Swimming with Sharks
Have you ever been nose to nose with a 10-foot hammerhead shark?
The bright, sunny morning became one of thrilling possibilities, when my good friend, Stan Starr, called and proposed we go to the Cocos Islands off the coast of Costa Rica. These islands are known as a gathering place for large hammerhead sharks who congregate there for reasons that no one knows.
Stan owned a 38-foot powerboat that was already in Costa Rica on its way from Panama to the U.S. I suspect I was invited because I am a diver and, one of the cardinal rules of scuba diving is to never dive alone. This is a rule no one wants to break, especially when diving with sharks.
With pounding heart and in high spirits, I accepted Stan's invitation and we headed to Costa Rica. The name of Stan's boat was POSH, which he explained came from the old sailing days when people traveled by square Riggers between England and India. To travel POSH meant that your cabin was on the preferable land side of the ship both ways—port out, starboard home.
When we arrived in Costa Rica, we purchased provisions for the trip, checked the equipment and were off. The seas were high and right on our nose, so the night was a rough one. By morning things had calmed down some and we cooked a hearty breakfast. Our navigation was good, and we were safely anchored off the island by noon the next day.
There are a million things to learn about scuba diving, but just three basic principles are essential: never panic and hold your breath going to the surface, always keep breathing, and never rise faster than your bubbles.
Every scuba diver carries a weight belt, which, theoretically, balances the buoying effect of the scuba tank and your body to create equilibrium in the water. The trick is to achieve the proper balance. If you put on too much weight, you're constantly battling to keep from sinking to the bottom, and if you put on too little weight you are constantly fighting to stay down. A little too much is better than too little. I hadn’t been diving for over year, so I had to guess what amount of weight to take. The good thing about weight belts is they come with a quick release so if you need to get to the surface in an emergency, you can instantly drop the belt.
My guess on the amount of weight I needed was close, so I just had a little negative buoyancy. We entered the water together and headed for what looked like a lagoon on the coast of the island. The water was crystal clear, and after a 15-minute swim we spotted the tall dorsal- finned, gray-brown sharks in about 40 feet of water. We headed for them and hoped they weren’t hungry!
I vacillated between trepidation and exhilaration as we started our descent to swim with these huge beasts.
Before long we had reached their depth and were swimming alongside them. They ignored us even though we were so close we could have touched them. We decided this was too dangerous, but in retrospect, I regret not touching one. Wouldn't it have been an extraordinary coup to relieve a hammerhead of one of his barnacles?
After 20 minutes or so we headed to the boat. Back on POSH we washed our equipment, put it away and were just opening our first beer when we noticed that we had been joined by a large National Geographic vessel. Apparently, they had come to photograph our sharks. Unfortunately, I was never able to find the program. But that’s ok, I swam with our sharks.