“She swims with sharks! She’s crazy!” – One of my
coworkers to another, regarding my vacations.
As often as possible, I go to the Bimini Biological Field Station, affectionately known as Sharklab. The Research Experiences are perfect vacations for shark lovers like me. They’re affordable adventures brimming with sharks, rays, science, and fun. Each trip offers its own unique experience, and a return to a place that has totally captured my heart. How could I not go back again and again?!
People always ask me how I got started going to Sharklab. My obsession with the oceans and with marine life began in my childhood. We moved to Corpus Christi, Texas, when I was about five. Since moving back to Kansas just before I turned ten, I’ve been more ocean-obsessed than ever, looking for ways to get back to the ocean, and watching every marine wildlife documentary I could find on television or the internet.
In the late 1990s or very early 2000s, I was watching yet another ocean documentary, this one featuring Doc Gruber and his Sharklab in Bimini. I was sitting wishing to God I’d become a marine biologist, but I didn’t even know that was a profession when I was a child. I was so amazed by what I saw, the work this place was doing, and the beautiful sharks. I wondered to myself, 'Can I go there? Do they let people visit? How can I get there? I’ve got to go!' Then, I thought, 'No, they probably don’t let the public visit.' I dreamed of the place for the next decade.
I’ve never been attracted to resorts or cruise ships. Just like when I was a kid, I want to be in the ocean, not merely admiring it from distance. One of my loftiest dreams had always been to swim with the sharks in their own habitat, and to do so in a way that supported their conservation and environment.
When I saw the notice, I asked a couple of my adventure and shark-loving friends if they’d like to come along with me. One joined me on that trip and, subsequently, all of the trips that followed; one other friend would join me for my fourth trip back.
Arrangements were made. It was really going to happen! I would be at Sharklab, November 3 through 6, 2013. I don’t want to put too fine a point on it, but I was completely out my mind with excitement. I was nervous, I couldn’t wait, and I could barely believe I was actually going.
I’ll skip past the small plane ride and picked up at Bimini’s tiny airport, our first sight of Doc, and our short drive to the station. When we got to Sharklab and were given our room assignments, I had just unzipped my duffel when the call came that Doc wanted us to suit up for a swim with Caribbean reef sharks; we had thirty minutes to get ready. Conditions were windy, the seas less than placid, but I still got my suit on and my snorkel gear ready. Just like that, we were on the boats and headed to the site.
A line was stretched from an anchored buoy to the main boat. Doc was throwing chunks of fish to the circling Caribbean reef sharks. We were to jump in on the opposite side of the boat and swim around to the line, grab on, and be shoulder to shoulder so we could observe the sharks feed. We were to kick with our fins if the sharks came too close to us or tried to pass between us.
When I jumped into the water, I was immediately surprised to be in the company of three passing Caribbean reef sharks. They were a little bit lower in the water column than I was, and their path was perpendicular to mine. Accounting for the way things look closer through a mask underwater, I am guessing they were a couple of meters away. One of them glanced my way. Caribbean reef sharks have beautiful eyes. They were headed toward the area where the food was splashing into the water. I thought to myself, 'Well, you need to swim over to the line, so swim on over.' I just put myself on top of the water and snorkeled over the tails of the passing sharks.
Doc was urging everyone to jump in, as the supply of bait was not going to last forever. He hollered, "WE HAVE TWO SPECIES!" A feisty black nose had joined the fray.
Once you are in the water with these animals, your perspective shifts. Before you know it, you are admiring their grace and beauty, and you realize everything is fine; no, it’s better than fine, it’s amazing. You don't want to be anywhere else at that moment.
I love the Caribbean reef shark dive. I have been on that dive at least five times, two of which were in absolutely perfect conditions. The sun was out, the water was clear, and it was easy to get gorgeous photos, even with a compact camera with tiny optics.
