My first dive with a tiger shark !

[getawayFK]

Hello everyone;

So as you can see from the title, I have recently had the great honor of swimming face to face with one of those magnificent creatures. It has been one of my dreams to free-dive with one of those wonderful creatures and this came true on July 26th.

So here are the details (starting with the details of the whole trip):

We left the dock at 4am and headed in the direction of our offshore deep water spot (some 130km offshore), but we decided to first check a wreck that is on our way (around 55km in our way). We reached there by around 5am, just by the beginning of sunrise, and the sea was completely flat. By the moment I am getting ready to get into the water and my buddies to anchor the boat, we see at least 4-5 blacktips sharks around our boat. Nevertheless, they were all around 1.2-1.8m. In addition, there was a school of 50-60 barracudas around the wreck. Anyway, I shot couple of barracudas and another buddy was spearing with me, and we would quickly get speared fish to the boat as to limit the trashing and bleeding. However, I got to shoot a large trevally that went nut and that i couldnt control and started splashing like crazy and thats when out of nowhere (for the previous 20mins we were free-diving, the blacktips completely disappeared out of sight) 6 blacktips showed up and went into a crazy feeding frenzy within few meters from me and nothing was left expect a small bent in the last 10cm of my spear (close to the flopper) !!!

Anyway after staying in that spot for around 45mins and having shot decent sized fish, we decided to move to our final spot (130km offshore) so by around 8.30am we were there. Sea was completely flat, and visibility was at least a blue 20m. We stopped by another wreck and water depth was 60m. However, by 25m of depth, visibility would start to dramatically decline to about 10m and by 30m to about 6-7m but that's where all fish were hanging out (right above the wreck where you would also be able to see it at this depth). Also surface temperature was around 29C and by 25m of depth temperature would be around 24C and at 30m and more it would get very uncomfortable to stay more than couple of seconds there!.

Anyway, there were plenty of big pelagics hanging around the wreck by around 20m of depth and lower. From the big barracudas, to the great amberjacks, giant trevallies, cobias, kingfish, queenfish etc... We were 3 buddies in the water (me, DB member baracuda, and another buddy), and two other friends were on boat relaxing a little bit and getting ready to get scuba gear on to dive after a while), and we were shooting fish and making sure that any fish we shoot dont get to take too much reel line and tangle around the wreck...

So my friend Khaled (aka baracuda on DB) shot a large cobia (some 1.6m) which dived straight to the bottom but on its way down wrapped against one of those wreck structures and got itself tangled at around 30m of depth (well by this time we didn't know exactly what happened with the fish for sure). After 1mins from the shoot, I told Khaled I will go down to check on the situation and give another shot to the cobia if possible. I dived straight down and as I approached 16m (nose dive straight down) and I see this huge shark (not the 1.5m slender smooth blacktips we just dived just 3hrs b4) but this giant at least 4.5m tiger shark popping out of nowhere and gently and smoothly swimming around. My first reaction was to follow him and keep an eye on him so as by 20m i was slowly sinking toward him and started to see more clearly the picture of this amazing tiger and his stripes, his huge belly and stunted nose, big black eyes... and also get to see how this desperate cobia (for which khaled really placed a tight shot right behind her gills) is desperately flapping but to no avail (as it wrapped around one pipe and got itself tangled)... So basically this tiger just turns around from behind the pipe so by now I am seeing him face to face and im only 3-4m from him (with the gun in my hand that if i extended my hand i wouldve been almost able to poke him with the tip of my gun)!!!! and with a first bite it devours almost half of the fish (from the tail direction) and with a second bite, everything was gone, the fish, spear, line and also by this time my heart was already beating at 100bpm :P and I already pushed my breath-hold out of limit, so I had to rush to the surface while of course keeping and eye underneath me at the tiger shark and of course not splashing too harsh or swimming erratically....

So here I reach to the surface and scream out to the guys about my encounter but i notice everyone was already out (except of Khaled (we were total of 6guys), as my other buddy happened to having dived behind me (while i didnt notice this) but only up to approx. 18m and quickly rushed back to the surface when he saw the huge figure of the shark and told everyone about it so I was approx. 30sec later up again telling them about it!

By then, only Khaled and I stayed in the water, and for the next 2hrs we were trying to get to film the tiger shark and swim with him again but to no avail (despite chumming the water, splashing etc...) and then as we were loosing hopes we went down for a dive and here we saw the tiger swimming by us again. It passed us and looked at us by the corner of his huge black eyes and cruised us for few seconds then disappeared again in the blue !

That's when also the other 4guys in the boat told us that they would like to also dive so we would move to another area so they could dive comfortably Again in that other area we saw couple of small blacktips (1-1.5m) but nothing particular... In additions to the other pelagic fish.

