Sharks
One of the first things non-divers ask you when you first embark on a scuba-diving course, is if you aren't worried about sharks? Everyone remembers their first shark encounter under water. Mine was lying torpidly on the seabed, undoubtedly a shark but disappointingly inactive nevertheless. It was a nurse shark. Later, I came across a white-tip reef shark. I was able to record it on my underwater Handycam because I managed to corner it in a cave. It swam round furiously looking for a way out before it escaped in a rush right past my ear. I found my heart was beating fast but the shark had been rather smaller and rubbery than I anticipated.
Years later, I went to my first shark feed. There were about a dozen proper shark-like sharks circling round while an intrepid dive guide fed them with scraps of fish at the end of a spear. This was an adrenalin-busting experience and limited to film in my camera, after a few minutes I'd shot my 36-frame ration and had to head up back to the boat to reload.
The sharks were still there when I got back shortly after and I shot a second 36-frames worth before again retreating to the boat to reload. It was incredibly exciting. These Caribbean reef sharks were as big as me and were inclined to bump into me if I got in the way between them and the hand-out of snacks. I rushed to reload my camera the third time and, in the excitement, failed to close up its housing properly. My heart was racing as I swam down to join the ominous grey shapes circling below but it raced even faster as I swam back up in a vain attempt to save my flooded camera.
I've dived in close proximity to many different types of sharks since then and photographed them too. Everything from the mass brawl of hundreds of little white-tip reef sharks squabbling over some unfortunate prey at night to the majestic whaleshark that hoovers up small fishes and plankton have been the subject of my lens. I've won prizes for my close-up wide-angle pictures of Great hammerhead sharks. Recently, a huge tiger shark, much bigger than me, grabbed my tank and swam off with me. It was a thought-provoking thirty seconds before I was unceremoniously dropped.
If you want to hear more about diving with sharks, what a great buzz it can be and where you can do it, come to my illustrated talk at the London School of Diving and Mike's Dive Shop Open-Day on Saturday 12th October at 2.00pm, next to Mike's Dive Store - click here for full details....
John Bantin
