Summer of the Shark (continued)

In June, I wrote about my adventure swimming with an 18' whale shark off the Yucatan peninsula and teased that there would be more shark action to come. Tonight I watched the first night of Shark Week on the Discovery channel and I saw the boat and possibly some of the same sharks that I had just swam with in mid July aboard Jim Abernathy's boat the Shear Water in the Bahamas. There are a lot of great shows during Shark week, but it is always a little corny how they over dramatize the danger of shark attacks and how deadly sharks are to humans. The Discovery channel is responsible and between commercials run a nice piece on the Ocean Conservancy and how the viewer can help save sharks from over fishing and the dreadful practice of shark finning. I always look forward to Shark Week, but the purpose of this blog entry is to tell you about my very own Shark Week.

From July 13 to the 20th, I set out on a wetpixel.com sponsored Photography Diving expedition in search of Sharks and Dolphins. 8 other underwater photographers from England, France, Australia and the US rounded out the participants we all got our fill of both dolphins and sharks. But since this blog is titled "Summer of the Shark", I will only share the shark stories and pictures with you for now. More on the Dolphins day and night on a future blog.

After a 7-8 hour crossing to the Bahamas, we started out on a couple of reefs diving with as many as 20 reef sharks at a time. The action was fast and furious and photo opps ample. It was great to have so many sharks coming in so close with a backdrop of such a nice reef. Here are a few pictures of reef sharks.

On Day two we had a Tiger shark show up, but he mostly swam around the perimeter of divers, so although we could all marvel at the site, it was difficult for pictures. Towards the end of the day, I was on the sandy bottom photographing the 6-7' lemon shark when the 10'+ Tiger shark came towards me for a closer look. He swam directly at me and then after getting within 3' of me broke off to the side of me and swam overhead. What a thrill and then he did it again. Although our trip was billed as a "tiger shark" trip, this lone shark turned out to be the only close encounter I had the whole week and I was fortunate to get some pictures of him. We did see a few others and one at night while snorkeling at night which was a little scary.

"We are going to need a bigger boat!"

The next sharks we dove with were the toothiest ones I had ever seen, lemon sharks. These 6-8' sharks are beautiful with catlike eyes and typically show their teeth. We were in the water with up to 20 at a time and you really had to keep your eyes on them because they were quite curious and would come very close if you weren't watching them. they swam very slow and methodical and were a lot of fun. I typically use a wide angle lens when photographing sharks like my 12-24mm, 10-17mm fisheye or 10.5 fisheye, but I was encouraged to try something different and photograph them with a macro 105mm lens. The results were some up close and personal shots. Here are a few of my favorites of the lemons.

I have saved the best for last! There is a very hard to get photo called a lemon snap. Sounds like a piece of candy that grandma would give you, but although very sweet, it has quite a bite. You dangle your camera off the back of the boat while the crew pulls bait through the water to bring the lemon sharks in close to you. the plan is for them to bite at the bait just as your camera snaps away. It is all about timing and a little luck to have the shark bite at just the right time. I hope you enjoy these parting shots and remember, "fish are friends, not food!"