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Original poster

Has anyone swam with sharks??

58 replies

MaryPoppinsPenguins · 03/02/2019 21:00

It’s my bucket list. I really want to do it for my next birthday and a friend of mine (brothers girlfriend) wants to do it too! (🎉🎉🎉)

My DH has decided he wants to do it... except... he can’t swim.

I’ve told him he absolutely can’t do it because he can’t swim. He said it’s fine... he can just use the apparatus and he’s in a cage... I disagree.

You need to swim right???

OP posts:
arethereanyleftatall · 03/02/2019 23:58

It's such an awful thing to do morally. Really wrong.

AlliKaneErikson · 03/02/2019 23:58

*have seen

IAmNotAWitch · 04/02/2019 02:17

I am a scuba diver and have spent a lot of time in the company of various species of shark - no great whites.

I have never caged dived, oddly I am more afraid of the cage then I am of the sharks.

If I was going to cage dive it would be with Rodney Fox out of Port Lincoln in South Australia. I wouldn't trust anyone else.

Think carefully about this and about who you go with, we are losing our sharks, anything that adds pressure should not happen.

If the oceans die. Nothing else is going to matter.

Aquamarine1029 · 04/02/2019 02:27

3 times but never in an artificial or contrived environment.

Taytotots · 04/02/2019 02:59

For cage diving you would get in straight from boat - top of cage usually out of water just next to boat. You are heavily weighted and usually breathing on a long hose from boat rather than usual scuba gear. I worked for a great white research operation when I was a student. I think actually a confident non swimmer would be ok but check with the operator. As said above maybe think about the ethics though and look for a reputable company. Some do the cage dives to fund conservation efforts like tagging.

alltoomuchrightnow · 04/02/2019 03:02

not caged ones
I was scuba diving
Leopard sharks and wobbegongs in Byron Bay
Hammerhead on Great Barrier Reef

alltoomuchrightnow · 04/02/2019 03:03

or rather, not me being caged!

Smotheroffive · 04/02/2019 03:14

Yes, swum in Indian ocean with sharks, but not intentionally, and had to swim to a boat to get away!

Hope it won't be supporting caged shark experience.

Winnie2019 · 04/02/2019 06:41

I have been scuba diving and I can't swim but I wouldn't recommend it. I felt petrified and almost drowned due to lack of confidence and making stupid decisions.

BarbaraofSevillle · 04/02/2019 07:08

Sounds like there are at least two ways to do it.

Get in a cage and be lowered from a boat just under the water with either a helmet or air pipe or similar for breathing and the sharks come to the cage of their own free will and you see them. He could probably do this as long as he is fairly confident in the water.

Full scuba diving equipment and swimming in the open sea with sharks that don't eat people. Absolutely no way he can do this as no-one should be diving like this without having the appropriate qualifications on how to do it safely and being able to swim and tread water are part of this. Also need to know what to do if your mask floods, air supply falls out or fails, how to control buoyancy for safe ascents/descents etc.

Anything that involves the animals in a cage, no way should anyone do this.

BarbaraofSevillle · 04/02/2019 07:09

Any company that allows people to dive without qualifications (unless as part of the teaching process obviously, but then you are learning to dive, not watching sharks) is unreputable and should be avoided at all costs.

donquixotedelamancha · 04/02/2019 07:12

I've done it in an aquarium in Australia. Just walked around the bottom of a very big tank. Was great fun.

HouseyMcHouseFace · 04/02/2019 07:18

I saw nurse sharks in a pen in Dominican Republic. It was sold as a ‘swim with sharks in the open sea’ experience. It was actually just a little pen in a shallow bit of sea and the people who took us tried to get us to feed them bread Confused. It made me really sad, those poor sharks.

KittyVonCatsworth · 04/02/2019 07:22

He can do a Discover Scuba Dive even if he can't swim. If he can kick his legs he can dive. It's only the PADI open water course where he has to be able to swim for 200m and tread water for 10 minutes. The DSD experience means the guide 'should' hold the valve on the tank, guide you and control your buoyancy. You're only allowed to go down to 12m on DSD, which would be ok if you wanted to see whale sharks, maybe reef sharks. Great whites, bull sharks, threshers etc tend to prefer deeper water.

I agree with others that cage diving or anything that involves chumming (buckets of fish) isn't great for the sharks or for people. It's so much better seeing them in their natural state.

Rtmhwales · 04/02/2019 07:29

I've done both ways listed above and I can't really swim. When you say he swim, what do you mean exactly? I can paddle maybe 10ft confidently and can't swim under water at all and yet I've managed to pass my PADI open water and advanced open water courses. I'm pretty sure I'd drown in the deep end of a pool if I had to tread water though.

I've swam with hammerhead sharks (scuba) in the Galapagos, cage dived with great whites in South Africa, and with whale sharks in Kenya.

BarbaraofSevillle · 04/02/2019 07:31

How can you pass a PADI open water course without swimming 200 m and treading water for 10 minutes?

KittyVonCatsworth · 04/02/2019 07:57

You can't Barbara, or you shouldn't. Granted, it's not a timed swim so even if you flail around and manage to cover 200m with no style or strength I suppose it could be done. Unscrupulous dive companies tend to push people through.

HouseyMcHouseFace · 04/02/2019 08:05

You definitely shouldn’t be able to pass your PADI without being able to swim 200m. If I was on a dive and one of the other PADI divers said they couldn’t confidently swim I would not be going in the water with them!

Soubriquet · 04/02/2019 08:08

Yes I have!!

It was a typhoon lagoon so not bug sharks, but little ones. Still amazing to see though and had to follow the rules of swim slowly and no splashing

Not my picture!

Though it looks like it’s being closed now and replaced with a water ride Sad

Has anyone swam with sharks??
blueshoes · 04/02/2019 08:23

It is really dangerous to go in open water and scuba dive without being a confident swimmer (or at least being able to tread water). Any problem and the panic and drowning risk is very high. Do you want to put your life in the hands of a dive master who is probably looking after more than one person?

SparkiePolastri · 04/02/2019 08:33

I have recently started following Ocean Ramsey on Instagram- she free dives with great whites, and tries to raise awareness about how threatened all sharks species are.

I would agree with everyone else that cage diving isn't right - and if you're that interested in seeing a particular animal, then surely you wouldn't want to do something that endangered it.

Noloudnoises · 04/02/2019 12:44

Nurse sharks and then reef sharks.

Reef sharks you can swim out from the beach in the perhentian islands in Malaysia.

Wouldn't do shark cave diving because I'm too scared and I also thinks it's cruel.

Soubriquet · 04/02/2019 13:12

Can I ask how people see cage shark diving cruel?

The sharks are still free in the wild and can choose to come near the cage if they wish.

It’s the humans that are caged not the sharks

arethereanyleftatall · 04/02/2019 13:19

Soubriquet - if you lure in any wild animal with food, such as they do with the sharks in cage diving, then long term the animal becomes more aggressive to humans.

Soubriquet · 04/02/2019 13:26

Aaah I see your point