Swimming With Sharks

One of my more dangerous holiday activities was, and I still can’t believe I actually did this, swimming with sharks in Hawaii - and they weren’t just little sharks you know! 

I have actually just looked up the type of shark that we were merrily bobbing around in the water with and Wikipedia says: “Inquisitive and persistent, the Galapagos shark is regarded as dangerous to humans and diving unprotected is not advisable in areas where they are abundant. They are known to approach close to swimmers, showing interest in swim fins or hands, and are drawn in large numbers by fishing activities.”  I’m pleased I didn’t know this before I went in!

Anyway we booked the trip with North Shore Shark Adventures and as you only saved a few dollars by just going on the boat and not getting in the water it made much more economical sense to just get in the water! 

After a very rushed snorkel at Hanauma Bay Nature Park in the South of the island we sped (not breaking any speeding laws though!) across the island to, the historic surf town of, Haleiwa on the North shore where our boat was departing from.  After only just making it to the boat (they were literally about to leave without us) we all climbed aboard feeling a bit rushed and flustered – which was probably a good thing as it didn’t give us too much time to think about what we were doing!

We're gonna need a bigger boat!

It wasn’t a big boat, just a small fishing boat type thing (not as big as the boat in Jaws and they ‘needed a bigger boat’) – with a cage hanging off the back.  We motored quite a long way out to sea.  The captain radioed around the other boats to see who had sharks and then another boat came our way and ‘dropped off’ the sharks at our boat.  The sharks follow the fishing boats as they know that’s where the food is and so the boats slowly park up next to each other and then our captain starts chucking some fish off the back to lure the sharks in while the other boat speeds away. 



Is it really a good idea to get them all excited about food when 'dinner' is in the cage?! P.s don't let go of those ropes!



So we get all snorkelled up and (luckily) I was in the second group on the cage.  The cage is attached to the back of the boat while you get in, then they let it go (you’re still attached by ropes).  We climbed in the cage and were sent drifting off into the open water.   Then the sharks came, circling the cage!  The cage had perspex panels on 2 sides so it was a bit like being in one of those glass tunnels they have at aquariums - the rest of the cage was open.  One of the hardest things was trying to stay in one spot as the water was really choppy so we got flung around the cage a bit.  I’d managed to steady myself by holding on to the bars and resting my feet on 2 bars lower down.   The sharks kept circling the cage; they didn’t really poke their noses in or anything but just circled.  There were some fairly big ones – Galapagos sharks can grow to up to 12ft.  We were in the water for what seemed like and age but it was amazing to see them swimming around us and be so close to them.  I think I was probably more scared of getting water in my snorkel and choking (because it was so choppy) than I was of being eaten by a shark!

Wakiki wave and pretend you're enjoying yourself!

Once we were safely back aboard the boat and everyone had been in the cage we sat back, put our feet up on the side and soaked up the Hawaiian sun as we powered back to the harbour – before all getting suckered into buying a t-shirt because we were so excited we’d just been swimming with sharks!