An extract from a piece written by Anita Verde
Images by Anita Verde and Peter Marshall

So here we are, about to enter the world’s only ocean floor shark cage. While a surface cage is also in operation, as qualified scuba divers, we are privileged to enter the deep and secretive realm of the great white shark. We cannot help but feel the symbolism of the cage itself. While we are grateful for the reassurance the metal bars provides us, it seems somewhat fitting that we are the ones behind them – just like at zoos, where dangerous animals are kept in cages. It’s a poignant reminder that it is the sharks that need protecting these days, not us.

The cage door slides shut and the onboard Below left: crane slowly lowers us to a depth of 25 metres. We have entered the great white’s realm; an aquarium of rocky outcrops, blinding white sand and mystic seagrasses.The waters are teeming with fish and we are greeted by a myriad sea creatures.

Giant blue groupers survey the area, while elegant stingrays sweep gracefully across the grassy meadows surveying the ocean floor.

We wait patiently, but it is not long before we are joined by our first sharky visitor. It is a young male, who also takes first prize for being the happiest shark on the expedition – you only have to look at him to see why. With friendly beaming eyes and grinning gill to gill, he closely inspects the cage, nudging it to test its vulnerability. Clearly, he is checking us out, and we cannot help but wonder what he is thinking!

On his snout, we see a cluster of little black dots. These electroreceptors, known as the ampullae of Lorenzini, provide the shark with a sixth sense, allowing it to detect electromagnetic fields and temperature changes in the water column.These specialised organs are connected to the shark’s nerve receptors so it can sense the Earth’s electromagnetic field to enable navigation and migration. These sensory organs also help the shark to ind its prey by detecting the electrical fields of other animals (like us) in the ocean.

We immediately feel privileged to spend time in the company of this majestic and formidable animal. After all, there is no guarantee you will see a shark on this trip. “Sometimes we don’t see sharks for weeks, and we have no idea where they actually are,” Andrew admits. “Despite all our research, so very little is known about the species – but that in itself is part of their magic.”

To our delight, we are soon joined by more great white sharks. Our Cage Captain Nick pulls on a rope that leads back to
the surface, indicating to the crew (via a complex ritual of tugs) the number of sharks at our cage below. Incredibly, we had eight individuals circling our cage. Andrew later tells us that this is the best they have seen over the last six years! We have come to know many different sharky personalities: Deadly (so named because he is small, of course), Tom, Cosmo, McQueen and Slash.

And then there is Paparazzi, as we affectionately named him, a large 4.2-metre male who had an obsession with cameras; ambushing us from behind and having a taste of one of our strobe lights as he passed. “Every shark we encounter here at the Neptune Islands has its own individual personality. We ind the sharks that are new to the experience with us tend to be more active, come closer to the cage, move faster, and show greater interest,” Andrew says.

Effortlessly, the great whites glide through the water, pivoting back and forth from the cage, each time more curious of the wild animal confined within. We cannot help but feel a great sense of awe and immense respect for these animals. At this depth, they are both imposing and majestic, and behave differently than when near the surface.

They are far from the man-eating menace portrayed in Spielberg’s film.

WHEN TO GO

Rodney Fox Shark Expeditions run great white shark cage diving expeditions all year round. Although you can dive with the sharks at any time of the year, the sharks themselves are seasonal. Male great white sharks visit the Neptune Islands all year round, whereas the impressively larger females grace divers with their presence in autumn and winter. The late spring and summer months have the added attraction of scuba diving or freediving with the endemic and endangered Australian sea lion.
Trips run from two to six days depending on the season, with longer expeditions in autumn and winter (April to August), where the days are shorter and the weather is less stable – maximising the opportunity for great white shark interactions.

HOW TO GET THERE

All trips depart from and return to the relaxed coastal town of Port Lincoln on the eastern tip of the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. Port Lincoln is a 7-hour drive or a 50-minute light from South Australia’s coastal capital, Adelaide. Adelaide is serviced internationally and domestically from all major Australian cities.

If you have time, South Australia also ofers several other endemic marine encounters. Leafy and weedy seadragons are found at numerous jetty sites along the coast, while the annual Australian giant cuttleish aggregation from late May to early August is an experience not to be missed, as it happens nowhere else on Earth.

