Lions and Sharks - Diving the Bahamas April 2011

 As the boat pulled away from Stuart Cove’s dock the cerulean Bahamian water promised great diving and an abundance of sea life. Unfortunately it was a promise that the Bahamas could not keep as my eight dives found barren reefs littered only with Lionfish and storm damaged coral.

            My goal for the dives in the Bahamas was to get some quality close-ups of the Lionfish that inhabit the reefs there and are causing all the grief in the Caribbean these days. Additionally I wanted to get some shots of Peacock Flounder, Southern Stingray and some quality Grey Reef Shark pictures.

Glenn Rogers was my dive buddy for the dives and deserves a thank you for inviting me on this trip in the first place. It was a “free” trip to the Cove Tower of the Atlantis Hotel in Nassau given to Glenn by Turtle and Hughes. It is worth mentioning that the hotel was beautiful, the service was great (but expensive)and everyone from Turtle and Hughes was accommodating.

            There would be four dives Thursday and four dives Friday culminating in the afternoon of the second day with Stuart Cove’s famous, if not controversial, shark feeding dive.

Those following the events of Sharm el-Sheikh and the shark attacks that occurred there in December of 2010 may understand the nature of this controversy as many, including George Burgess, Director of the International Shark Attack file, have attributed feedings by divers as one of the root cause of the attacks.

Controversy or no I was going to get a first hand look at a shark feeding myself by the end of this trip and was anxious to get in the water with these famous marine predators.

Day of the Lionfish



Black Peacock Lionfish by J.Eiche

 After a short boat ride our first dive was on the David Tucker and Glenn spotted a Lionfish swimming on the forward deck immediately upon his descent to the wreck.  I scooted in and starting shooting this beautiful Lionfish with what appeared to be black stripes, fins and spines. At first I was confused but after consulting with Rich Steuernagel and doing some research it has been concluded that this is most likely a rare Black Peacock Lionfish.

It sat in a crease of the bulkhead and deck and didn’t seem at all bothered by my presence or the flash of my strobes. It simply kept “pacing” back forth while I shot from different angles and never attempted to swim off like most fish. To me this was also a bit unusual as the average fish, including sharks, will depart upon the arrival of anything unusual like a diver.

I took a decent number of shots and then moved off for the guided tour of the reef that surrounded the David Tucker. The first thing that struck me about the reef was the lack of marine life living there. A month before I had been diving in the Sea of Cortes where there were copious amounts of fish, eels, skates and rays. This particular reef however had very little life on it at all including Lionfish. Upon returning to the boat later Glenn advised that he didn't recognize this as the Bahamas since his last trip the reefs were full of every kind of tropical fish.

Hawksbill Turtle by J. Eiche

Luckily Stuart Cove’s resident dive photographer Seb Filion was able to locate a Hawksbill turtle feeding and called me over to grab some shots. I moved around Seb and approached the turtle slowly and calmly. While my arrival resulted in him stopping his meal to take a gander at me he didn’t move off. Since I was all set for taking portraits and close-ups I lined him up and snapped off some shots. The range on these shots was about a 1-2 feet at most and I was generally pleased with the result. After a minute I moved away to let him eat in peace but he decided he had enough of humans rose up, flapped his fins and glided off like a bird riding a thermal.

Our second dive was on the Willaurie wreck, which lay in about 40 foot of water with a woodpile off its port side and a reef off of its starboard.

My ears were a bit grumpy and slowed down my descent but I could see a large Lionfish hunting in the piles of timbers. I arrived at the bottom and again began shooting portraits only to have Glenn repeatedly interrupt me with calls to come to the top of the wreck. After a few minutes I acquiesced and upon arriving on top of the deck of Willaurie found two more Lionfish.

Again I took a few shots of the resident Lionfish before continuing my dive.  I ended up with some decent shots of the Willaurie’s propeller and of the growth on the Willaurie's metal skeleton but not much else.

