For my birthday Karen took me on a shark dive out of Pacific Harbour on the south coast of Viti Levu.

Map of Fiji
To give you some idea of where the dive took place.
GPS route to dive site
I had my GPS running watch going for the boat trip out to the dive site. The surface interval between dives was just spent on the boat waiting at the dive site. Rather glad I had taken the motion sickness medication before heading out.
Dive Briefing
The dive briefing took place on the boat and was thorough. You could definitely tell these fellows had done this many times.

The area we were diving in is a protected marine area. This of course is great for the aquatic life that lives there, however it obviously is a problem for the local villagers who have made their living for generations fishing these same areas. The solution that they have come up with seems to work quite well. From what I understand, each village that has been displaced from their traditional fishing grounds has been given exclusive rights to operate a dive operation in specific areas.

Prepping for the dive
So now instead of hauling nets they don wetsuits, chainmail gloves, and scuba gear to descend and put on a shark feeding show for the tourists.

This is the first time we have done this type of dive. We are accustomed to touring around a bit and exploring the area while diving. Whereas this is more of a direct journey to your seats and a show takes place in front of you.

Predator
Our dive boat “Predator”. Business seem to be pretty good. We headed out in two boats to the site on a Friday. We would have gone earlier in the week but they were already fully booked.

The trip out consists of two dives. The first is down to 30 metres where you kneel and watch the feeding of the bull sharks, then we moved up to around 10 metres where the blacktipped reef sharks hang out and watch them getting some food. The second dive goes to 25 metres where you lay down and watch the show followed by a leisurely ascent. The dives require no real physical effort and are a maximum of 45 minutes so air consumption is not an issue. However they do have two extra tanks with regulators hanging at the 5 metre mark so there is no risk of not being able to do a proper safety stop before finishing your dive.

Lunch Time
Tuna heads are the main course. The employees come out earlier in the day and take the bins full of fish bits down and secure them for the show.

I have put together a short video of the best clips I got of the sharks swimming around us. I hope you enjoy it.

 

Welcome to our travel blog. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to say, "I'm out of here?" Well we did, and in 2013 we made it a reality. We sold or gave away all of our possessions other than what fit in our luggage and we set off on an endless adventure. Part of our goal is to share our experiences with others and hopefully provide some information, motivation, or just a moments escape. The general idea was to look for a place that would be ideal to settle down in. However in the meantime it is about experiencing life in different countries amongst different cultures and learning how to understand and appreciate each other. A large part of our time is spent housesitting which provides an excellent opportunity to experience more of the "normal" neighbourhoods as opposed to the tourist locales. Though we make sure to enjoy those as well. So through plenty of photographs and a running commentary come and share with us our life on the road.

3 comments on “Fiji Shark Dive

  1. Garry Woods

    These are great posts, Pete! Stay safe. Thanks.

  2. WOW. That’s dreambuilding. What a birthday present! Good job Mom!

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