For more information, visit Rodney Fox Shark Expeditions at: www.rodneyfox.com.au

Anita Verde and Peter Marshall – Australia

Anita Verde and Peter Marshall have a passion for the planet’s wild places, and through their images and narratives hope to inspire better appreciation and protection of the natural world. Based in Melbourne, Australia, they have professional backgrounds in tourism strategy, environmental sustainability, and government relations. When they are not underwater or on a mountaintop, they also work professionally as strategic consultants, advising governments and industr y on sustainable destination planning and development, investment attraction, government relations, brand strategy and marketing. Read more about them at www.summitstoseasphotography.com.

To read more inspiring stories with unique encounters divers have had, pick up your copy of ‘What it Feels Like’ Scuba Diver issue No.124/2022 here

From underwater marriages to being courted by belugas, there are some beautiful and entertaining pieces you won’t want to miss!

Text and Images by Al Hornsby

What follows is a collection of excerpts from my journal of the remarkable journey we’ll always remember as “Expedition: Aldabra”.

Day 1: Approaching the Seychelles

Sunrise over the Indian Ocean; it’s a quickly-brightening dawn. The sea stretches away far below us in all directions, a pale, medium blue. Ahead, a string of lush, green islands comes into view; each surrounded by bright turquoise water; each fringed with brilliant, white sand; each a small jewel awaiting us on the morning – and where Fantasea II is awaiting our arrival.

Day 2: Open Ocean

We had moved onto the boat with a huge mass of equipment. By rough count, we have some 29 housed cameras, 15 Nikonos V’s, seven Nikonos RS’s (David and I had some of the first ones recently introduced into the US), four housed video systems, and 70 strobes and movie lights, all of which virtually cover Fantasea’s rear deck.

Our first day closes with a lovely sunset and a thin sliver of moon, flanked by Venus at its brightest, emerges as the light fades. At the bow, we salute the rolling sea before us – it is obvious that a unique adventure awaits.

Day 4: Bijoutier Island

Several of us are transported by Zodiac to this tiny, postcard-perfect sand islet; its interior thick with coconut palms. We walk in across the shallow reef-flat through a foot of water. The bio-system is pristine and unusual, with a heavy, deep-green seagrass covering everything, with small corals growing underneath and in-between. Large, spotted tiger cowries lie about, nestled in the grass by the hundreds.

Day 7: Cosmoledo

We have arrived at desolate Cosmoledo – hundreds of miles from anywhere. It is a large lagoon surrounded by thin, duned islands. The vegetation is mainly low, rough scrub.

We dive just north of its pass into the lagoon. John, Robin, and I move down the reef and see potato cod, groupers, and schooling jacks. At the drop-off edge, we encounter a strong, cold-water upwelling.

Then, magic happens. I see a gigantic school of at least a thousand blacktailed snappers moving over the reef edge below me. As I near them, at just over 30 metres, I find a large star coral mound covered with swaying white and purple soft corals. The milling snappers move in to form a solid, swaying backdrop, a living curtain. A school of oriental sweetlips hovers over the coral, and more potato cods drift in and out of the panorama. I shoot picture after picture, nearly mesmerised by the scene before me. Finally, film gone, out of air, and visually blown away, I must reluctantly ascend.

Day 9: Astove

We have anchored off Astove, a low, sandy spit of land with low, dry bushes and grass surrounding a shallow inner lagoon. We enter the water just at the channel-mouth. The spot is lovely; bright, clear water on a steep slope of intermittent coral and sand valleys. Huge schools of snappers, large giant sweetlips, groupers, and other fish abound, as do green turtles, which seem to be everywhere. A school of circular spadefish joins us and stays for the rest of the dive, nipping at our fins and exhaust bubbles.

As I move away from the boat, I reach an area massed with schooling humpback snappers squeezed closely together; from underneath, they are a solid two-to-three foot, thick mat, packed so tightly side-to-side that I can’t see through them to the surface. I glance below me and discover I’m hovering over two large black-blotched stingrays, nestled closely together in the sand.

Day 11: Aldabra Lagoon

After an all-night, rolling, stormy run from Astove, we arrive at Aldabra, the largest, most remote, coral atoll in the world, with thin, fringing islands of sand and iron shore strung around a gigantic, central lagoon.

