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Feb 20, 2010 – This evening 10 guests boarded the boat from the Czech Republic. It is always such a pleasure to see familiar faces. This week roughly half of our guests have been here before! Everyone was very excited and I believe the ones that have been here before told the new guests that this would be their last night of rest so everyone went to sleep early. We departed in calm seas, for a change, heading to West End, Grand Bahamas.

Feb 21, 2010 – After clearing customs we headed to Sherwood Forest first, but because of the lack of sharks (8 caribbean reefs), we pulled anchor and headed to Hammer Time for the rest of the day. At Hammer Time we enjoyed the company of 25 reef sharks, 1 nurse, and 1 tiger shark. That night we anchored at Breaching Tiger, Splashing Dragon.

Feb 22, 2010 – We spent all day at tiger beach with three tigers that were not very cooperative as far as photography was concerned.

Feb 23, 2010 – This morning we started at a favorite of the crew – Ginormous! The end of the day four different tigers had been spotted, 1 nurse, 30 caribbean reefs, and one great hammerhead. The end of the day was incredible after all the tigers had arrived.

Many of us had the pleasure of watching something I have seen 32 times: a large tiger shark took a camera from our guest. The camera was a high definition video camera in a small housing. This time the shark had the camera in it’s mouth for roughly 3 minutes while it swam at a high rate of speed away from the group . Once she spit it out, I quickly grabbed it and realized it was still filming. So I continued shooting her as well as the other tiger that came in to see what all the commotion was about. The entire group had followed me and the shark all the way out into the sand roughly 500 yards. I returned the camera to the owner. I couldn’t wait to see what the shark had filmed holding the camera in its mouth. Some people would label this behavior as aggressive, however I believe it is just curious.

Here is my opinion of what happened from the sharks point of view. The tiger shark was definitely attracted to the area because of what it feeds on, which we had stored in plastic crates on the bottom. As the shark got close enough it slowed way down because of the presence of so many strange creatures, leaking air as well as standing upright in the water column. At this point the shark still wanted the fish, but changed it’s position to more defensive because it is trying to survive. As it comes in close the tiger notices all the strange creatures all have small devices that give off another strange electrical impulse as well as make noise. Curiosity took over at some point so it took a taste bite of the camera just to see what it was. It was quite easy to take and she ran far away to check it out without all the other sharks. At this point she realized it was of no use and spit it out. The owner of the camera named the shark Quintin Tarantino. She will be entered into our shark ID book that way.

One of the other sharks that showed up was one of my favorite super models: TC! She has a wonderful disposition and moves about the divers very slowly and cautiously, always giving the new shark divers more space. She is roughly 13 feet long. She stayed with us the rest of the week that we were in that area.

Feb 24, 2010 – This morning we woke up at Tiger Beach which is always nice as I believe the tigers know our boat noise and accumulate during the night for the day’s events. Although the day was cloudy and windy, the sharks were incredible. Moving from down current to the Shear Water there seemed to be an endless line of them all day. I photographed at least 12 different tigers, but have no idea how many never made it all the way to me under the platform. The water was roughly 60 to 80 feet of vis. I stayed in the water for 6 hours straight and took 1,800 images underwater. You would think that would be a good thing, until you have to go through them. I deleted the majority mostly due to lemon sharks or small fish covering important parts of the main subject. Near the end of the day the weather kicked up and we headed for shelter at Breaching Tiger, Splashing Dragon!

Feb 25, 2010 – The winds today were at 26 knots from the north west so we stayed anchored at a somewhat calm place while we attempted to get images of breaching tigers. This is always a lot of fun on a day when most boats would hide behind an island or stay at the dock. Late in the day we headed to one of our hammerhead site.

Feb 26, 2010 – Finally the wind slowed down enough for us to play with sharks again. While we were preparing to secure the boat to a temporary mooring my crew observed what I believe to be a silky shark on the surface. After securing the boat we started out with the bull sharks on the bottom. We had a total of 5 bull sharks and two tiger sharks. This very large species is very timid as well as, in my opinion, dumb. The smallest movement by our guests scares them away immediately. They dart off quickly and travel out of site before slowing down. I think they are not as smart as the other sharks as it takes them quite some time to figure out where the fish is, sometime while it is right in from of their nose. I don’t understand how they are still here with all the competition from the other sharks. While I was descending to the bottom, I watched a tiger shark attempt to open the crate by biting it. While it was shaking the crate a bull shark about the same size bit into the tiger’s side and lots of blood was spilled. I did not see the tiger again. The wound was large and in the gill area. Before my group was even to the bottom I saw the first great hammerhead.

We enjoyed being with 1 great hammerheads all day which was absolutely a privilege. In the morning we actually had two great hammerheads but one left within an hour. Most of our guests ignored the bulls and tigers in order to enjoy the great hammerhead at the surface. When we departed for home the great hammerhead was still swimming around the boat.

On the way home at sunset we enjoyed the company of a pod of bottlenose dolphins! A perfect ending to an unforgettable adventure!

At this point in time the bull, tiger and great hammerhead are all at less than 5% remaining according to the latest shark statistics. It is amazing to me that our government still has a fishery for them when you add into the facts that our own government already states that you should avoid eating sharks at all costs because of the mercury found in them as well as the fact that sharks are being wiped off the planet at a rate they cannot rebound. The destruction of so many sharks is from mostly because of the demand for shark fin soup.

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