Friday, 27th of February 2009 - Blog written by Jim Abernethy
This week we were joined by a very nice group from Czech Republic. Everyone seemed extremely happy and excited to be here. Even though there is a huge language difference and many of them do not speak any English, we all love sharks and that is what brings us together. I am hopefully optimistic that I will be able to show my new friends from the Czech Republic the best shark diving this world has to offer.
We started out a gorgeous place called Cover Shot. This reef dive produced 3 tigers and lots of Caribbean reef sharks. After a full day we moved on to Tiger Beach for a night dive. Everyone went straight to sleep after this very long day.
The next couple of days we spent at a new spot called Tiger Ridge where we had roughly five different tigers and three lemon sharks. The fourth day we spent the morning at Classic Tiger Beach and the afternoon at Hammer Time. We had three tigers, 25 lemons, and lots of reef sharks most of the day. Our fifth day we spent at Grassy Shark Lands with twelve different Tiger Sharks.
We knew 11 of the thirteen and I named the new tiger shark after the group leaders daughter, Marketa. The sharks we had already had the pleasure of spending time with as well as naming in our Tiger Shark ID Book were Gigantamous Lupo, Secorra, Annabella, Relentless, Christina, Begonia, Casper, Lama, Nancy, Sorrow, Little Willy. We enjoyed their company all day and everyone went to bed early in anticipation of our last day.
March 5th, 2009 – Today we spent our last day at Tiger Beach with no less that 15 tiger sharks. The visibility was excellent and the tigers were in great form. I spent one dive taking pictures of the mother and daughter who were on board. It was the perfect way to finish the week with such a nice group as our guests on board. See some of the images below.
*NOTE: Printable images are NOT included with this slideshow.
WetPixel.com Shark Trip
Saturday, 7th of February 2009 - Blog written by Jim Abernethy
February 7, 2009 – Before departing for the Bahamas, I had to run down to Florida’s best underwater photography store, Reef Photo and Video, which I seem to frequent since they opened. We are so lucky to have such an incredible resource so close to my home. Under the leadership of Ryan Cannon (owner) this store has been able to keep all my cameras operational, which at the rate I break things is incredible. No matter what I need they have it in stock. They even rent large SLR cameras in case any of you are coming this way and want to try a really nice system. The photography opportunities aboard the Shear Water are too abundant and incredible to miss them.
This week we departed Florida with a very enthusiastic group from Wetpixel. Wetpixel.com, in my opinion, is the home of the world’s best digital photography forum. Everyday thousands of underwater photographers and videographers discuss techniques and solutions to many different circumstances that we all face. It is quite simply the best place to get an honest answer to many of our questions from simple questions all the way to very advanced. For those of you that like viewing high quality underwater prints and read about how and where they were taken, look no farther than their production, Wetpixel Quarterly. You will not be disappointed. Like anything Eric Cheng does, this is a first class magazine.
February 8, 2009 – This week, six of the nine guests had been on one of our trip previously which really makes the trip much more enjoyable for the crew. Before leaving the wind was really blowing very hard, but two hours before we left the wind died and we had a very nice crossing. After clearing customs we headed north to Mt. Mokarran where we encountered roughly four different tiger sharks, one lemon shark and roughly twenty Caribbean reef sharks in very little current. We dove until the sun went down and then moved the boat to a calmer anchorage.
February 9, 2009 – Waking up early I was able to enjoy the beautiful reflection of the full moon before it departed under the horizon. This morning we took advantage of the early morning high tide and explored a section of Tiger Beach called The Chain. Two different tiger sharks, TC and a new one with a broken left jaw came through the photographers along with roughly thirty different lemon sharks. After breakfast we moved to Ginormous. Here we had the same two tigers as well as one new small one maybe 9 feet in length. The reef here is beautiful which provided a backdrop for these creatures that I could not pass up. I did roughly five hours here underwater. We dove until sunset and then moved to Classic Tiger Beach. A couple of the guests as well as myself were underwater for almost seven hours total today.
February 10, 2009 – The full moon cast beautiful light across the very calm ocean this morning in the darkness of night. Waking up well before the sunrise I was able to capture it with some very high ISO settings. The guests took advantage of the early high tide and went diving at 7:30 am with six different tigers as well as roughly 35 lemon sharks. The tigers we knew that we observed were TC, Relentless, Heidi, Sorrow and one very large tiger, roughly 16 feet in length with a tremendous girth that we had not named yet.
It was also very nice to see more mating scars on Relentless. For the last couple of months a male tiger we call King James has made regular appearances, never quite close enough to get an image though. I hope the mating scars are from him. Hopefully the mating was successful and the pups will grow up and produce other tigers. The species is supposedly already over 90% removed in all oceans due to the worldwide drive for shark fin soup.
After one very long dive at Classic Tiger Beach, we moved back to Ginormous. My first dive there within five minutes I saw a nine foot great hammerhead, but only as it was leaving. There were two other tiger sharks swimming around us as well as 20+ Caribbean reef sharks and 20+ lemon sharks. Before sunset we moved back to Tiger Beach for a calm anchorage.
February 11, 2009 – Before sunrise many of the WetPixel gang were taking sunrise shark images off the port side of the boat. I counted three different tigers before breakfast. Our first dive was out in the turtle grass section of Tiger Beach where the water is slightly deeper at twenty feet. The dive was awesome with as many as ten different tigers showing up at different times during the dive. I was really happy once King James, the only male tiger at Tiger Beach finally came close enough to let me get a few images of him. I first saw him on November 15, 2008, almost three months ago when I watched him trying to mate with Relentless. On our second dive to the area even more different tigers showed up. I estimate that we observed over 12 different tigers during the day. Everyone stayed in a very long time.
February 12, 2009 – Today, we moved to an area I call “The End of The Map” This area is much deeper, 70 to 100 feet in depth. We moved here because the weather report was perfect for our last two days and I believe the chances of an up close encounter with a great hammerhead or a bull shark would be much higher. Our first dive there had three different male bull sharks. Our second dive had seven bulls and two tigers. This shark is massive in size for a relatively short length. Because of the very thick fins this species is probably much more sought after in the shark finning industry.
I am not sure how long it will be before the shark finning industry arrives here, but I know that anything we can do to stop them is imperative. Every shark enthusiast/conservationist as well as many different organizations seems to be working to try to stop the needless slaughter of sharks, but the future for sharks is bleak and I feel it is just a matter of time before they are no longer here. I wish there was more that we could all do to stop this butchering. If there was someway I could show everyone what these animals are really like, I know it would make it harder for them to slaughter them.
One of the problems is that many film makers irresponsibly project this creature as a monster and then everyone that sees the film believes it. The era for these monster shark shows is over, especially if those of us that know sharks, spread the truth about them. We know too much about sharks to portray them this way. Film makers that still portray these magnificent creatures as monsters are not welcome here and at least I can say that my business will never be part of any of these sensationalistic monster shark shows. I wish other shark diving operators would take a similar stand, rather than solely focusing on the money these film makers offer at the expense of the shark.
February 13, 2009 – Today, we dove with at least seven bull sharks and three different tiger sharks. It was a beautiful calm day and a perfect ending.
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