The Cara Cara Shark Dive is a must for anyone who has an interest in swimming with sharks. I have always had a fascination with these fish, in particular great whites. Their size and power make them one of the most dominate predators in the ocean. When I was a kid, I would always look forward to watching shark week every year on the Discovery Channel and who can forget the Steven Spielberg classic, Jaws!
When it comes to sharks, there are three things on my bucket list that I’ve always wanted to do: Swim with them, (the non-dangerous ones that is), witness a feeding from the ocean floor, and observe great whites from the safety of a cage. In Roatan, Honduras there is the Cara Cara Shark Dive. Translated from Spanish, it means face to face. On this dive I was able to cross off two things from my list. (Witness a feeding and swim with sharks).
It’s about a 10 minute boat ride to get to the dive site. Once there, you will descend to a depth of approximately 70 feet of water. The target site is a reef wall which divers will back up against and then kneel into the sand. At this point, the Caribbean reef sharks start arriving from every direction because they know what is coming, a fish dinner! The bucket of fish is sealed until the end of the dive, but they know what is there. Once everyone has arrived on the bottom and gets comfortable, the Dive Master will instruct you to swim with the sharks for a short while. This is the perfect opportunity to get some great photos.
After a short time swimming, the divers will regain their position against the wall and wait for the shark feeding to begin. The Dive Master opens the fish bucket and throws it to the sharks. Soon enough, a feeding frenzy starts and it’s so amazing to watch! Once the bucket is empty, the sharks start to disappear. This is when you can start looking for souvenirs. When sharks feed, they often lose some teeth. If you search around the bottom, you might be lucky enough to find one.
It was such an awesome experience to swim with the sharks in their natural environment. Although this particular species of shark is not known to be threatening to humans, it was still enough to get the adrenaline pumping nonetheless.
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