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.