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Fiji: Shark Supermarket
This is one truly exiting dive.
Location:
Off Mana Island in the Mamanuca Island Group in Fiji. You get there from Mana Island
resort or from resorts on other nearby islands such as Castaway, Beachcomber or Matamanoa.
We went with Aquatrek, based on Mana Island. A great Fijian called Api
Basi who is from the island of Tabua is the shark man. Api is a big man, he carries 3 or 4
dive tanks to the boat, no problem.
Two days a week the boat goes out to a reef and a load of tourists enter the water.
Api has a cage, it's about 2x2x2 feet, in which he has fish leftovers from the island
resort restaurant. While the visiting divers kneel down on the bottom in about 8-10 m
distance, Api opens his cage and grabs some feed. White tipped and black-tipped reef
sharks show up almost immediately. The smaller ones (1-2 meters) will come really close to
Api, and he will grab them and cuddle the shark which seems to even like it. He will hold
the shark under his arm, and with the other arm hand feed it. Then it wriggles out of his
grip, and he lets it go. Other ones come past, they get the same treatment. Bigger
bronzewhalers are more "direct", they don't have time to play around but go
straight for the feed and then take off again.
Visibility is reasonable, it was about 20 meters at our dive, but can obviously change
with conditions.
Api is a very spiritual man. He tells us that his tribe has had a special relationship
with sharks for many many years, and that he himself has been diving with sharks for more
than 20 years. He says he can read their mind and they can read his - and it sure looked
like that, I must admit. He says that the sharks have never been unfriendly, even when
there were lots of them and the food ran out ...
While I was filming this I felt a thump on my lower leg and saw the tail of a 1,5m shark
disappear. I thought: "No, can't be, it didn't touch me". A moment later it
happened again. So, I decided to point the camera towards my feet, and sure enough the
beast came back and I saw how he scratched his nose right there on my leg. I had taken my
flippers off because they kept getting into shot while Api was feeding the sharks.
I can warmly recommend this dive. It felt safe all the time (true!), the Fijian guys know
what they are doing, and the pictures were great. There is a couple of divers who go down
with Hi8 cameras and film the visiting divers. They edit a nice little video together on
Mana Island afterwards.
Hans la Cour
hans@tradewind.co.nz