I started the day diving at Pahoehoe and found a turtle strangely deep eating something under a rock. Looking at the video later, I realized it was a Hawksbill Turtle. Here is the video as well as some fish photos I have taken this last week.
On my second dive I saw a TIGER SHARK! I have never seen one underwater but have obsessed over Hawaii's most dangerous shark for the last decade. In fact, I know divers with 10,000 Hawaii dives who have never seen a tiger shark. These sharks eat turtles and dolphins and certainly have a presence in the water. While kicking out, some other divers were coming in from their dive. "Keep your eyes open, there's kitties out there today," they said. I knew they were talking about tigers and I admit I was terrified.
I asked about the visibility, "is it murky out there, are they going to sneak up on me?"
"No. You'll be fine. Just keep your eyes open around 40 to 50 feet."
I thought about heading back in. I didn't feel completely comfortable facing a tiger shark (which grow up to 18 feet) by myself. But at the same time I really did want to see one. Kind of a bucket list type thing. I started to descend and soon reached the depth they had talked about. I normally swim checking out every fish and hole I can. This dive was different. I rotated my head from side to side, up, and finally behind me looking for something much bigger than the small reef fish. The entire time I keep my fingers on the video shutter button on my camera ready for anything. After 20 minutes I was thinking, "I tried, there is no shame in heading back now." I started to head back but thought again, "No, I have plenty of air. Keep trying."
I headed deeper to 76 feet of water and then I head a sound. The sound was of a heavy chain clinking in the water. I have head this sound before from videos of other divers seeing this large tiger shark. The chain is connected to a large green buoy marking the entrance to the harbor. Fisherman coming in with their catches throw their waste fish carcasses overboard at this buoy. Overtime, the buoy has become a gathering ground for tiger sharks.
At this point, I had been underwater for close to 40 minutes and I was again ready to call it quits. Then something funny happened. Several large fish began to move close to me. At least three large jacks and several large surgeonfish swam close to me. This has never happened to me and a moment later, as I scanned the water, I saw it. The shark I saw was around 10 to 12 feet long and had substantial girth and beautiful stripes. The shark looked at me and swam from my right to left side. I pushed the video shutter button and backed up as I filmed. In my head I was thinking of something a spear-fisherman told me years ago, "prey acts like prey, don't act like prey." I kept my eyes on the shark and once it turned to the deep, I steadily began to swim away. I kept looking behind me, but saw nothing. I hugged the bottom on my way back in and eventually reached the small cove where everyone was hanging out.
This was certainly the most exciting dive of my life. Below is the short video that simply documents what I saw. The shark is calm in the video and showing no signs of aggression. It was a beautiful animal to see in the wild and I am glad there are things in nature that scare me. It makes diving interesting.
For dinner we all headed up the hill to Big Island Brewhaus, a fantastic restaurant. Here is Cayman and I happy at the restaurant.
No comments:
Post a Comment