Sharks and Grand Cayman

[mattengstrom]

I've gotten a couple of "what the heck" private messages about my experience at The Maze on my 1st open-water checkout dive. To further explain things, here are the full details of what happened...

First off - no, I was not down at 100 ft on an OW check-out dive, swimming through the canyons. Nor was I painted with fish blood and used as shark bait for the certified "real" divers on the boat.

I arrived at the dive operation (Cayman Dive Lodge, by the way. Great place, and I AM going back!) and had a talk with the owner and my instructor. We went over my background - I grew up near water, learned to swim and walk at the same time, been snorkeling & freediving since I was a kid, had done a scuba resort course on Cayman a year ago, and had done my classroom and pool work two weeks prior - and they gave me the option of doing my check-out dives from the boat with the group, or from shore alone with my instructor.

The ocean was fairly calm that day, with just a little bit of light chop, so I selected "boat".

On the ride out, I stayed with my instructor and we discussed the details of dive #1. We arrived at The Maze and tied up to the buoy, the dive master briefed the group, and then they all jumped in and went off. My instructor and I got in separately, after everyone else.

Pin depth at The Maze is around 60 feet or so, I think. Our plan was to descend to about 10-15 feet to get under the surface effects, and then swim towards shore and shallower water. We would then touch down in a sandy spot of the proper depth and do dive #1 type things - mask clearing, regulator recovery, wetsuit peeing :mean:, etc.

While doing our initial descent to 10-15 feet, my instructor pointed down and away from us in a "look there" gesture. I looked and there was a shark - a carib. reef I was later told - cruising along the bottom below and some distance away from us. It was swimming away from us, towards deeper water. Straight-line distance to the shark was maybe 70-80 feet. Close to the edge of visibility (which I later learned was really lousy vis. for that area) but still fairly clearly visible.

We watched it for a couple of seconds, and then continued in towards shallower water to do our thing.

Now, I have no basis for comparison, but this seemed like a perfectly normal check-out dive with the added bonus of seeing a shark. Am I wrong? I never felt uncomfortable, but was this out of line with what should have happened?

 

[MyNoles]

Guess I've been luckier. Have spent 4 weeks over the last year in GC, and saw sharks on many dives. Mostly nurse sharks, but during our last trip this summer, we had an "up close and personal" with a Hammerhead at a dive site called the Chinese Wall. An awesome sight. Huge and graceful. Previous poster was correct, most sightings have been in the north.

A side note, it was not at all uncommon for sharks to "hang around" the Rum Point dock area. Frequent Hammerhead sightings by the Red Sail (Rum Point) guys. Never a threat to the people there, however.

 

[LibbyinDC]

No sharks to speak of!

We were hoping to see at least one because we have been lucky in the past with seeing nurse sharks on other dives. This time, no dice.

So, I wouldn't worry about it.
LB

 

[Stephen Johnson]

I am glad no one has reported any serious shark attacks at Grand Cayman. It has been my favorite place to dive. I went there five years in a row with dives every day. Never saw a shark until year 5. This would have occurred in 1997. Myself and 7 other divers entered the waters off of the graveyard about 500 yds off the beach. We stopped at 15 feet and waited for the divemaster. A women to my right grabbed my arm and pointed at the bottom and toward the beach. Below us around 50ft down was a large great hammerhead shark. It came towards us. As it got very close, about 4 ft away when it turned to its left and went directly towards one person who had seperated from the group. The shark went around the diver, but passed within one foot of the diver before swimming down in the direction it had come from. The divemaster showed up and I used had signals to say shark, hammerhead and 15 feet. The dive master signaled that we all stay together. He looked down towards the shark and it was returning. The divemaster immediately started removing his tank to fend off the shark. The shark again turned and returned to the depths. The dive master signalled everyone out of the water. We all calmly boarded the boat. On the boat the divemaster said he had been there for 27 years and he had never seen a shark that big or act that way. He added that he had never called off a dive. He then said "we're moving". I asked if the shak was 15 feet long? He said beteen 12 and 15 feet. The head appeared 4 feet across the head and the body of the sfar seemed larger than my arms could have reached, had I tried, which I didn't. Water does make objects appear larger but this was a large shark. The divemaster suggested it was warning us to stay away from its fish. Once back to shore my wife had spoken to a women who had seen the shark closer to shore around the time of our dive.

 

[scubadada]

Wow, this thread has not seen the light of day for 12 1/2 years, before I joined SB

 

[CuzzA]

Wow, this thread has not seen the light of day for 12 1/2 years, before I joined SB

It was the first thread ever on SB. Haha. Jk

 

[scubadada]

I wonder what's happening to the proposal for shark feeding by Ocean Frontiers?

 

[String]

I work in the west and can safely say we see very very few sharks unfortunately. Ive not dived the east end but apparently there are more.
Generally here someone somewhere in the north will see a Hammerhead maybe once a month and that's about it. Very rarely you get one in the lagoon and that scares the stingrays away.

There is a relatively reliable reef shark on Tarpon Alley and thats pretty much it.

Otherwise just a few nurse sharks around.

The west area has 1 or 2 "tame" nurse sharks that follow divers like puppies expecting food. Feeding them was banned but these sharks clearly expect it. Im fairly sure they still do get fed lionfish and so on despite it being illegal.

I have never heard of any attack against any diver or snorkeller (and on the west there simply arent enough sharks anyway) but there is a video on youtube of a slightly aggressive reef shark going after a diver with lionfish on a spear.

 

[scubadada]

I work in the west and can safely say we see very very few sharks unfortunately. Ive not dived the east end but apparently there are more.
Generally here someone somewhere in the north will see a Hammerhead maybe once a month and that's about it. Very rarely you get one in the lagoon and that scares the stingrays away.

There is a relatively reliable reef shark on Tarpon Alley and thats pretty much it.

Otherwise just a few nurse sharks around.

The west area has 1 or 2 "tame" nurse sharks that follow divers like puppies expecting food. Feeding them was banned but these sharks clearly expect it. Im fairly sure they still do get fed lionfish and so on despite it being illegal.

I have never heard of any attack against any diver or snorkeller (and on the west there simply arent enough sharks anyway) but there is a video on youtube of a slightly aggressive reef shark going after a diver with lionfish on a spear.

I've done quite a few dives off the West and North walls and have seen very few sharks. I have also done quite a few dives off the East and have seen many more Reef Sharks. The majority of these are in the areas in which Ocean Frontiers used to do feeding, such as Scuba Bowl. I have no doubt that, if feeding resumed, there would be an increase in the sharks seen. Personally, I don't think this is a good idea. I've not seen any feedback on this issue for quite a while.

 

[String]

I cant see any issue really. Plenty of places around the world do shark feeding and there aren't any real incidents as a result of it.
That said i'm utterly against any changing natural behaviour of animals by feeding but the Caymans already have stingray city which is pretty much the same thing so adding another attraction like that wont matter much.
The govt has already decided its quite happy feeding marine life for money with SRC so an east end shark feed doesn't seem too much of a stretch.