Swimming with Sharks
Shark diving in Canada is gaining reputation as well as adventurers
Story by Melanie Brooks
From the floating wire cage, I could see a ghostly shadow appear. Then the great white
shark’s powerful body was just a metre in front of me, gaping jaws showing off her
rows of jagged teeth.
Trapped underwater with nothing but glorified chicken wire between me and the famed villain
of the Jaws movies and with fish guts and a giant tuna head floating nearby to attract more
great white sharks, you might think I’d be a little nervous. But that’s the thing
with shark diving: it’s not terrifying. It’s amazing.
Shark diving gives people the chance to observe, and appreciate, these ancient creatures
in their natural habitat. Great whites aren’t common in Canadian waters, but there
are nearly 30 other species of sharksf or the determined diver to spot, from the basking
shark whose gaping maw makes it look like a giant eel when it’s skimming the surface
sucking in plankton, to the mako and blue sharks, which resemble toothy kid sisters of the
giant great white.
Having seen a great white leap halfway out of the water, I’m not sure I’d be
taking a dip with sharks without a cage. But in Canada, we’re lucky; we get the unparalleled
opportunity to dive with our more docile sharks in their natural habitat, swimming alongside
them as happily as Sandy and Bud with Flipper.
"It’s really not scary at all," laughs Amanda Heath, who offers shark dives
through her company Hornby Island Diving, off Vancouver Island. "It’s stunning,
really, every time. You’ve just got to keep your eyes open, because they could come
from above or below." For some reason, sixgill sharks return to the area around Hornby
Island every year between May and September, giving divers a chance to spot these slow-moving,
five-metre-long predator. Usually found in depths up to 2,500 metres, divers have reported
seeing sixgills in water as shallow as 10 metres near Hornby Island.
Heath takes more than 500 people each year to see the sharks, and hundreds more flock to
the shores on their own hoping to catch a glimpse. And the numbers are increasing, she says,
as more certified divers hear of the opportunity.
The Hornby sharks aren’t baited, so each encounter is a natural experience that requires
a bit of luck. "First, you see their eyes. They’re reflective, like a cat’s
eye," says Heath. "When they swim alongside you, you’re reminded how ancient
they are, how graceful. It’s like swimming with a dinosaur."
Heath’s company, which she runs with her partner, Rob Zielinski, has specific protocols
for swimming with sharks, based loosely on the guidelines for whalewatchers. Swim slowly
towards the shark, let him see you first, give him plenty of room and don’t encircle
him.
Sixgills aren’t aggressive towards humans, but they’re still giant animals
about three times the size of the average human and have been known to kill seals. Besides,
they’ll swim into deeper water if they feel crowded or threatened, ruining the dive.
For real thrillseekers with a lot of cash and a hearty Canadian tolerance to cold, Arctic
Kingdom Marine Expeditions offers two-week diving packages in Nunavut with Greenland sharks,
which at nearly seven metres long, are one of the biggest sharks in the world.
Like the sixgill and most Canadian sharks, they’re deep-sea swimmers that rarely
come to shore, so Arctic Kingdom lures the sharks using seal meat.
"It’s a totally unique experience," said Kristyn Gray, expedition co-ordinator. "The
water is crystal clear because of the cold, so you have a perfect view of the sharks. You
can also see Narwhals and belugas, and these massive ice stalactites coming down from the
ice above."
Right now, Arctic Kingdom runs just two expeditions each year, at a cost of roughly $10,650
per person. But the company is expanding as news spreads, with customers coming from as far
as Japan, England and Australia. The latter is one of the best places in the world for cage
diving with great white sharks; so if Australians are coming to Canada for our sharks, we
might just have something here.
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