Chris’ Dive Experiences: The Last Dive Tiger Beach, Bahamas

Photo Courtesy of Lesley Alstrand

World famous Tiger Beach lies due north of West End on the island of Grand Bahama. What makes Tiger Beach famous is its claim to big friendly tiger sharks, known by name, coming in to get hand-fed throughout your dives. One of the things we enjoyed most about this trip was the freedom we were allowed to dive where we wanted, when we wanted, and not being made to dive as a group. During our dives we encountered Caribbean reef sharks, lemon sharks, nurse sharks, and Tiger sharks.  Our dives had tons of shark action with somewhere between 50-100+ sharks surrounding us on every dive. However, instead of the friendly, named Tiger sharks we were told about coming in to get fed on our dives, we were greeted with very brief encounters by unknown tiger sharks that where still on the prowl. During our trip to Tiger Beach we had tiger shark sightings every day except the first.

  

As we geared up and jumped in for our last dive of the trip, we hoped we would get to see a tiger shark one more time before departing the Bahamas. On this dive Lesley and I started by heading against the current 200 yards off the boat to a sandy patch surrounded by sea grass which yielded prior sightings of tiger sharks. We sat and waited, hoping to see that big square profile of the tiger shark mouth coming toward us. During our time of  kneeling in the sand we had the usual lemon and reef sharks coming to check on us and see what we were up too. After about 20 minutes we gave up on this spot and headed back in the direction of the boat to the reef above the mooring line which we heard was real nice and is not visited too often by divers. As we moved through the reef we were escorted by reef sharks the whole time. They would swim right beside us, checking to see if we had any food, then move off for a short time before returning again to see if anything had changed. The reef was very tranquil compared to the action-packed atmosphere near the bait boxes that we had grown accustomed to. After about 25 minutes diving along the reef, we made our turn across the reef and back to the boat. We both knew our dive was nearing its end. We slowly ascended, turning into the current, and began our safety stop at the hanging bait box, figuring we would enjoy the shark action for the remainder of the dive.

Photo Courtesy of Lesley Alstrand

During my safety stop I kept going up to the bait box and shaking it to put out more chum in the water which in turn would start a frenzy of action at the box with both Caribbean reef sharks and Lemon sharks that Lesley was shooting. Doing this had to be timed just right to be able to get my hands on the bait box without any sharks being to close,  getting confused and biting me. We were all briefed before diving that these dives are very safe if you keep your distance from the chum boxes. During this safety stop Lesley had a reef shark bite her 1st stage while we drifted off the bait box as she was taking silhouette shots of the sharks overhead. As I took my attention off the sharks moving back toward the chum box and the boat which was now 100 yards away, I turned to see if Lesley wanted to swim back to the box to continue shooting there when I noticed a very big shark behind her moving toward us. As I moved to get a better view I knew right away it was a big tiger shark. I motioned to Lesley who turned and started taking pictures as it moved right in to investigate what we were, floating in mid-water with a fair amount of chum in it. We learned on this trip to draw the tiger shark in to you, you don’t make eye contact you look off to the side. Even doing this, the second I looked back at the shark and make eye contact, it would turn off its path to and widen its circle.

This tiger shark would move in trying to sneak up behind us as it circled, trying to get close enough to see what we were. After a few more circles and close approaches, we watched as this tiger shark moved off into the distance. As I turned back toward Lesley I again noticed a second tiger shark approaching from behind her. Again this shark started its approach toward us to investigate us before turning away and ultimately getting spooked and swimming off.

I couldn’t believe that on the last day, and the last dive, we would get two big tiger sharks all to ourselves while ending our dive, sealing it in our memories as a very exciting and unforgettable safety stop.

Tiger Beach Trip Video 2012