Thanks everyone.
I went with UNEXSO in the end as it was right next to the hotel and I couldnt find anything specific on a shark feed on the GB Scuba website.
Facilities - Very good to excellent. Showers, lockers, gear rental room, corinthian boat and a couple of (I think) Island hoppers and what looked like a newton having maintenance done on it. Awesome pool, 14ft deep I think (at the deep end) and a bar / cafe plus a retail store.
This place is also a watersports venue as well as a pure dive shop, so dont expect all the staff to know what you are talking about all the time. For example, it took a couple of goes to check in at the counter before someone could get me signed in and organize nitrox. This didnt bother me, but it will annoy some people. The dolphin encounters seemed to be the crux of the operation, with diving maybe a smaller part. The dive masters, instructors etc, were excellent, friendly, knowledgeable and professional. The pace was relaxed, maybe even a bit too laid back for some.
The boat left the dock at 2.30pm for a short ride out to the site. The briefing was informal, relaxed and surprisingly short on rules and regulations. "Dont wave your arm around" we were told. Once moored up, we descended down as a group and could already see the reef sharks circling around us, what an awesome sight. Once on the bottom we were organized into a line by the divemaster against an old wreck (they also use an old recompression chamber) and waited for the feeder Scott and Eddy the cameraman to arrive. Head to toe in chainmail they came right up to us and slowly dished out mackrel/canadian herring? to the sharks. No frenzy as such, more of an organized, slow, deliberate pace to keep the sharks interested. They were accompanied by jacks, barracuda and grouper all swimming around intently trying to get in on the action. I was surprised by the close proximity of the feeder to our line, which resulted in excellent photo ops and tail swishes to the mask. As one large shark made a beeline for me, I kept my head still and he bumped me right on the mask with his nose. Fantastic!
Two sharks were placed in TI during the dive and passed along the line for us to feel the texture of the skin. More interesting to see the shark get into this state in the first place, which is quite a sight. After 40 mins, Eddy and Scott moved away so that we could go back to the boat unencumbered. This didnt stop all the sharks from following us back however, and I got to swim with them for a couple of mins whilst I did my minimum deco.
Overall excellent dive. Probably not enough on GB to keep me on the reefs & wrecks all week without heading for the caverns and caves though I could be wrong. Yes you can see the sharks without doing the shark dive, but its worth it to get them so close and also to see them in TI.
Shark diving gets a lot of bad press for the wrong reasons and i think its good to have operators like UNEXSO showcasing the beauty of these creatures to large numbers of divers and also looking out for them. If anything happened to the sharks, i bet these guys would notice. I also bet they have influence with the local tourist board and therefore to some degree the government should they ever be directly threatened.
This is a must do dive for anyones logbook, and I also recommend getting a CD of Eddys top notch photos of the dive for your collection which are conveniently uploaded to the shops monitor for viewing 15 mins after the dive for $35
keep up the good work guys.
