Bitten by shark bug

With Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, Sport Diver magazine editor Mark Evans lists the top places to go diving with sharks

DIVERS love them and yet far too many people have an irrational fear of these magnificent, graceful and misunderstood creatures.

It’s easy to say sharks got their bad reputation from the 1970s blockbuster Jaws, but I blame the mainstream media for unfairly giving massive coverage to shark attacks while failing to report on injuries or fatalities caused by other wild animals such as hippos, crocodiles and elephants.

Even when these incidents are reported, they never get the same front-page treatment.

The truth is that shark attacks are rare. Among some of the more intriguing statistics out there is the fact that you are more likely to die from a falling coconut, lightning strike, cows, horses, falling out of bed and even vending machines than from a shark bite. Considering millions venture into the oceans regularly, there were only 72 unprovoked attacks, 10 of them resulting in fatalities, last year.

Instead of fearing these beautiful creatures, we should be seeking them out, as an in-water encounter with a shark is among the most breathtaking, aweinspiring and humbling experiences you can have.

Divers seek them out. Here are the world’s best shark-diving locations.

THE BAHAMAS

The Bahamas is known as the shark-diving capital of the world, mainly because Caribbean reef sharks can be spotted regularly in the deep waters off the scattered islands, but more recently two specific areas have become a Mecca for shark divers.

Tiger Beach, off the west coast of Grand Bahama, is a prime site all year round for – you guessed it – tiger sharks, which cruise in the shallow waters over an immense sandbank and will come close to divers, while off Bimini, a similar sandbank is home to hammerhead sharks in February.

GREAT BRITAIN

The UK has its own world-class shark encounter, and not just any shark, but the second-largest in the world.

Best of all, you don’t even have to be a diver to see them. In the summer months, huge basking sharks appear off the coast of Cornwall and around the Isle of Man, feeding on plankton at the surface, offering snorkellers a close encounter.

MEXICO

Mexico has several shark-diving spots up its sleeve. Guadalupe Island, 240km west of Baja Peninsula in the Pacific Ocean, is considered the ultimate location to cage-dive with Great White sharks, blessed as it is with clear blue water and plentiful food.

On the other side of the country, in the waters off Playa del Carmen in Cancun, you can dive with migrating female bull sharks between November and March. The Egyptian Red Sea is home to several species of shark, including grey reef, scalloped hammerhead, silvertip and even the odd whale shark or tiger, but one of its most majestic inhabitants is the oceanic whitetip.

This highly distinctive shark, with its vast, rounded pectoral fins resembling aircraft wings, can often be spotted from the offshore marine park islands of The Brothers, Daedalous and Elphinstone in the winter months, though they have been seen all year round.

SOUTH AFRICA

Mention South Africa and sharks Bull sharks are among the most feared of shark species, mainly because they prey in the shallows, around estuaries and even kilometres upstream in rivers, which means they are more likely to come into contact with humans.

However, off Santa Lucia on Cuba’s north-eastern shore, between August and February divers can view these awesome predators at close range, as a local dive centre routinely hand-feeds them scraps of fish.

CANARY ISLANDS, SPAIN

The Canary Islands, a sun-andsand tourist hot spot, might seem an unlikely place for shark The remote Cocos Islands 540km off the coast of Costa Rica are a magnet for divers seeking some serious shark action.

Designated a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1997, Cocos boasts various species of shark in its waters, but is most renowned for its massive shoals of scalloped hammerheads and whitetip reef sharks.

AUSTRALIA

Many shark species can be sighted off the coast of Australia, including Great Whites, grey nurse and reef sharks, but Ningaloo Reef on the western side of the country offers you a chance to get in the water with the world’s biggest fish, the whale shark.

From April to July, these creatures can be found near the surface, gulping down huge mouthfuls of microscopic food, and this is when you can snorkel

with the behemoths.