Good news  – the emails continue!

The Shark Dive has been going on three days a week for the past seven years – the only injury occurring to a diver who fell asleep on the dive boat and fell off the deck into the water. Mike, being the smartest of our group, was the most reluctant but eventually agreed to join in. Accordingly early Friday morning we again joined the Houston group for our trip to Shark Reef where the dive is held.

The first of the two dives took place at a depth of 80 feet – we were instructed to descend one after the other down the mooring line to the bottom and then swim over to another horizontal rope strung along the reef. We all lined up along the rope standing or kneeling, using the rope to keep us in one place, cameras at the ready. The Fijian divers then proceeded to “chum” the fish with food and we were instantly viewing a massive swarm of all kinds of larger ocean-going fish with medium and smaller-sized reef fish populating the perimeter. Then as the feed continued, the sharks started to arrive. First came two large nurse sharks which are bottom feeders and swam close to the sand like gigantic catfish. They were followed by a huge bull shark, supposedly one of the largest we are ever likely to see, and also a smaller bull, some grey reef sharks and a silvertip. We never felt any fear or threat from the sharks as they definitely knew the routine…and several Fijian divers with big metal prods guarded us to remind the sharks of their manners should they get too curious about their audience. I’m sure these sharks are extra large because they have been hand fed for the past seven years and life has treated them well. The Fijians did tell us (teasing) that sharks only like to eat white-skinned tourists like ourselves, never dark-skinned Fijians!

After a decompression period on deck we returned for a second chumming, this time at 60 feet in depth. There was even more shark activity this time, but it occurred at the other end of the rope line from where Mike and I were positioned. Rod and Anouk at the deeper end were exhilarated by the experience and Anouk especially stayed down the max time allowed by her dive computer and says she rates this dive as one of her best ever (she has over 900 dives logged in her logbook). At the very end of the dive she obtained some terrific video footage of a huge moray eel which was coaxed out of his den with some bait – ultimately being petted by one of the Fijian guides.

We’re accumulating a lot video – much of it bad but interspersed with some great shots. We need about three days of steady rain so we can start editing it into something bearable to watch, but so far nothing but absolutely beautiful days one after another!

One of the members of the Houston dive group was a middle-aged man who was the butt of the entire group’s jokes – he was an absolute caricature of a klutz. The dive group’s leader obviously devoted all his time keeping this man (who shall remain nameless) alive underwater. He was extremely overweight, sunburnt bright cherry red, constantly making mistakes (like snagging a size small wetsuit instead of his own which probably would have been an XXXL), and even losing his wedding ring underwater! Someone found it on the bottom of the ocean and back aboard the boat asked if anyone was missing a wedding ring – of course it was this man, who hadn’t yet noticed it was missing. The dive leader even provided extra tanks for him, as he breathed so heavily underwater that he depleted his air supply in half the time as the rest of us and had to switch tanks in order to continue. On board the boat he lurched and stumbled about, generally crashing into assorted people (including me) by accident.

We watched all this interaction amused, and could understand (although we felt sorry for him) how he had become the target of so many teasing remarks. And then on the last dinghy trip back to shore we learned that he was an ER doctor, renowned for his ability to launch into life-saving mode at the hospital and keep people alive under the direst of circumstances. One of his co-workers commented that the doc could keep even a rock alive. This certainly altered our perception of his abilities!

Another side note of interest – our dive boat sported a bumper sticker for “The Dive Shop, Tucson, Arizona”. Apparently they bring a group of 40 or so divers to this particular resort every year.