On November 8, 2005 I made my 300th dive in the oceans. Although I had been in the oceans for over 199 hours (and that total is just over 8 days of my life spent underwater), I had only once seen a big shark nearby. That big shark was a Dusky Shark near Bimini in the Bahamas. But this 300th dive was a lucky chance to go to a reef near Danger Cay in the Exumas where sharks are common. That is where I photographed these three big Caribbean Reef Sharks!

Each of these three Caribbean Reef Sharks was nearly 6 feet long. Each weighed nearly 300 pounds. These sharks swam around, sometimes swimming nearby. At first, it was very exciting. I wondered how these sharks would react to me. Would they swim up and bump me? Would they try to bite me? Well, the sharks seemed to pay no attention to me! They swam past me at a distance, seldom swimming closer than 10 or 15 feet away before swimming off above the reef. So I swam after them! I tried to swim in front of them so they would swim past me even closer, but usually the sharks would just swerve and swim around me. It was really wonderful to see these big, beautiful sharks. Many different kinds of sharks are in danger, because people have either caught them for food or have killed them just because they were afraid of them. After just a few minutes in the water with these sharks, I felt no danger being in the water with them.

ReefNews President Jonathan Dowell took these pictures using a Canon 10D digital camera with a Sigma 18-50 mm zoom lens in an Ikelite housing with an Ikelite strobe.

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