Atlantis, Paradise Island
For fall break, we decided to return to Atlantis in the Bahamas. Our kids have always loved the place, and it makes a great destination for a long weekend. Now that the kids are older, I thought it would be a good time to take them diving with sharks. They have seen sharks in many places, but this would be different.
Relaxing in The Current.
Here, you can expect dozens of sharks being fed at a site called “the arena”. But first, Atlantis. The waterpark is great! Several exciting waterslides, with a “crazy river” surrounding them. We were joined by the Nyberg’s who arrived a day earlier. The weather was excellent and the resort was just starting to attract visitors after the COVID shut-down. Only two of the Atlantis towers were open, so the waterpark did not have any lines. Perfect!
The Royal Towers, Atlantis
I made my first shark dives nearly 30 years ago in the Bahamas with Stuart Cove. I knew he was still around, as I saw his name on some of the adventure options at Atlantis like “Walking with Sharks” in the Mayan Temple shark pool. Alex did this several years ago when he was too young to SCUBA dive. Diving with sharks in their ocean is much more appealing to me.
All 9 of us made the two-tank dive with Caribbean reef sharks, and for Ashlee Nyberg, it was her very first ocean dive. She was certified in a local lake just prior to this trip just so she could join us on the dive.
Diving with sharks in the Bahamas
Our first dive was free swimming on a wall and through a wreck. There were plenty of sharks around, both reef sharks and nurse sharks. Like Pavlovian dogs, they knew dinner was coming even though they were not being fed on this dive. Our second dive had us fixed on the bottom in a circle, waiting for the divemaster to arrive with dinner. The sharks were well accustomed to the ritual, and they followed him down from the boat to the arena. The divemaster and photographer were both wearing chain mail, not unexpectedly. In addition, Michelle, our photographer, was wearing a helmet! This was a first for me, seeing someone dive in a helmet, but it didn’t take long to see why. While the divemaster was feeding and focusing on the sharks, she was paying more attention to us, capturing some great photos and video and the sharks were inadvertently knocking her around in their struggle against each other to get to the food.