In North Carolina I have been on wrecks that literally had swarms of fish but here I was in the Bahamas on an established wreck with next to nothing living on or around it except Lionfish.

The last two dives of the day were basically washouts as dives were concerned with my first dive being scheduled for the the DC-3 of Into the Blue fame. Of course we never actually got to see the DC-3 as our dive guide had some technical difficulties resulting in us going back to the boat without ever having seen the famous movie set. Once again the scenery was that of a barren reef and except for a couple of Grouper and Squirrelfish there really wasn't much to see.

Our second dive of the afternoon took us to the plane that was sunk for the shooting of Jaws 4. This dive was about as exciting as getting dental work and while Glenn was able to penetrate the wreck I sensed he didn’t really enjoy it all that much.

It is hard to imagine the damage that invasive Lionfish have done to the reefs of the Bahamas without witnessing it firsthand. I had always envisioned the Bahamas as a diver's tropical paradise but found the complete opposite. I will not be going back to the Bahamas to dive unless I am lucky enough to get another trip for free which I doubt will happen. My recommendation to anyone else traveling there for reef dives would be to save their money and find another destination.

Day of the Shark

The second day held the promise of the Shark feeding but some worries about the state of my ears, which had been giving me trouble the day before.

Our morning dives took us to a  site called the Steel Forest, which were by far the best wrecks we had seen to date in the Bahamas. The Steel Forest is in about 40-50 foot of water and consists of three wrecks all within a few hundred feet of each other.

The occasional patrolling Grey Reef Shark was seen but never came close enough for me to get a good picture. A run in with a Green Sea Turtle was nice but overall again the ubiquitous Lionfish were the most abundant fish seen on the wrecks and it was at this point that I swore I would never take another Lionfish photo again.

The morning closed out with a dive on a site called Mike’s Reef, which was by far the best reef dive on the trip. The reef was in about 55 foot of water and lacked the storm damage and Lionfish presence that the shallower reefs possessed.

There was, again, a distinct lack of fish life beyond the occasional Squirrelfish but I enjoyed the state of the coral here. The excitement on this dive was a run in with a very large Loggerhead who swam directly at me. In point of fact had I not moved out of his way I am sure he would have either bit my camera or mounted me (I have it on good authority that it is mating season). Glenn and a new found dive buddy named Sung had a good chuckle at my expense as they heard me scream out through my regulator at almost having been rammed by the giant sea turtle.

Our afternoon dives took us to a wreck just a few hundred yards away from the famous Shark Arena and was meant to acclimate us to being in the water with sharks and ultimately tell the divemasters of the overall skill level of the divers on the boat.



The Joker by J. Eiche

 It didn't take long for us to spot Grey Reef Sharks and my first impression was how shy it was around divers. Being used to the Sand Tigers of North Carolina who have no problem swimming right up and past a diver the Grey Reefs kept their distance aside for the occasional fly by. These animals are in no way representative of the public's perception of sharks as bloodthirsty killers who view the splash of a person in the water as the ringing of a dinner bell.

The dive itself was relatively uneventful save another run in with a Hawksbill Turtle and I was anxious to get back to the hang line as this was where the sharks were converging.



Running the Gauntlet by J. Eiche

 Ascending up towards the hang line one could look up and see countless sharks circling the boat. It is probably the nightmare of most people to be in the water and have a squadron of sharks between them and the surface. Not me. I was disappointed though as the sharks kept their distance and didn’t allow me to get any quality photos of them swimming in the open water. As such I ended my dive climbed back on the boat and readied myself for the feeding dive.

The feeding dive is a sight that I will probably never forget the rest of my life. It was simply awe inspiring and something that every diver with a love of sharks should do at some point in their life.

We were situated on the stern deck of the wreck in about 40’ of water. The deck itself was only about 20’ x 15’ and stood about 20 foot off of the sandy bottom.



