupers, and I still don't
know why, several large yellow snappers -- each not large enough to make
two bites of feed for either the sharks or groupers), the DM came down with
his crate of grouper- chum, dangling on a THIRTY-FOOT rope|  He was of
course wearing steel-mesh sleeves, and spear in hand.  He was taking no
chances, because the sharks were getting quite excited circling the crate
as he descended, and soon they were whipping up sand near the semi-circle
where we knelt, swimming back and forth, occasionally biting the crate,
before the DM had it opened by his metal stick.  The shark-induced
sand-storm made visibility range from 50 feet to 10 feet or less.  I had to
replay the video tape of the entire dive several times before I realize
some of the actions behind my back and all around (seen only by the video
photographer's camera).

Suddenly the two groupers swam away (one behind the other) at speeds I had
not seen save for large barracudas grocery shopping.  They swam past
a couple of feet from where my wife was kneeling, and she said their tail
fins were so powerful that she felt like a large truck had driven by ...
she was almost more impressed by THAT than the spectacle of bull- and other
sharks at arm's length away.   It was not until the dive was over that the
DM said he saw a hammerhead at a distance, and that he could usually tell
from the behavior of the groupers and sharks long before he saw any hammer
heads.  The hammerhead never come for the food, but if it only moved CLOSER,
even the bull-sharks are spooked and scared away.  That was an interesting
revelation of shark behavior and pecking order, especially because I had
dived with schools of hammerheads months ago and found them to be so docile
and shy|  They still appear to be shy -- to DIVERS -- but apparently they
scare the you-know-whats out of other sharks and pelagics, at least in the
Bahamas|

The 78-ft depth was soon taking its toll in approaching no-decomp limits
on our computers ... we would have stayed longer, and so would the bulls
and other sharks, if we had not begun departing, after about 40 minutes
total BT.  The experience of the entire group showed, as no one seemed low
on air (on 80 AL filled to 3000 psi) after 40 minutes of excitement at
nearly 80 ft.  And nearly everyone began to move in sync in departure,
probably all prompted by the no-decomp limits rather than air supply.  It
would have been "inconvenient", to say the least, if someone needed to
leave prematurely while the bull sharks were still busy feeding|  After a
longish safety stop and 1000 psi to spare, I logged 78' for 52 min. on this
exciting dive.

Now that I've done all three of the no-cage shark dives in Nassau, I doubt
if I'll make special efforts to repeat any of those dives.  As exciting as
the bull-shark dive was, the excitement was diminished by the realization
that the sharks were bribed.   I found chance encounters with sharks in
their natural environments more interesting and rewarding than having to
chum them.

Shark-diving in Nassau seems changing rapidly, in locations as well as
types of sharks, and how they're fed and the dives conducted, based on only
what I saw within a year.  Some of the "facts" in the Feb '93 SDM article
are already obsolete|  As we prepared to depart the Nassau airport, one of
the inspectors recognized us (our dive bags) and struck up a conversation
with us after we cleared customs, since he was a scuba enthusiast himself.
He asked if we heard one of shark feeders was bitten in the hand ... we
said sure, we dove with him|  And the inspector then said there's now talk
in the Bahamas (may be it was only Nassau?) about banning the type of shark
dives in which the sharks are fed.   So, if any of these shark dives
interests you, you'd better do it soon before they are banned|

-- Bob.
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