Waltzing with sharks
ArticleThe Red Sea, a nice liveaboard and a group of oceanic whitetips- perfect combination.
It was more frightening than dangerous so we luckily arrived back to the St John's. After some awesome dives we anchored near a small reef where we saw dolphins, a manta ray, a lot of fish. While we were finishing our dive we spotted some familiar silhouettes under the boat. Sharks! A group of oceanic whitetip sharks circled around us. These sharks are really reckless, we made some nice shots. We decided to stay in the shallow, very close to the dive boat during the second dive and hoped to see the sharks again. Well, we did. An hour long floating in the big blue amongst a half dozen (less? more?) sharks. They came close. I mean really close- they touched the photographers' strobes! They swam near, above, below us, disappeared somewhere and in a few seconds the same or another shark headed to us again. It wasn't an experience for the weak hearted divers. We were insane enough to stay with them. It was an extraordinary, amazing dive. But certainly we knew it's a little bit dangerous. So when I felt something grabbed my leg firmly I turned back faster than an acrobat. Luckily I saw only a laughing dive buddy, he was the only predator this time. As usual, he made the best photos but all of us were able to the some really spectacular shots. For me this dive brought an award in video snapshot category in the Beneath The Sea competition, but two friends made award winning photos as well. Later I edited my shots to a longer movie:
Sometimes I think about this dive and the sharks. After a few months we heard the news about a snorkeler who were injured by an oceanic whitetip shark close to the reef where we saw them. She died in a few minutes. The same area, the same genus- it could be one of the sharks in my movie. I didn't blame the sharks. I'm only thinking about us, divers. Sometimes we think about those animals as they were playful, friendly animals like dolphins. But they aren't. I think we complied with the rules of shark diving. I'm sure when I'll have the chance to make a similar dive in the future I'll try to be even more careful. Maybe I'll stay on the boat- who needs another video snapshot award?
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