Getting to
Cat Island was a long and arduous one!
As close as it is to the US, being one of the Bahamian Islands and even
in my same time zone, the logistics of planning this were not straightforward. This was precisely why I wanted to travel to
this remote, non-touristy destination under the expertise of somebody else who
has run this trip in the past. I reached
out to at least 3 different people or dive companies who all were not running
it for various reasons and several of my “shark people” to ask how they
arranged it or who they went with.
Finally, I received some sound advice to simply reach out to the
Greenwood Resort, the main resort on this little, skinny island, to make
arrangements directly through them. Why
did I not realize this was even an option?!
Pauline from Greenwood pointed me in the right direction with the
logistics of getting there and finally, I was on my way!
But it
still wasn’t that simple! Unfortunately,
the airline situation was not straight forward either. The two options were either an overpriced
$950 one way flight from Fort Lauderdale to Cat Island or a $300 roundtrip flight
between Nassau, Bahamas and Cat Island.
No brainer, right? Wrong! The Nassau flights were too early in the day
to allow myself and my travel companion/fellow shark sister, Alanna, to arrive
there from our respective locations in time.
So in the end, we stayed overnight in Nassau upon arrival and departure
into the Shark Sanctuary that is the Bahamas.
And guess what … that was actually more economical than paying nearly
$1900 to fly roundtrip in and out of Fort Lauderdale!
So why did
I go through all this trouble to get to Cat Island in the first place, you
ask?
Sharks, of course!
Cat Island, Bahamas is the only reliable
place you can see Oceanic Whitetip sharks this close to home.
This is a truly special species with a very
unique appearance.
Their extra long
pectoral fins and speckled white tips on their fins make them look very
different from other sharks.
They are
also the primary species that were present during the worst “shark attack”
disaster in history which was the sinking of the USS Indianapolis by a Japanese
submarine in the Philippine Sea during World War II.
Many accounts of that story were speculation,
but this blog is not about that.
I was
beyond excited to finally have the opportunity to meet this species and
experience their extra bold personalities for myself!
As always,
the Bahamas was extra hot and humid.
My
hair knew it as soon as I stepped out of the Lynden Pindling Airport in Nassau
and again when we stepped off the Western Air jet upon arrival at The New Bight
Airport on Cat Island.
This airport was
the least fancy airport I’ve probably ever been to.
Literally a runway, a tent, and a shack.
Despite that, it was an amazing feeling to
finally be arriving on this exclusive island.
Alanna and I were beaming with delight at just the thought of finally
being here, despite being sweaty and disheveled!
We gathered our luggage, met our fellow shark
divers for the week, Mark and Walter, and piled into 2 cabs to be chauffeured
to the Greenwood Resort!
Upon
arrival we were happily greeted by Pauline, Antoine, and their 3 resident dogs,
Dark, Stormy, and Guiness. Antoine
helped us to our room and the magician worked his magic right away, pulling a
silver dollar out from behind Alanna’s ear.
As the week progressed, we came to learn that Antoine was, in fact, a
true magician! And as our boat captain,
he truly brought the magic to us each and every day we dove.
The
following morning, we all had a hardy breakfast on the terrace overlooking the
crystal clear, tropical blue water gently flowing over soft, velvety sand. Then we set up our gear, and piled it and
ourselves into Pauline’s pickup truck.
The ride to the dive boat was only about 10 minutes. The unpaved, gravely roads which were
sometimes lined with goats on the side made for many interesting rides all week
long. Once on the boat, AKA the Emerald,
it was just another 10 or 15 minute ride to the dive site. It didn’t take long before those mesmerizing
white-tipped fins broke through the surface and I was in tears. Actual tears!
Wildlife is so beautiful and I will never understand why anyone would want
to destroy or harm it.
The first
back roll off the boat and into the endless blue was one of eight total that we
would do this week.
The first thing I
noticed upon descent were these little pulsating jellies, roughly the size of
my thumbnail, which were all over the place.
I would later find out they were Thimble Jellyfish.
What a cute name!
And then, the Oceanic Whitetips arrived, in
all their beautiful, captivating glory.
The jellies then had to take a backseat.
I’ve been
warned by many that the Oceanic Whitetips are a very bold, aggressive species
that do not know the meaning of personal space.
So I was surprised to see that initially they did not behave that way at
all!
It took a little while for them to
warm up to us.
Eventually, they did
start getting a little more curious and rambunctious, getting very close and
checking us out.
During our dive
briefings, we were told not to touch them at all, even to deflect them.
We were only to use our cameras or safety
stick (which was provided if we did not have a camera) to push them away.
I found this interesting.
When briefed for dives with Tiger Sharks, we
are always told to guide them with a flat hand on top of the head and push them
down and away.
With these whitetips
though, that simply was not allowed.
It
was camera only!
Day #2 was soured a little bit by
heavy rain and winds in the morning. On
a day like this, I usually would be disappointed and expect the dive operator
to call the dives for the day. But
around noon it did clear up and Pauline ordered us into the truck to get
going! And surprisingly, once we got out
there, the seas were calm and the visibility was as amazing as ever!
Throughout the week the number of
Oceanic Whitetips we had was as little as 2 and as many as 10.
They had interesting behaviors aside from
curiosity and boldness.
They would sometimes
leave for 10 minutes or so but then would always return, guaranteed!
Their speckled white fin tips looked as
though they had been painting and accidentally splattered paint on their
fins.
I also noticed that the speckling
was unique to each individual.
Speaking
of individuals, I noticed one that had what looked like a tattered anal fin and
another that had a noticeable split in her first dorsal fin.
We had all females every day except on Day 1
there was just one male.
But he was
outnumbered, so he never came back!
Besides the Whitetips, we also had
several Dusky shark encounters on our dives and I was able to officially add
this Species as #15 to my personal shark dive list. Sadly, there was one poor dusky who had a
hook in her jaw with a large pink fishing lure and a thick line trailing behind
it that was roughly 3x the length of her body.
Sadly, sharks are not even fully safe in a country that is a shark
sanctuary. Making several attempts to
swim close to her, Pauline managed to clip a good portion of the line to at
least prevent the drag being created by it.
Later on, Alanna fashioned the line into a bracelet which I now wear as
a reminder of this trip and that there are still good people in a world gone
mad who want to prevent animal suffering as best they can.
So what did we see besides
sharks? We had two huge marlin which
brought some unexpected excitement!
After our final dive, Antoine brought us to a Bat Cave where we picked
up some Sea Glass and fossils as bats flew around aimlessly above our
heads. Speaking of Antoine, he is a man
of many talents! He was our boat
captain, he rides a motorized paraglider, he climbed a 40 foot palm tree to
retrieve some coconuts to give us purely organic coconut water, and he provided
us nightly entertainment at dinnertime with his magic. And it wasn’t magic tricks … it was simply
magic!
This truly was a magical trip from
start to finish, worth every effort it took to get here. Aside from the shark experience, the Bahaman
hospitality was also top notch. Pauline,
Antoine, and their small Greenwood Resort staff were obviously amazing but even
in Nassau so were our taxi drivers, local restaurant servers, and general
airport workers. Everybody was extremely
friendly and welcoming to us foreigners!
As difficult as it was to get here, I can easily see myself returning.
.jpg)
.jpg){kind=link}