The Naturalist Course was amazing. We enjoyed lectures on the history of the station and the various Ph.D. candidates research projects. We fished for bull sharks off the north island, caught a large tiger on the long lines, learned how to handle juvenile lemon and nurse sharks, and visited a place I thought existed only in my childhood dreams. Aya’s Spot is a shallow water mangrove inlet where newborn and juvenile lemon sharks seek shelter and grow before venturing into more open water, full of larger predators. The first time I went through the channel that leads to the inlet, it was pure magic, and I was elated. There were lots of adorable juvenile lemon sharks swimming all around in the secluded mangrove inlet.
The six days flew by, and I’ll be honest, I teared up going back to the airport. I didn’t want to leave. Dr. Tristan Guttridge was driving the car I was in, and he said, 'Well, that just means you have to come back.'
When the station started offering Research Experiences, we had our chance to return. My long-time friend and adventure travel buddy Pam James, and a friend we made at the Naturalist Course, Lindsay Deitch, started hatching a grand plan to return! to see great hammerheads in March of 2015!
To those of you still reading this far in, seeing a great hammerhead for the first time will blow your mind. They are very impressive animals, and each individual we saw had a distinct personality. All were curious, though some were bold and other cautious. Some stayed a long time, and others came and went. A big male, named Silverback, tried his hardest to get the bait box open. All the while, nurse sharks were clowning nearby, trying to get their shot at the bait.
This trip provided handling opportunities and photo ops with the little sharks in the education pen again (always a treat!), snorkeling with the hammers, fishing for black tips, and an encounter with a group of spotted eagle rays. We even snorkeled Shell Beach and saw a yellow spotted stingray. This trip proved you just can’t do it all in one visit. So, of course what do you do to fix that? You have to go back. This time it would be the following November!
Each time we return, there are some familiar faces as well as the many new ones. Former Ph.D. candidates’ papers have been published, current Ph.D. candidates’ work continues, and we get updates and hear new lectures. We learn about island development and it’s effects on current research. We have more encounters with sharks and rays, we learn more about the species and their habits. And we start planning our next trip. Each return means more education, more adventure, and more fun.
We went back for hammerheads this past March, as well, and I had the great pleasure of bringing my friend Jason Huck along with us. It was a thrill of its own to bring another long-time friend on the experience of a lifetime. Jason is a shark enthusiast and the timing was, finally, right for him to join us. He was apprehensive about getting into the water with the Caribbean reefs, but we would have just pushed him off the boat like we did in Isla Mujeres, so he knew there was no point in resisting. Once he got into the water with them, he melted into the experience and found it as transcendent as we did. And holy moly, the long line checks we did this trip were legendary! Large tigers, a baby tiger (so cute!), and a big nurse shark from whom I got a delightful tail slap upside my head while I was trying to grip her dorsal fin alongside the boat! Outstanding! She was a cutie!
I am always telling my friends to up their vacation game. You can sit around and drink mojitos whenever you want. It’s high time you hand-fed squid to curious juvenile lemon sharks in a mangrove inlet that’s like something out of a fantasy novel!
Pam, Lindsay, and I are booked to come back for July’s research experience. We’ve never been in the summer. What species will we encounter? What research will we learn about? Who will we meet? Now I need to get Jason back again! hammers in February of 2017, y'all?
Everyone in my life back home has gotten used to me going to Bimini to swim with the sharks. Every time I return and talk about my experiences, I see other people’s attitudes toward these incredible creatures change just a little bit. Perhaps they are not keen on swimming with them, but they start to see them in a different light, as animals worthy of respect and admiration, if from a distance.
I must also mention the joy of meeting other shark FINatics (sorry, it had to be done). There are new friends from around the world on every trip, not to mention the station’s staff, volunteers, PhD candidates, and the doggies! What’s not to love?
It’s the complete package. Simply by going to my favorite place on earth, I support, in some small way, the work being done at Sharklab. I get the chance to help with data collection and tagging of sharks caught around the island. I get to be in the water with free-swimming sharks of various species. I meet other shark lovers from all over the globe, and I learn about sharks and rays directly from the scientists studying them. I get to pet adorable dogs in a Caribbean paradise. I can’t imagine not going back every chance I get.
Thanks to Delana for the words and images.
For more information on Research Experiences at Bimini Sharklab, go to the following link: http://www.biminisharklab.com/opportunities/researchexperiences
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