For my birthday Karen took me on a shark dive out of Pacific Harbour on the south coast of Viti Levu.
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.
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.
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.
I have put together a short video of the best clips I got of the sharks swimming around us. I hope you enjoy it.
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