As we cruise near shore looking for a potential dive site, we see mantas breaking the surface. We grab cameras and skin diving gear, and jump in. The mantas, two of them, large with dark backs and brilliant white undersides, move away slowly and we follow. I notice that one manta is leading crew-members Betty, Ruth, and Tally in a large circle. I swim hard and position myself in its expected path, then free dive down to about 10 metres and wait. It’s not long until he comes into view and then swims directly to me – stopping about two metres away, claspers curled. I shoot. A moment more and he swims closer and directly over my head; my second image is manta overhead, full-frame.

Day 12: Aldabra

We take a Zodiac to the beach just before sunrise to hopefully find a turtle who has yet to return to the water after her nighttime egg-laying. A fresh set of tracks leads up over the sand; in her deep crater, a green turtle remains.

After laboriously flipping sand over her precious eggs, she begins to head back to sea. She looks exhausted as she drags her ponderous weight across the beach. We are all very quiet afterwards, filled with wonder at this rare and beautiful encounter.

Later, we move Fantasea up-island to the Grande Pass and enter the lagoon. The current is incredible – water is running into the lagoon, which stretches over the horizon, at more than 14 knots, creating a wild maelstrom as millions of gallons pour in. The lagoon takes four hours to fill; the water level then drops three to four feet over the next four hours as the cycle reverses itself.

That night, Howard reads from Cousteau’s writings about Aldabra. As best we can determine, we are where Calypso was anchored in 1954. To me, whom as a young teen diver read dog-eared copies of The Silent World and The Living Sea over and over, the moment is near mystical.

Day 13: Assumption Island

We make the two-hour run to Assumption – a long, sandy island with dune hills and low trees, and anchor off a curving, white sand beach. The water is brilliant cobalt, turquoise in the shallows. We jump in to find a sandy bottom sloping away to deep water, interspersed with large coral bommies. Life is amazingly prolific; each bommie is a small community, with anemones, small schooling fish, morays, groupers, coneys, hawkfish, lionfish, and angelfish.

As Robin stretches out on the bottom filming a close-up of a curious lionfish and me, he jumps and gives a muffled yelp. As he turns over, we see a small moray has emerged from a crevice under him and latched on to his inner thigh – right through his wetsuit! I laugh enough to flood my mask; the little morays in this area are ferocious – I’ve been bitten three different times so far, myself

Day 15: Off Aldabra

Late night; after a day of diving Aldabra’s lush outer reefs, we now drift in the open sea. Lionel and I slip into the blood-warm water on snorkel to photograph whatever may be attracted to the huge spotlight David has lowered beneath the boat. It is a mysterious, a moonless night on the rolling surface, of the deep, dark ocean. We sweep our lights around and are met with a parade of small creatures flowing by in the current, including thousands of minuscule, squirming, jetting, golden octopi, smaller than a fingernail, that latch onto anything they encounter, be it camera, strobe or us; and, something marvellous I had never seen before – several, small jellyfish with slightly larger fish living, unharmed, inside their bells.

Day 18: Inside Aldabra Lagoon

Robin, Chris, and I go to a quiet beach to photograph tortoises and birds. There are several large tortoises under the trees, and they gaze at us with wrinkled, ancient faces as we move close to shoot. Unconcerned, they browse as they move slowly about, seeming to eat anything and everything – leaves, pine needles, grass.

That evening, under a steady rain, we stand at Fantasea’s rail looking down at the dark water; a horde of baby turtles swims slowly by. The terns know this is a night of hatching; by the hundreds, they are everywhere, hovering just over the surface, searching for baby turtles. One rain-battered tern approaches us, and Tally extends her arm. The fearless bird lands, shakes his feathers dry, and then flies off into the deep night.

Day 20: Assumption

We move the boat back to Assumption for a last day of diving. Afterwards, we head out for a final, late afternoon snorkel. I swim as a glowing, setting sun breaks from under the clouds at the horizon. As I surface from a free dive, the sun’s rays suddenly pierce the surface of the water, showering down a brilliant cascade of sparkling, golden light. I rise through it, mesmerised by this scene of such breathtaking beauty. I rest on the surface, immersed now, not simply in the sea, but in a moment shared with a magical universe.

