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Diving with Andy Sallmon and the gang
Sunday, 25th of April 2010 - Blog written by Jim Abernethy
This week we had the pleasure of hosting Andy Sallmon’s group for his 18th trip with us! All the crew really looks forward to working his trips because he hand selects his guests which are all so nice. Everyone was so excited to be here! Unfortunately because of technical difficulties with my new hard drive I spent most of my time with those problems rather than writing the blog. I hope you will take a look at this weeks high definition production with both video and stills as I did not have time to write a proper blog. The main super model this week was TC, the 13 foot tiger shark with the same personality of Emma. Hope you enjoy it!
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Wow! What a week!
Thursday, 15th of April 2010 - Blog written by Jim Abernethy
April 15th, 2010 Thursday – This evening we boarded guests from all over the world including Germany, France, Sweden and America. Everyone got settled in and we headed across the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas.
April 16th, 2010 Friday – After clearing customs, we proceeded to the north end of Hammer Time reef where we were greeted by one great hammerhead, one bull shark, two tiger sharks, three lemon sharks and a plethora of caribbean reef sharks. We spent the entire day there and everyone basically dove until they were exhausted. TC was the main host amongst the tigers.
April 17th, 2010 Saturday – Starting early at Cover Shot reef, we had the privilege of the company of three nurse sharks, two tigers, two lemon sharks and twenty-five reef sharks. After lunch we moved to the Sugar Wreck where we enjoyed our first really close encounters with four different tiger sharks. I was delighted to see an old friend that I have not seen in over a year, a tiger by the name of Mini-T. Of course, TC was still with us and was the main event because of her size and gentle personality! After dinner we dove at Tiger Beach for the night dive where in addition to the lemons and tigers we were greeted by a small great hammerhead roughly four meters in length. I watched the great hammerhead circle around us before investigating what we were doing from up current! Those of us that made the dive were honored by her presence!
April 18th, 2010 Sunday – With flat calm seas we spent the entire day at Classic Tiger Beach where we enjoyed the company of one great hammerhead, five bull sharks, nine different tiger sharks and roughly forty lemon sharks. At one point during the dive a large loggerhead turtle swam into the area. I immediately saw two of the tigers take an interest in her so I swam towards the turtle to defend her. The turtle swam towards me, I believe for protection, as she watched both of the tigers completely ignoring the lemons. I chased the tigers away and then the turtle hoping she would make it out of there. I couldn’t stand to watch this although I know the turtle probably could take care of herself as I have seen in the past.
Everyone crashed early after an exhausting full day of diving. It was so great to see the bull sharks and the great hammerhead at Tiger Beach once again. I believe the great hammerhead was the same one from the night before. The bull sharks were much smaller that the one we saw last week at Ginormous. It is wonderful to see them in this area.
April 19th, 2010 Monday – This morning we woke up with a 25 knot wind from the north east so we started out at Crystal Tiger and then moved to Ginormous after the winds died during the morning. At this site, TC, Tarantino and four other tiger sharks once again joined us. The massive amounts of caribbean reef sharks and lemon sharks made for a very eventful day. I also enjoyed the small nurse shark that didn’t seem to mind his small size and made it all the way up to the bait repeatedly! It was another wonderful day despite the strong wind in the morning.
April 20th, 2010 Tuesday – Starting out at Crystal Tiger once again we enjoyed the company of probably ten different tigers, seeing at least six of them at once. Everything was perfect. After lunch we moved to Shark Tooth Ridge where for the second time we encountered “The Freight Train” – a very large tiger not only in length (roughly 18 ft), but most impressively in girth! She was huge and moved about very quickly! She scared me because she was so nervous and so big! There were three other tigers with us as well as a bunch of lemons and reef sharks. We headed home and were lucky enough to swim with pilot whales in the Gulf Stream roughly ten miles from the Little Bahama bank!
The highlights for the week: we enjoyed TC everyday, loggerhead turtle – tiger shark interaction, great hammerheads on three of the five days we were there, night great hammerhead encounter, five bull sharks at Tiger Beach, the freight train (18ft tiger) and the pilot whales on the way back! This is my third week after taking George Schellenger’s Final Cut Pro class, which I recommend to everyone! Click here for more information! Please watch the images and video from this week’s trip, which is a result of George’s Final Cut Pro class!
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Tiger Beach and more!