Basically, it was one of the best trips of my life... I never knew how I would have reacted with such a beast, but apparently I felt comfortable; probably because first of all water visibility was excellent that day, I had a long gun in my hand, and had been spending every second day in the sea (since I had a 6weeks holiday, i've been diving 4-5times per week and for an average of a minimum of 5hrs per dive).

In addition, we've never seen such a concentration of shark ever in Qatar! I mean by the time we hit the water we directly get with 5blacktips !!!! then with a tiger, then with blacktip again... Well statistically I would expect to see a shark once in every 60 dives and again probably just a passing figure!

Another thing, this also reinforces my concept that I will never carry fish on a stringer and tied to my weightbelt. I used to do that very often until I saw a 2m bullshark cruises by me in May 2007 so that got me thinking again but then I got pretty comfortable again and would do that for example when diving in proximity of our boat (e.g: 30m from boat so that I wouldnt have to swim back to boat once I shoot a fish)....

Finally, sorry for the long post, but just wanted to share one of my best diving experiences ever here on this amazing forum !!!

[Mongrel454]

sounds like you had a blast mate
If it was me id prolly be leaving my own burly trail all the way to the boat LOL
Your a brave man

[odai.sadik]

Sounds like a Great Adventure!!!!
you guys are very brave to dive with a tiger that size,
this is a good sign for qatari waters. hopefully this means that there will be more and more life returning to the great waters of the gulf after the heat waves of 96 and 98.
thank you for sharing this story
Odai Sadik

[foxfish]

Great story, I met a tiger in Thailand about 20 years ago, the memory is still fresh in my mind!

[getawayFK]

That indeed might be a good sign that aquatic fauna in the Persian gulf is recovering, but still there's a long way to go.... As with the other 7people I've dived with (and mind you that we all have combined dives perhaps exceeding a thousand) that was the first time ever to see such a sized shark! All other encounters were of smaller blacktips, and occasionally bull shark or hammerhead once in every 100 dives !!!!

Pollution, and overfishing are the main factors to blame here. On another note, and especially for readers of this post who are free-diving/swimming in Qatar, note that there has never been a recorded unprovoked shark attack in the territorial water of Qatar since 1956 (according to ISAF). However, prior to this, there had been stories of pearl-divers of Qatar being bitten, or harassed by sharks, mind you that pearl divers would venture for days into the open water and as far as 100km offshore...

As for the most significant shark species that can be found in here, that includes: Blacktip shark, blacktip reef shark, white tip reef shark, Great hammerhead, scalloped hammerhead, tiger shark, bronze whaler, bull shark, whale shark, and hardnose shark.

Best regards !

[Silentspear]

I would need a new wetsuit....

[getawayFK]

Well you guys in Australia, California or S.A got the great whites so we are equals !!!

Actually now my next goal on my wish-list (to do b4 I die ) is to swim with a great white
Perhaps will do that in a couple of years if possible

[blaiz]

great story. Tiger sharks are amazing animals. Come over to Hawaii if you want to experience them in numbers! Though they demand a great deal of respect it is an amazing experience to be able to freedive with them. (a little hair raising too!)

[kmo]

Great story.

I recently had my first tiger encounter and was suprised to find I was feeling pretty calm too. When it swam out of sight I was pretty happy to hop in the boat; I felt fine when I could see it and a bit nervous when I couldn't.

Loved it though. They have a very calm presence for a shark which is both reassuring and unnerving, because they seem just as relaxed when they are bighting something as when they are just swimming up for a look.

[getawayFK]

great post KMO... Hopefully I will get to that same area soon again and be both physically and mentally prepared to swim with him again (and get it captured on video as well)...

Regards

[kmo]

I'm heading north again in a few days and I can't say that I'm also hoping to see another tiger! There will no doubt be a few sharks, but I'd like to keep the big ones to a minimum

[spadefish]

If any of you guys want to dive with Tigers (almost guarenteed), Scottburgh on the Natal South Coast (S.A.) is the place to be. I have spearfished among them often and they tend not to get too excited by shot fish around them (unlike the black tips!). I have seen footage of a team mate of mine holding onto the dorsal fin of one and being towed like a whale shark (talk about close encounters). On a number of occasions i've had them swim right up to me on the bottom while waiting for green jobfish to come in. They just slowly swim up to you, have a look then swim off - no speed at all - but i am sure if they WANT to, its a different story. I have seen one eat a 60cm diameter marker buoy (just because it was orange i think!)

The area in particular holds an astonishing array of sharks, tigers, bulls, sand tigers, blacktips, hammers, greys, bronze whalers and occasionally even mr and mrs white. Just shows how much fish there is in the area!