Pure! Natural! Without gimmicks!
100% dependable! Instant! Easy! Safe!
In the mid-seventies, Stella
Maris Resort Club started creating a dive site, where these magnificent
creatures of the sea and man would meet on neutral grounds, so to speak:
An easy dive site, situated well away from shore, from boating routes,
from any land-origined water activities. On the leeside of the island,
in just 30' depth, against the comfort of a nice reef site, providing the
backdrop of common Bahama underwater flora and fauna.
A first then, it is unmatched
now. Imagine this: You leasurely travel from our Stella Maris Marina some
seven miles over the beautiful shallows of the Exuma Bank, along the leeside
of Long Island. Reaching SHARK REEF, the anchor goes down. Right then,
you'll see the first grey-brownish shapes gliding through the water, circling
below the boat. With precise instructions of your guide team, you easily
drop down to smooth sand bottom, the reef closeby. There they are: Some
dozen - or two - of mostly
Bahama Grey Tipped Reef Shark - sometimes joined by an occassional "Bull",
or a Nurse Shark, even a lone Hammerhead. Right away, you will feel one
with the environment. Unthreatened. Quite in synch with your surroundings.
And what a site it is: Mildly inquisitive, your 'hosts' cruise all around
you...and often barely at arm's length distance...presenting themselves
to your utmost viewing and filming pleasures.
After a while, down comes
the fish bucket. You will only have moments to watch, moments to catch
the feeding on film. No - no frenzy. Just a maze of animals, sharks, baracudas,
grouper, rockfish, jacks and other, all pushing and gobbling for a tidbit.
Tidbit of fish - leftovers of normal food-fishing. Not caught freshly.
Not caught on site. Not bloody. Not shark enticing. No - we do not do hand
feeding, we do not add feeding tricks to the action. We keep it natural,
peaceful, hardly conditioning these animals to any but the slightest of
man connected behaviour.
After some 20 minutes or
so, both you and the sharks will realize: It is time to go. Leave when
it's best. Your hosting reef sharks will give you a few departing upward
circles...returning to their normal reef grounds as you hoist yourself
onto the dive platform.
For days to come, and longer,
you will treasure this dive experience as one of the highlights of your
dive career. Where the so - called supreme predator of the sea and you
have met, face to face. Not on screen. In reality. Without false sensationalism.
Definitely enriching your experience with priorly unimagined pictures,
cast onto your memory - and perhaps onto film.
STELLA MARIS SHARK REEF
is a MUST for just about any diver. And it's one of the most productive
and 'easy' SHARK DIVE sites for leasure and professional filming!
