head. (Watch the viral video of this encounter at tinyurl.
com/zenato-frink.) Cristina can bring these sharks to a
state of tonic immobility by stroking them along their
electroreceptors, the ampullae of lorenzini, to the point
where she can support them gently, cupping their snouts
as they lie perfectly still in her hand.
At the
Dolphin Experience
visitors can interact
with bottlenose dolphins in a controlled environment
within a large canal and basin or as scuba divers in the
open ocean. For the open-ocean encounter, divers are
transported to the reef from one of UNEXSO’s dive
boats as a smaller skiff runs alongside, with the dolphins
following their trainer out to the reef. They typically go
to a shallow reef in 30-45 feet of water, a site punctuated
by scattered high-profile clumps of coral and gorgonia.
While the dolphins are attentive to their trainer with
classical conditioning reinforcing their behaviors, the
dolphins are swimming freely in the open ocean, and the
proximity the divers enjoy is impressive.
While Freeport offers plenty of activities above and
below the surface for any dive holiday, Grand Bahama
Island offers even more. An hour’s drive can take shark-
diving enthusiasts to
West End
, home of
Tiger Beach
.
Here, along an area of shallow reef and rubble bottom,
large tiger and lemon sharks have been conditioned to
reliably appear by years of shark feeds. These are wild
sharks in the open ocean; divers should exercise care. It
may not be a dive for everyone, but it is a very popular
encounter. The site is exposed to the prevailing winds
in winter, so most prefer to visit Tiger Beach in the
summer and early fall.
West End also offers one of the best shallow shipwrecks
in the Bahamas, the
Sugar Wreck
. In only 20 feet of
water, the Sugar Wreck holds massive schools of grunt
and other reef tropical and comes alive at night with
marauding stingrays and loggerheads that sleep beneath
her nooks and crannies. Nearby is
White Sand Ridge
,
long known for its resident school of spotted dolphins.
Traveling east from Freeport, we arrive at McLean’s
Town, the gateway to
Deep Water Cay
. Well known
from the late 1950s by bonefish anglers, new owners
acquired the club at Deep Water Cay in 2009 and
decided that the same bountiful marine life that endear
the destination to fishermen would likewise appeal to
divers. The fishing is mostly flats fishing — catch and
release for bonefish, tarpon and permit, or offshore for
wahoo, tuna or mahi mahi.
Deep Water Cay defines casual elegance. While my
whirlwind visit did not allow thorough exploration of
their nearby reefs, I enjoyed two shallow reefs at
Lisa’s
Point
and
Dean’s Reef
, but the highlight was drifting
along the tidal flow in only 10 feet of water at
Thrift
Harbor
and seeing schools of eagle ray, sargassum
clusters growing from the seafloor, dozens of angelfish
and even a few nurse sharks.
BIMINI
Situated just 53 miles due east of Miami, Bimini has long
been a destination of choice for yachtsmen and anglers.
Hemingway lived there from 1935 to 1937 and wrote To
Have and Have Not between days out trolling the Gulf
Stream aboard his yacht, Pilar. Dive legend Neal Watson
brought recreational diving to Bimini in 1975; his son,
Neal Watson Jr., now conducts dive operations there.
Bimini is popular for shark enthusiasts because of
the seasonal appearance of great hammerheads and
bull sharks just offshore as well as the Bimini Sharklab’s
research work. Beyond sharks, the diving is diverse
and quite excellent. Highlights include the shallow-
water exploration of the
SS Sapona,
the coral caverns
and swim-through at
Victory Reef
in 35-85 feet of
impossibly clear water, and the Caribbean reef, lemons
and blacktip sharks consistently in residence at
Bull Run
.
A boat ride north to the expansive sand flats where
spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis) freely roam is a must.
66
|
FALL 2014
Michael Sherratt views
an elkhorn forest off
Man-O-War Cay.
Divers explore the shallow wreck
of the Sapona off Bimini.
