Yes, I LOVED Diving with Tiger Sharks at Tiger Beach!

Yes, I LOVED Diving with Tiger Sharks at Tiger Beach! It was a trip I’d always wanted to take, and I finally just did it!

Have you ever heard of Tiger Beach in the Bahamas? It is the best Tiger Shark diving around. I went with Jim Abernathy, a shark conservationist who runs liveaboard boat trips out of Palm Beach. He does shark diving all over the world with just about every species of shark. I decided I had to do it. You can check out Jim on Instagram at @jim_abernathy for some pretty amazing photos!

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My roommate arrived at our hotel late the night before departure. Jenny is a former student, and funnily enough, she dated my son in high school. She has become an avid scuba diver and decided to join me. Palm Beach is where the boat departs, but Tiger Beach is in the Bahamas. Jenny forgot her passport, which could have been the end of her trip if not for her wonderful fiance! We tried to find different ways to get the passport to us before we left, but in the end, he had to fly to Palm Beach to bring it to her. She went onto the Girls that Scuba Facebook page and everyone, like me, told her to marry him immediately and never let him go! Any guy who would save the day and a liveaboard trip is a hero.

Passports in hand, we made our way to the Shearwater, Jim’s boat, and settled in. We had some surprise visitors. One was @ellasavestheocean, one half of The Clean Up Kids, with Cash, @theconservationkid. They happened to be in Palm Beach at the same time I was, receiving awards and meeting one of my heroes, Dr. Sylvia Earle, someone I would love to meet. Cash reviewed and recommended my books, All Fish Faces and More Fish Faces. These are amazing young people, both are about 12 or 13 years old and have been advocating for the ocean and ocean life since they were tiny! If you don’t follow them, please do! Ella and her family came on the boat for dinner, giving me a chance to chat with her, and for a surprise, Jim brought on board a baby Leatherback we were going to release in the gulf stream as we headed to Tiger Beach. We were all in awe, and Ella was able to hold the little one! Leatherbacks are extremely endangered as are all sea turtles. It isn’t just poaching, it is CLIMATE CHANGE. The nest temperature determines the sex of the baby turtles, and as the planet warms, the nests tend to be warmer and warmer. Vastly more females are being born, the hot nests give us girls, the cooler nest births boys. We humans continue to endanger more and more species.

The trip was mesmerizing, I’d never been around so many sharks! The trip was unusual in that there were only six passengers, and five were women. Most shark diving expeditions are full of men. The sharks welcomed us, they were everywhere, and it was a very exciting experience.

The sharks are attracted by a metal box full of fish called “The Titanic”. We were surrounded by Reef Sharks and Lemon Sharks, with a few Nurse Sharks joining in. Lemons and Nurses can stop and rest in the sand, Reef Sharks and Tiger Sharks have to swim in order to breathe.

The Big Event was the Tiger Sharks! Starlit was a regular visitor, but most of our visitor’s were wild Tigers visiting for the first time. One we named “Twiggy” because she was so skinny. It’s likely that she just gave birth. She watched Starlit coming in to visit and to eat, and eventually warmed up to the Titanic as well. She had a “chip” in her dorsal, another way to identify her.

It has to be said that the trip was wonderful, but it was challenging because of the weather. The winds were high, and so were the waves. It was so rough that one of the divers actually broke two ribs on the dive platform. We had to leave the Tiger Sharks early, at the moment that Emma showed up, to try to see the Great Hammerheads. We didn’t get a full day trying to find Hammerheads, but enjoyed many Nurse Sharks who wanted affection. They would come and nudge us for pets, so of course we obliged. We returned early since the weather was bad, but it was a trip to remember!

Is it okay to touch wildlife? There are many opinions on that one. My feeling is that if they want to interact, it is okay. Most wildlife keeps its distance from humans, and that is probably the smart thing for them to do given the human tendency to destroy wildlife. When an animal wants affection? I’m all for it. Carefully and in the right circumstances. These particular sharks are accustomed to humans and love the attention. I would not attempt to touch a shark in normal circumstances, and I say to you, “don’t try this at home.” This was a special event, not the norm.

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