Shark Dive

[Painter]

I am going to Roatan next week and the resort where I am staying has a special shark dive. I've seen plenty of sharks, including a hammerhead on my last trip to Roatan. I think that for some people a dedicated shark dive is probably a really good experience, but I'm trying to decide whether I should spend the extra $.
Opinions?

 

[tridacna]

Well worth it. I did it last month and we had a great time. It’s a well-run fun dive. You will see a lot of sharks and maybe even find a tooth or two.

 

[Doc]

It is what I refer to as a “Canned Shark Rodeo”. They all are. You are paying to be in a designed profile dive, well diagrammed, done 1000x before, they DMs are used to absolute idiots. You can climb off the cruise ships and do this dive, what could go wrong? You will be allowed 0 latitude. Almost all resorts offer this dive, most of the day-dive ops just commission it off to the Shark Dive ‘guys’ and they will take charge.

It is nice because it is reasonably shallow, 60’ (iirc) and they put you in the ‘shadow’ of a bit of coral before chumming. Maybe 45min max BT?

The area, “Cara a Cara” can present some occasional mild current, rarely more than 1/4mph, so they go to great lengths to diagram the Jon Lines and Down Lines. Pay attention.

Overweight by 8# so you go kerplonk on the bottom. Trust me.

If you want to see some of the common Sharky Sharks, this is your basic pay-per-view lunch call. Some people go on them whenever and wherever they are offered, most folks? One and done.

About 2 miles East of there we have a resident 9’ female hammerhead who is regularly in 30fsw on the shore dive, as below…

 

[rongoodman]

I did it last summer on a liveaboard. I wouldn’t pay to do it. The absence of sharks on any of the other dives was one reason I wouldn’t go back. At Turks and Caicos they were checking us out on nearly every dive.

 

[jonhall]

I've seen plenty of sharks, including a hammerhead on my last trip to Roatan. I think that for some people a dedicated shark dive is probably a really good experience, but I'm trying to decide whether I should spend the extra $.

Opinions?

If you've seen plenty already, is it worth the money (to you) to see more of the same that are simply being drawn to a diver with some bait?

I thought the time I did a shark dive in St. Maarten was a good experience as I had only seen a few nurse and reef sharks prior to that. Now that I've been several places (including back to St. Maarten) where I know I'm going to see reef sharks on a regular dive, I wouldn't pay extra for a shark dive.

NOW if the shark dive were specific for hammerheads, then yes I would pay extra for a shark dive!! This past winter, I thought I might have a chance while in Cabo, but the DM's said the conditions were bad and that when they had gone out to the site (Gordo Banks) no hammerheads are being seen.

 

[Damselfish]

I’m not crazy about shark feeds in general principle. If I’m on a LOB or a resort where its part of the regular itinerary I’d probably do it anyway, since otherwise you’re probably not diving. I wouldn’t pay extra or go out of my way for it.

 

[GDHLEWIS]

If you have seen Sharks already and are unlikely to see anything new, Id save the extra $ and use it on another dive IMO

 

[Painter]

Thanks, I think that I have my answer, but I may change my mind.

I did talk to some people today, just by chance, who had been to AKR and had done the shark dive with them. They loved it, though I think that, in part, it had to do with being in close proximity to a great number of sharks, which was something that they were unused to, to the point of remarking to me, "After we got over thinking that we were going to be eaten, we relaxed and had a good time."

The only time I worry right now about sharks is when I am swimming where I live on Cape Cod. They don't want to eat me, I know, but they might want to take a nip just to see. But I still think it would be kind of cool to see a large number of sharks all at one time, even if it is kind of staged, as much as nature can be staged. Hey, I went to the New England Aquarium in Boston a month ago and saw various creatures being fed, and that allowed me to get a good close look at them. How much difference, besides the obvious, is there between a regularly scheduled feeding on a reef, and a regularly scheduled feeding in the "big tank?"

 

[jonhall]

But I still think it would be kind of cool to see a large number of sharks all at one time, even if it is kind of staged, as much as nature can be staged. Hey, I went to the New England Aquarium in Boston a month ago and saw various creatures being fed, and that allowed me to get a good close look at them.

From my prior post, my thinking was:

1) if you can go to dive sites near the actual "extra pay" shark site, chances are you will see many sharks coming over to check you out
OR
2) if you can go to the "extra pay" shark feeding site on a a dive that charges the normal dive rate (with no feeding), you should get the same number of sharks swimming around you without the restrictions mentioned by @Doc . On Grand Bahama, one can pay extra for a shark dive at the Shark Junction dive site or request it as one of a 2 tank trip and then be able to swim freely with the same number of sharks seen on a shark dive swimming around you, UP CLOSE (close enough to touch!) The feeding (a way for a guide to direct a shark to swim in front of your face) is not what one will remember on a shark dive - it will be the number and size of the sharks that are attracted to swim around you.

Don't know if either of these are possibilities in Roatan. If I were to ever get to Roatan, I would be asking if people dive the shark feeding dive site on normal dives - if the answer was yes, I would save my money and ask the dive op to make that one of my regular dives as sharks will have been trained to be there.

*As I mentioned in last post, if I could pay extra to swim with the guarantee of seeing different sharks, such as hammerheads, I'd do that. I would also pay extra, if it weren't too much, for an educational shark dive - maybe an expert putting a shark into a catatonic state - something I couldn't normally see on a dive.

Have been to the New England Aquarium - it's a great aquarium!

How much difference, besides the obvious, is there between a regularly scheduled feeding on a reef, and a regularly scheduled feeding in the "big tank?"

The difference is whatever you're willing to pay to see them up close. I guess I'm saying it's very possible that you can see the exact same thing on a regular dive that you can by paying extra for a "shark dive."

It seems that someone on SB who has been a regular to Roatan might be able to share if the shark dive site is also a regularly visited dive site.

 

[scubadada]

My wife and I took a nice dive trip to Roatan in 2017 Trip Report - Turquoise Bay Resort/Subway Watersports August 2017 We passed on the Cara a Cara shark dive and went on our regular morning 2 tanker, minus the divers who decided to pay extra and do the shark dive.

I've been very fortunate to see many sharks on trips to the Red Sea, Cocos, Galapagos, Revillagigedos, Malpelo, SE Florida, Turks & Caicos... There are baited/fed shark dives in international waters off of SE Florida that I have not participated in. Some of the sharks I see in Florida are at sites where other operators do baiting/feeding. I made an exception this year and did a once in a lifetime liveaboard trip to Tiger Beach and Bimini with Dolphin Dream Trip Report - Tiger Beach and Bimini on the Dolphin Dream, March 11-19, 2022

My own biases aside, it is easy for me to see how someone, particularly who has not had the opportunity to dive with many sharks, could decide to do this dive. My friend, @tridacna has considerably more dive experience than I do, he enjoyed the dive very much

My avatar is a photo from a particularly good shark encounter at the cut in the wall at Boat Cove, off West Caicos, in 2009. Excuse the crude video from 13 years ago