Sunday, 4th of April 2010 - Blog written by Jim Abernethy
April 4th, 2010 – Monday
This evening another group arrived to enjoy the splendor of the sharks in our area. This week once again everyone was from Spain. Everyone seemed very nice, polite and excited to be here. Having groups like this with such a positive attitude and outlook on life makes such a difference in the crew as well as the entire trip! We couldn’t wait to leave so we crossed the gulf stream on a relatively smooth trip to the Bahamas.
April 5th, 2010 – Tuesday
- After clearing customs and immigration we headed north to a gorgeous shallow reef called Eldorado. Eldorado means hidden city of treasure. For me the treasure has been the great hammerheads I have seen here. In the past I have filmed two different albino great hammerheads.
After securing a temporary mooring we started diving. I had predicted that we would have a tiger shark in 50 minutes. I was wrong, it was a great hammerhead. At 60minutes the first tiger shark showed. By the end of the day we had two different great hammerheads and three different tiger sharks as well as roughly 20 Caribbean reef sharks. During the dive a large loggerhead turtle as well several southern stingrays made an appearance.
Nothing tears at my heart more than the sight of an animal in pain. These days it seems as though so many of the reefs creatures are carrying hooks. Fisherman say that it doesn’t hurt them probably because the creatures don’t have the capacity to yell and scream like we would if we were brutally hooked the way these creatures are. Every week my crew and I attempt to help these creature out. This week their were two reef sharks with small hooks as well as weights hanging from their head. The weights had dragged the hook across their face, as it dug deeper and deeper. I was able to remove one of them today which gives me satisfaction that can’t be measured. What we do to the creatures of this planet makes me embarrassed to be a human. We are without question the worst species on the planet. See the images below to see what I am talking about.
After a delicious dinner, everyone crashed early from a very enjoyable day!
April 6th, 2010 – Wednesday
This Morning we started off at part of Tiger Beach we call Crystal Tiger. On the first dive we had the pleasure of a tiger shark we refer to as TC join the 25 lemon sharks. TC has a very laid back relaxed personality. She appeared somewhat uncomfortable probably because the whole group approached her as she made her first few attempts to visit us. She is not use to this and very few tigers ever put up with it. Many did get images of her before she spent the rest of the day on the out skirts of the group. After lunch we took all the sharks with us to part of tiger beach I call the purple place because of all the purple plants that can be used for beautiful backdrops for the sharks. Close to dinner time we moved to another part of Tiger Beach we refer to as the Turtle Grass. This bluish green backdrop is stunning against the lemon and tigers skin. In the last few hours of the day we took advantage of the magic light that glistened through the waves. All in all, it was an exceptional day for a wide diversity of shark images! I didn’t make it much past dinner before crashing hard in anticipation of another stunning day with our finned friends!
April 7th, 2010 – Thursday
We spent the entire day at Tiger Beach. Awesome day with crystal clear water, 25+ lemon sharks and at least 5 different tiger sharks! Most of the group spent roughly 6 hours underwater!
April 8th, 2010 – Friday
This morning we started off at Hammertime and on the first dive I watched a great hammerhead swim behind the group twice. It is so refreshing to see them as this species is reported to be at 1% of the population according to the latest study in the Atlantic ocean. Several tiger sharks came in as well as many lemons. In the afternoon we moved to tiger beach and continued to enjoy the company of large sharks.
Once again I was able to remove a circle hook from a Caribbean reef shark while underwater. Like the hook two days ago, the hook had been dragged across the face of the shark because of the weight on it. Such a horrible sight for this poor animal! If this was a land creature we would be horrified!
April 9th, 2010 – Saturday
With calm seas we started the morning off at Ginormous and the site lived up to its name. Tarantino showed up right away with three other tigers as well as one hammerhead and one very large bull shark. Awesome morning! We then moved to Tiger Beach where all the tigers followed us and continued to play!
April 10th, 2010 – Sunday
We spent the entire day at the End of the Map where on the first day we had one great hammerhead show up and within two hours a second one showed. They stayed with us all day and everyone saw them and many guest got images of them some of which were stunning! On the bottom one lemon shark as well as roughly a dozen large bull sharks showed up.
It was so nice to have seen great hammerheads on four different days of a six-day trip. We are so privileged in so many ways. I hope the world unites with efforts to save them before they are all gone. Recently a group of divers found a whale shark with all of its fins cut off that was still alive. It inspired them to never eat shark fin soup again even though they are asian. It was such a great feeling to be able to help two sharks by removing the circle hooks with weights that caused them so much damage. Think of how many hooks are being carried in pain by so many of the beautiful water creatures. Many still say that they can’t feel the pain because they can’t scream, maybe because it makes them feel better but I know differently!
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