Contributor’s Bio:

Al Hornsby is a well-known dive professional, diving and wildlife photographer, author, and environmentalist. With four books to his credit, Al also is a regular contributor to international dive magazines. Along with his photography and writing, Al is a longtime executive (currently Senior Vice President, Legal Affairs) for PADI; former Editor/Publisher of Skin Diver Magazine; former President of the Dive Equipment and Marketing Association; and a founder of the Project AWARE environmental organisation.

To read more inspiring stories with unique encounters divers have had, pick up your copy of ‘What it Feels Like’ Scuba Diver issue No.124/2022 here

From underwater marriages to being courted by belugas, there are some beautiful and entertaining pieces you won’t want to miss!

Text and Images by Alexandra Dimitriou Engeler

So, what does it feel like to get married underwater with 50 shark guests? Two words – wet and wonderful. It was the best day of my life and the most unforgettable dive of my career.

My husband and I are both divers and my family are all divers. Diving has been my passion since I had a mouth big enough to hold a regulator, and sharks have been my absolute favourite creature that swims for as long as I can remember.

So when my husband popped the big question, it was only logical to do it underwater. And why not travel somewhere where they have a high shark population and an underwater preacher?

Turns out the Bahamas ticked all the boxes. Underwaterpreacher.com had all the answers and worked out all the logistics for us.

So we packed our dive gear, loaded the diving family, and hopped on a few planes from Cyprus to the Bahamas. 

It was an early start – a 5 a.m. wake up allowed me to get my wedding diving hair secured and waterproof makeup applied. All in time for the limo to pick us up at the hotel and drive us to Stuart Cove Dive centre. 

I built my equipment wearing a white dress and a veil, weighted down with fishing weights that had been sewn into the hem. My husband started donning his very special custom-made tuxedo wetsuit. A short briefing from the shark guide, who was wearing chain mail and a helmet to protect her from any guest that felt partiality “nibbly” that day, prepared us for the day. We signed all the official paperwork on the boat with the preacher too and he ran through how the vows would be agreed upon while underwater.

We chose a shipwreck for the official ceremony. My father “swam” me down the aisle. My brother was waiting there with a clamshell containing the rings.

The ceremony was short and sweet. The preacher ran his finger across each line of the wedding vows, finally resting on the answer options of “Yes”, “No” or “Maybe”.

We circled our “yes’s” – we took our regulators out and had our first kiss as a married couple. Sharks circled around us. A rather friendly grouper got in the way. I think he felt left out and wanted to be a shark too.

The joy I felt has never been matched. The happiness was overwhelming, but our adventure had only just begun. We then left the wreck and made our way onto the sand for our second dive. This dive was all about the sharks. The shark guide was there with huge metal boxes full of fish – after all, it’s rude not to feed your wedding guests. I normally do not agree with feeding marine creatures, but Stuart Cove has managed to maintain a high shark population due to these practices. In a world of ever-dwindling shark populations, I must say that this is the exception that I agree with. The sharks were friendly and got very close I’ve never been dumbfounded in such a profound way before. These fantastic beasts were circling our group in a feeding frenzy that can’t be described easily. Our guide had told us to keep our fingers together, just in case they were confused for fishy flesh. My white wetsuit looked blue and my veil was catching every expelled bubble from my exhalations. The water was a cool 18 degrees Celcius and my heart was in my mouth, both with love and excitement.

I can’t imagine a better way to get married. I will never forget the tears of joy I had when I surfaced. I never felt more “in the moment” than that day. I think of it daily. I live my life happy knowing I found my life partner who shares my passion for the underwater world!

Contributor’s Bio

Alexandra Dimitriou Engler is the owner of Scuba Monkey Ltd, a dive centre in Agia Napa, Cyprus. She became a diver in 1992 and received her bachelor’s degree in Oceanography at Plymouth University in 2003. Her love of the ocean has always been her driving force and this has led to the natural progression of becoming a diving instructor in 2005. She is currently a PADI staff instructor. Read more about her at www.scuba-monkey.com.

To read more inspiring stories with unique encounters divers have had, pick up your copy of ‘What it Feels Like’ Scuba Diver issue No.124/2022 here

From underwater marriages to being courted by belugas, there are some beautiful and entertaining pieces you won’t want to miss!

