Posted on 04/24/2016 12:33:12 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Our dive boat, maybe 14 feet long, bounces off the shallow waters in Bimini. The waves provide a melodic cadence, a soundtrack of patience and perseverance, as we wait more than an hour for our divemates to arrive:
Great hammerhead sharks.
As the waves go splish-splash, the only clear and present danger is upchucking the pancakes, orange juice and coffee I had for breakfast. The sea already has taken one of five divers on the boat. He sits silently, waiting out his misery. We sit quietly as well, waiting for our signal to tumble backward into the clear waters to hang with the hammers.
A few nurse sharks and a bull shark have congregated underneath the boat, picking off some of the fish heads and chum. That's our morning offering for the great hammerheads, hoping they will feast on our gifts. The bull shark, considered the most aggressive of the species along with the great white and tiger sharks, has crashed our little dive party, but we don't have much of a choice trying to shoo him away. He's the alpha predator among us.
Promoted stories from CELEBChatter.com
We continue to play the waiting game topside. My nauseous stomach continues its silent protest.
The waters of Bimini have opened, like a sparkling oasis in the desert, for seasoned divers with a bucket list in hand.
Diving with great hammerheads is a must-do on divers' checklist, and the forces of nature have spawned a pilgrimage to Bimini in recent years. First through anecdotal evidence, and then through the fine work of the Bimini Sharklab, it has been documented that great hammerheads are seasonal residents in Bimini.
The hammerhead season runs from December through early March, attracting divers worldwide to Bimini,
(Excerpt) Read more at orlandosentinel.com ...
Sounds fun.
When I was stationed at Pearl Harbor there were a lot of hammerheads. West Lock was a breeding ground. We decided to catch one. A quarter inch wire was used with a large chunk of fish for bait. It was tossed over the side. A few minutes later it was hit, the wire was severed and the shark swam off. They are mean sea critters.
A guy I know had a job maintaining bridges under water. He would spend a lot of time looking for cracks in the concrete and patching. He was working one day and said he got a feeling. He turned and there was a 12 to 14 foot hammerhead a couple feet away looking at him.
Sounds like a good hobby. I’ll pay for you to go try it out.
A species of Hammerhead is found in the Amazon River.
You can have it.
That “Dances with grizzlies” dude who got eaten in Alaska proved to me that socializing with toothy predators doesn’t end well.
I’d love to dive with the hammers. They aren’t all that aggressive toward humans. But with the white and the bull in the water ... along with all the chum they dropped in to pique they’re interest ... oh, hell no!
“They aren’t all that aggressive toward humans. “
My dive experiences would say otherwise. They can be extremely aggressive.
Seeing my first shark while diving was a bit exciting. Diving off one boat into a massive school of fish with nurse sharks swooping through them to feed was amazing.
Only time I was scared was one time I was searching for fossilized sharks teeth about 300yds from shore. Visibility was about 1 foot. Surfaced to talk with my dive partner and we saw a bull shark circling us.
It’s not the same as playing with grizzlies. Most species of sharks don’t see us as food.
Hmm...then what usually provokes shark attacks on humans? I’ve never dived, but it would seem the species of shark is key; i.e., nurse sharks are said to be harmless to humans.
He was lucky he wasn’t a meal.
His name was Timothy Snackwell.
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