Swimming with sharks...

Yep, we've all heard the saying, and every now and then you get to. For real! Sure we've seen the occasional shark swim by in the distance, and once in the Bahamas a bunch of us were out hunting when a very large shark, either a Black Tip Reef or a Bull Shark, swam by and then decided to stick around. While all parties vacated the water toot-sweet (Liam got to the beach with Kevin from Solange), I had the pleasure of picking up Tofer and Andy (Wandering Dolphin & Saniti), off of a reef patch where they were standing knee deep, back to back with spears in hand while the shark gave them a couple of very close once-overs.

Then there are the times, such as here in Ambergris Cay, that you pay good money for the pleasure of doing something nutty, like swimming with sharks. With two kids along for the ride to boot. We, being myself, Liam and Michaela, chose to go diving for what may prove to be our last dive for a long time. The dive shop, shameless plug for Belize Diving Adventures, was great and Enes put together two fabulous dives. Huge fish, beautiful coral, everything you look for in a dive. The second dive was the crazy dive.

Nurse sharks abound on the Belize barrier reef and we chose to have Enes bring along a bait box to attract them. It worked, and before we knew it about 15 sharks ranging from 4' to 8' were swimming around us. Enes dropped the bait box on a sandy patch in about 50' of water and motioned for us to come closer. Sure, no problem, nice sharks! One even came close to curling up in Liam's lap but turned at the last minute much to Michaela's relief. Enes then took hold of one of the smaller ones, flipped it over and we all had a turn petting it and scratching its belly. A bit freaky to say the least!

When the bait box was empty Enes went to retrieve it. The larger sharks had other plans for the bait box and were trying to get to the last bit of odor. She would gently shove a couple out of the way but still couldn't quite get it back. Chivalry being fully alive in my book, I went to help 'move sharks'. Next thing I knew I was pushing those mean ol' sharks out of the way so the fair Enes could retrieve said bait box. Strange sensation to push a shark as big as me around!

OK, now for the disclaimer. Nurse sharks, while fully sharks, have no sharp teeth and a small mouth. They are a big sucker fish that could give you a very, very large and nasty permanent hickey if they chose to, but are mostly docile. This explains why tourists can swim with them and Rennie gave the okay for us to go!