Trip updates: Wetpixel Tiger Sharks 2015

by adamhanlon Saturday, January 10th, 2015

Previously unreported, Ryan Canon kindly organized a barbecue for the group on evening of Day 3.

Debra catching the party for posterity!

Our skipper Renold (who caught and prepared the fish, made the salads and organized the conch!) and the staff at the Blue Marlin Marina helped make it into a great party! Thank you Ryan!

Day 4 lived up to its forecast and was blowing a gale. The 1.5 hour drive out to Tiger Beach was not possible, so a few of us elected to dive on a local reef.

This was all of 10 minutes from the jetty and had lots of very pretty soft corals and sea fans.

The wind has dropped on day 5, but we were worried about the possibility that the wind and waves had stirred up the sand and created poor visibility. The journey out was a tad lumpy, but when we got there it was amazing to see…..perfect visibility!

During both dives, we had multiple tigers around the bait, together with their accompanying lemons and reef sharks in great numbers. We also has a nurse shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum) that decided that it did not want to share any of the food in the bait box with any of the other sharks!

One of the tigers we saw has a broken jaw and more disturbingly, a heavy rope that seems to have been knotted around its tail fin. “Rope on a Dope” as she is known, is still very nervous, and although she made a few passes close to the bait, she was not close enough to do anything about it. Debra and Vincent hope that during next week she will come in and feed and hence they may be able to untangle the rope.

We finished off the final day with a group slideshow and a few drinks!

The Wetpixel Tiger Sharks trip 2015 was an amazing experience. Epic Diving proved superb at providing incredible diving and great photographic opportunities as well as ensuring the the encounters were safe for both human and shark participants. In common with many shark operators, Debra and Vincent have a real love for the animals and are passionate about conserving them.

We will be posting video of the trip over the next few days, as we return to good internet connections!

While we were there, we managed to test a fair amount of equipment too. Watch out for reviews of the Panasonic Lumix LX100 and its associated Nauticam housing, the Inon GoPro tray, cage and LE 1100 W lights, and the Nikon 20mm f1.8 lens to mention a few.