Stuart Cove’s Shark Adventure

in Underwater by Marcelo Krause — December 8, 2009 at 10:59 AM | 0 comments

Few months ago I went to the Bahamas for a family vacation but could not resist doing al least one dive: Stuart’s Cove Shark Adventure. Stuart Cove has been a big name in the diving industry for a long time and his shark dives are world famous. He also helped with the production of many Hollywood movies, TV series and commercials.
The Shark Adventure dive is a two-tank dive. The dive site is about 5 minutes from Stuart Cove base and marina. The first dive there is no feeding involved, but since the sharks get feed regularly, there are many of them around. The dive is alongside a reef drop-off, and the sharks occasionally come close and then pass by.  Since there is no bait in the water, the sharks swim slowly and at ease.  It is a nice dive if you want to take some pictures of the sharks in a natural environment, with the reef on the background.

The second dive is the shark feeding. First all the tourists dive in and position on a sandy bottom in a circular formation. After everybody is set on the bottom then the shark feeder brings the bait in a closed box. The shark feeder wears a full body protection suit. We are advised to stay on the same place, hands close to the body. The Finn Photo video and photo crew wear protection for the arms and a helmet and are free to move around.  From time to time the shark feeder gives away a small piece of bait and there is some turmoil around the bait box. Many times the sharks swim by just inches from the divers and bumps are quite common.

Overall it is a great dive and awesome experience to have all the sharks zipping close to you and feeding just a few feet away. In spite of all the activity I never felt I could be in a dangerous situation.

If you go to the Bahamas it is a dive not to be missed.

Fin Photo was kind enough to allow me to use some of their footage from that day in this small video.