Day 148 Reef Fish, Stingrays, Dolphins…..What’s NEXT???

 

Well, we heard that Bimini was not the most opportune spot in the Bahamas, but so far we have fallen in love with this area. We started the day taking a 6 mile dinghy ride to the SS Sapona shipwreck. This was designed by Henry Ford and later used as a prohibition era rum runner. It sunk in a 1926 hurricane. See link below for more details. We ran into a snorkeling tour guide on the water, and he directed us to a shark dive that turned into be one of the highlights of our trip.  Granted, if I jumped off the dinghy with my snorkel gear and saw these sharks at any other place, I would’ve walked on water like Jesus to get back into the dinghy. The tour guide mentioned that these Caribbean reef sharks that are resident to this reef are not aggressive and are part of a research study, (see second link below). I got in the water first, and after the 8-10 ft sharks did not express any aggressive behavior, I told Jessica to come on in, the water was fine. Ha ha. Jessica got into the water and her eyes lit up as the sharks were swimming below her, to the side of her, and just making friendly passes as they expressed a curious behavior, but nothing aggressive. At first, there was just two sharks, then a few of their friends showed up and then a total of eight by the time we were finished snorkeling. Jessica said that swimming with sharks was like overcoming a fear that was not frightening after doing it. I have to admit, after 30 minutes, I was ready to get back in the dinghy, because even though they were docile, I was always looking over my shoulder to make sure I could keep my eye on one of the eight sharks.

SS Sapona Shipwreck | Bahamas | Official Site

Shark Research | Bimini Biological Field Station - Shark Lab