SHARK HUNT !! april 23

Sharks, and the fear of them, is a huge part of the non-diver psyche.  But once a diver sees sharks behaving naturally, a huge paradigm shift takes place. There is always some apprehension, but when i ask “what are you guys up for today?” multitudes of  divers say, “I want to see  a shark!”  Hearing that again today, trip leader Max and I decided on checking out the LCU, often the home of several large whitetip sharks, which like to chill out underneath the wreck at 90 feet.  I always call whitetips a ‘great starter shark,’ for first-timers.  This is because they are relatively passive, and just ignore us as we inch closer to them for a photo or two. But, to our dismay, there were no sharks today at the LCU!  BUT we did see an eagle ray, two frogfish, lots of reef fish, plus a huge spiky sea cucumber!  so we were still STOKED after a beautiful dive!

Still on the hunt for sharks, we headed over to Spitting Cave, for a drift at 50 feet, and also a great dive site for sharks!  and bingo, we got to see two big whitetips circling each other in one of the many caves along that wall.  So congrats to those first time shark-sighters, who were all thoroughly happy about seeing sharks, and not feeling fear, but only a sense of their beauty and their place in the ocean! Spitting Cave is one of my favorites, having dove it 100’s of time, never tiring of the turtles, eels, octopus on the wall, and the big pelagic fish swimming by us, out in the blue!  thanks to all for diving safely today!  Larry, Max, and Joe.

 Pamela finds a frog fish

 happy divers green head moray