Fiji - shark diving WITHOUT a cage!

It’s a well known fact that the side effects of drinking too much kava include drowsiness and laziness. What’s less well known is that it might induce you to make rash decisions and undertake near death experiences. Like shark diving. Like shark diving outside the relative safety of a cave. This is what I had signed up for towards the end of our travels in Fiji, whilst Chris had rather sensibly opted for a jet ski safari.

As the fateful hour approached I was terrified, and coming pretty close to a Guinness Book of Records triumph for number of trips to the toilet. The dive was to leave from The Pearl resort, reminiscent of that other Pearl in Polynesia, also famous for its kamikazes.

shark diving WITHOUT a cage

After suiting up in our gear (3mm rubber, highly effective against a Bull Shark’s cavernous maw I’m sure!) we set off on our too short journey to the dive site. The six miserable Americans on board rebuffed my attempts at nervous smiles and banal chat so I concentrated my efforts on a young English couple. My mouth desert dry, it was a miracle I could talk at all but I nevertheless I gibbered away at them until it was clear they’d rather take their chances with the shark rather than listen to me any longer.

I had been hoping for a briefing before we got in the water. Some stats about the number of people they had taken down injury free perhaps, or maybe some scientific evidence about their anti-human taste buds of something. Alas, we were simply told to get in, follow the descent line 23 m down and congregate behind the rope (the rope!) to the left of the coral head.

So there I was, stood behind a rope, surrounded by 14 other bits of wetsuit-clad fodder, as the shark feeders stood in front of the rope with wheelie bins filled with tuna heads. I tried to work out how the rope would protect me if the shark fancids a bit of Brit. Perhaps I could tie it up in some way. Memories of the last shark feeding we did came flashing back . . . a 4m beast head-butting us in the cage before thrashing us around like rags on a high spin cycle.

Before I could rationalize this memory the wheelie bins opened and we were surrounded by hundreds of huge fish, all circling above and in front of us and fighting over the food.

I was immediately awestruck by this melee, all my fear miraculously dissolving in the surrounding water.

Then suddenly, there they were. Three sizeable nurse sharks gliding along the sea bed and struggling with the food. Although I couldn’t get a very clear view of them due to the other huge fish and the bad visibility that day, they seemed about 3m long. Almost twice as long as I am tall! Definitely big enough to bite. Just as I got used to them the silvertip sharks appeared, a classic looking shark, slim and angular, just cruising along waiting for a slice of the action.

When you think of sharks you can’t help but think of aggression, and of thrashing around. Cage diving certainly seems to engender this sort of behaviour but free diving doesn’t. Against all my expectations, once the sharks were in the water it really wasn’t scary. They moved very slowly and showed no signs of aggression towards the other sharks, fish or us. As we ascended at the end of the dive a 2m Silvertip swam right beneath me and rather than worrying whether it would eat me I was struck by how gracefully it moved, and how unconcerned it seemed by my presence.

We had an hour back on the boat before descending again. Apparently during the second dive we would see the Bull Sharks, a huge shark known for its aggression. Protecting us would be four dive masters, all armed with giant kebab sticks to poke away the sharks if necessary. At least I hoped that’s what they were for.

The second dive was actually quite disappointing. I think that now I was much less scared I was actually looking forward to seeing the big fellas, maybe hoping to recapturing a bit of that adrenalin. Sadly the visibility was shocking and although there were allegedly eight Bull Sharks in the water, I caught only a brief glimpse of one, not actually aware that it was this beast of the water. Mostly I could just see chum and big fish and the thrill factor never returned.

Despite the relative disappointment of the second dive, a few days on I realize what an incredible thing it was to be down with these ocean beasts. They command such fear and their reputation (mostly undeserved) certainly preceeds them. Although the sharks we were with are obviously conditioned, they are clearly not the senseless killers people believe them to be.

Nevertheless, they’ve got a huge mouth and their fair share of sharp teeth and I’m honest about the fact that one of the great things about ‘I’ve done it’ means I don’t have to do it again!