Interview with Stuart Cove
Images by Stuart Cove’s Dive Bahamas

For Stuart, who founded Stuart Cove’s Dive Bahamas, there is an underwater world he wants to share with us all. The coastline waters offer world-famous underwater film sets for scuba divers, snorkelers, and swimmers. There’s a whole cinematic masterpiece beneath the surface to be seen. From stunning, lively reefs and an expansive array of marine life (most notably the sharks) to dramatic drops and mysterious wrecks, the experiences on offer are a treat for every diver, whether you’re a newbie or veteran – or a celebrity with a film crew in tow.

Will Smith’s fear of sharks had haunted him his whole life thanks to Steven Spielberg’s Jaws. This fear of sharks
would come up in any environment, even irrationally in the bathtub, as he admits in his Facebook Live video clips from 2019. Will decided to overcome his fears and team up with Stuart Cove’s Dive Bahamas to undertake a PADI Discover Scuba course. The location of this spot? Exactly where Jaws was filmed. He really did tackle his fear head on. The Bad Boys star wanted not only to learn how to dive but to appreciate sharks and their roles in our ecosystems.

Will said it had always been on his bucket list and he wanted to learn to love the creatures, not shake in terror at the thought, let alone the real life sight, of them. Indeed, Stuart notes celebrities are no “superheroes” and Will was terrified on the boat before entering the water. Then, remarkably, Stuart had the privilege, as he calls it, to watch this fear “dissipate into a sense of wonderment”.

Whether it’s dive enthusiasts, holidaying families or movie stars, for Stuart, it is so humbling to see people interact with sharks “so close that their bellies brush over their heads”. He notes that it is a powerful feeling when these individuals of all ages and all backgrounds “put their lives into your hands”.

In the case of celebrities, Stuart is always struck by how these famous figures have so many people looking up to them, yet they are just as humbled as anyone else when they’re underwater experiencing unique encounters with marine life. He concludes that after all his experiences underwater with celebrities, they are “just individuals who have high pressure jobs”.

Stuart also recalls in his years in The Bahamas how he has hosted numerous film crews and seen his dive school turned into a film set. Sean Connery, Sandra Bullock, and Heidi Klum are just some of the celebrities he’s seen. He has also witnessed how marine protection protocols have changed the way films are made. Before these were in place, crews would manipulate animals such as sharks, physically handling them like props or puppets to create the perfect shot. Now, thankfully, marine life must be left largely untouched by law. Other tricks are still employed, however, like altering the environment to match the characteristics and colours of different filming locations. For example, whiter sand might be brought in to mimic the colour of the sand from the Virgin Islands, another popular setting for movies.

From the Bond films to Avatar, The Bahamas has been chosen for countless movies for its photogenic beauty both above and below the waterline. But looking to the future, computer-generated imagery (CGI) is gradually changing that, with stunning locations like The Bahamas simply providing a backdrop that is then heavily reworked digitally. Actors are filming less and less in authentic underwater environments, instead shooting in swimming pools or tanks bathed in harsh artificial light and covered in green screens – with marine life added in digitally later. It is arguably easier for Hollywood, but the underwater world is so picture perfect, it is perhaps a shame. At least the sharks are left alone, and anyone can still enjoy the chance to dive with them.

Whether diving with novices, families or celebrities, or indeed anyone bravely overcoming intense fears, Stuart is passionate about introducing people to the underwater world and helping to create better divers. He has shared many remarkable moments and forged lasting memories. But, he says, although we may be starstruck when we hear about the famous people he has met along the way, for him it’s all in a day’s work, and he’s always looking for his next adventure. Indeed, these days, Stuart is looking up, not down, taking to the skies as he trains to become a pilot. In the meantime, Stuart Cove’s Dive Bahamas will continue to showcase the most exciting underwater life The Bahamas has to offer and you can be sure that you haven’t seen the last of this beautiful corner of the Caribbean on the big screen.

Quotes from Stuart Cove

Text by Sienna Lakin

To read more inspiring stories with unique encounters divers have had, pick up your copy of ‘What it Feels Like’ Scuba Diver issue No.124/2022 here

From underwater marriages to being courted by belugas, there are some beautiful and entertaining pieces you won’t want to miss!