The Barefoot Kuata Island Resort has created a new a new shark diving experience – the Awakening Shark Dive.
Located in Fiji’s Yasawa Islands – beautiful volcanic islands in the Pacific Ocean, with pristine sandy beaches, crystal clear water, with great snorkelling and diving – the perfect spot for a holiday, whether you are a diver or not.
Add to this Fiji’s unique hospitality and marine biologists to share their knowledge and passion about the local wildlife and you can understand why “This is the best thing I’ve done in my life!” is often heard after the dive.
The Awakening Shark Dive is brainchild of Shark Expert Dr. Thomas Vignaud. After his Ph.D. on sharks he has combined the latest scientific information, experience from other shark dive sites and his own ideas to design a safe, easy and sustainable shark dive.
The Dive runs each morning at 8am and is just a 15 minute boat ride from the island resort. Small groups of divers are taken to the site which is in just 22m of warm, clear water.
The sharks are fed either on the ‘ground’ in front of the onlookers who are positioned behind a low reef wall, or in open water a few metres above the ground using fish heads.
This provides the perfect opportunity to see the apex predators up close.
The most common shark species seen are the bull sharks, but 10 different shark species, including tiger sharks and great hammerhead sharks have been recorded over the last year.
The team run several scientific programs and use the presence of those sharks as an opportunity to learn more about them. For example, it is now known that fewer bull sharks appear after October when hormonal changes are happening prior to the November/December mating season. During this time other sharks are seen more frequently.
Shark diving is often seen as the domain of only experienced ‘hard-core’ divers, but the shallow depth and ease of access make this dive suitable for newly qualified open water divers. If you don’t have your certification yet, you can get qualified in a few days at the resort, and then enjoy the Awakening Shark Dive.
Barefoot Kuata Resort also run a shark snorkel, so you don’t have to be a diver to spend time in the water watching sharks, and of course, they have many other great dive sites too.
Here’s the experience in Full HD video.
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Awesome – can’t wait to get there and dive with the bull sharks!