Feeding Frenzy by J. Eiche

 As the shark feeder, Chang, brought the bait box in to the wreck a profuse number of Grey reef sharks and Goliath Grouper converged on the area. In an instant the water seemed to go from calm, clear and relatively empty to full of ravenous sharks all vying for position near the feeder and his box full of dead fish. I was at ground zero for what could only be described as a feeding frenzy.



Goliath Grouper by J. Eiche

 Various Grouper crept in amongst the divers watching like hyena waiting for lions to finish with with their kill. In a weird way it was calming to have the Grouper along side us, as they seemed to be watching the sharks feed along with, rather than separate from, the divers. The size of the Grouper amazed me, as did their speed as one darted in to grab a piece of fish and jet out of the area with hungry sharks on his tail.

It only took a few minutes for the water around the bait box to fill with particles from the dead fish that were being scooped from the box and devoured by the Reef Sharks. With no sun in the sky and a haze of fish guts in the water the stage was set for a gloomy atmosphere on top of the wreck. If you add to this sharks shooting in and out of the area, bumping divers and feeding one could understand how a diver might become a bit apprehensive.

That being said there was no time on this dive that I felt threatened or uncomfortable by the presence of the sharks. In fact they sort of treated us with a casual disinterest compared to the events transpiring around the shark feeder, Chang. While it was true that the shyness had clearly gone out of them many seemed to make it a point to avoid contact with me although close encounters were inevitable.



Tonic Immobility by J. Eiche

 The most amazing moment of the dive (if I had to pick one) was when Chang coaxed one of the sharks into a state of tonic immobility.

As a shark would come in to take a whiff of the chum box hoping for a chance at a meal Chang would brazenly grad its snouth and start to rub its nose. Initially it would fight but if he was able to keep at it long enough the shark would discontinue its fight and fall into a trance. Once the shark entered its trance he turned the shark completely vertical and let it stand there looking like a missile ready for launch. After about a minute he released the shark from its trance and off it went to circle the feeding area again apparently unaffected by its ordeal.

In total the dive lasted well over 40 minutes and by the end I had witnessed the feeding of two Grouper, countless sharks and two eel.

Flying home I was able to spend some time thinking about the shark feed and what it means for sharks in general. The issues surrounding shark feedings are complex and I can easily understand why there is controversy.

Of course any good press for a species that has been maligned as much as sharks have is a great thing. Sharks have been villains in fiction, the press and in the psyche of humans all over the world and some spin control is greatly needed. Sharks as a species face their greatest threat in humans who, in both their fear and indulgence, have a propensity to destroy what they don’t understand or feel they can do without. As such every diver, every picture, every DVD that comes out of a shark feeding serves as publicity the type which Discovery and Animal Planet could never provide.

On the other side of the coin there are events like that at Sharm al-Sheikh. The habituation of sharks to humans and the attacks that may result will only serve to reinforce the fear that the “Jaws” generation and their children have had imbued onto their minds. Many shark experts, including George Burgess, feel that the benefits of shark tourism are far outweighed by damage done when there is a resulting attack or accident. Mr. Burgess went on to comment during an interview with Diver magazine, “The education part of shark tourism gets trumped every time there's an attack,” and “The economic ramifications of these incidents can be huge in terms of the negative effect on tourism."

In the end I didn’t do the shark dive so that I could brag about the courage it takes to get into the water with sharks but rather so that I could witness one of nature’s  most perfect predators in its environment . (To be truthful I have never been afraid of sharks while I am in the water) The fact that the stage was set for me does seem to be a bit disingenuous on the part of humanity but how is this any different from locking Orcas in a tank for people to watch them do tricks?

Grey Reef Shark by J. Eiche



In the end the pictures that I will post and ideas that I will spread demonstrating that sharks aren’t mindless murderers but rather sophisticated predators will do much more for the people that I know and come in contact with than any Discovery documentary.  As such the greater good is served via a shark feeding dive and this may be one of the avenues that helps to preserve the species.