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pecialTravel/

By DARRYL LENIUK

Saturday, November 12, 2005 Posted at 4:34 AM EST

From Saturday's Globe and Mail

NASSAU, BAHAMAS — I feel like a medieval knight as I slide my arms
into the chain-mail sleeves. Christian Andreani, my dive master,
cinches the protective armour across my back and briefs me on the
dive: "Keep your hands in close. If a shark bites you on the arm, hold
your arm tight to your chest. It will eventually let go. Whatever
happens, don't let it pull your arm away from you."

I'm on the back deck of the MV Tursiops, one of Stuart Cove's dive
boats in Nassau, Bahamas, getting ready to take part in a shark feed.
I can see the sleek outlines of Caribbean reef sharks circling the
boat, and begin to have second thoughts about signing up for this.
Andreani, a muscular Frenchman with a shaved head and goatee, slaps me
on the back. "Nice knowing you," he says with a grin.

I have come with Stuart Cove's Dive Center to a site called the Shark
Wall for one of the most popular shark-feeding dives on the planet --
last year, the outfitter hosted about 20,000 scuba divers and
snorkellers. Since Stuart Cove began offering these exhilarating
encounters in the early 1990s, the dives have become extremely
popular, and are now offered by operators around the world.

But they are not without controversy: Critics feel that the sharks'
behaviour is being altered to appeal to divers, while others argue
that the feedings increase the risk of attacks on people.

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With the chain mail on, I sink like an anchor. When I hit the sandy
bottom 12 metres below, the other dive masters usher me into position.
A dozen visiting divers, who are not wearing chain mail, are kneeling
in a semi-circle. (Since I'm taking photos, and will be closer to the
action, I need protective armour.)

The shark feeder, wearing a full-body chain-mail suit and a silver
motorcycle-style helmet, hits the water carrying a metal box of bait.
The sharks seem to double in number. There must be at least 50. They
surround me. Most are about two metres long.

They attack the metal box, banging their snouts against the lid. With
a hand-held spear, the feeder reaches in and pulls out a fish. Two
sharks hit the bait simultaneously, writhing so furiously that I feel
the shockwaves from their bodies. I duck as a shark dashes toward me.
They come in from all angles and swim clockwise around the feeder,
enveloping him like a tornado.

I'm bumped by sharks. I'm careful to heed Andreani's advice and keep
my arms in tight like a boxer's defensive stance. If a shark bites a
limb, it will instinctively begin thrashing to tear flesh, which can
be dangerous even with chain mail.

But amid the frenzy there seems to be an element of control. The
feeder reaches into the sealed box and takes out one fish at a time.
Not giving up everything at once, he controls the tempo of the feed.

This technique was developed in movie-making. Stuart Cove himself got
his start in 1977 as a shark wrangler on the set of the James Bond
movie For Your Eyes Only, with Roger Moore. He found using a baited
spear was the best way to get a shark to swim across the frame for
filming. He quickly became Hollywood's go-to guy for sharks. In 1983,
he trained Sean Connery and Kim Basinger to scuba-dive in Never Say
Never Again. Since then, Cove's sharks have appeared in dozens of
documentaries and feature films.

At his dive centre, Cove now offers reef and wreck diving as well as
shark dives. More recently, he has begun running snorkelling trips
with the sharks. Typically, two shark dives are done on each trip. The
first is without feeding, so divers can observe the sharks in their
natural environment. On this dive, there are few sharks, and they stay
back a good distance. The second dive is the feed.

For most divers, shark feeds are the only way to see these predators
up close in the wild. Sharks are instinctively afraid of people, and
seeing one is a rare occurrence. In 15 years of diving, the only time
I have ever been close to sharks has been during feeds.

But some people liken the practice of feeding sharks to feeding bears
in national parks. In Florida, the issue came to a head after several
attacks on swimmers in the summer of 2001, which the media dubbed "The
Summer of the Shark."

The attack on eight-year-old Jesse Arbogast, in which the young boy
lost an arm to a two-metre-long bull shark, riveted many viewers in
the United States. Despite a lack of evidence that shark dives by
local charter operators had anything to do with the attacks, dive
operators were vilified in the media and legislation was quickly
passed to prohibit feedings.

Larry Speaker, a friendly Floridian who was managing Cove's dive
centre when I visited, disagrees with the move. "Shark dives are
extraordinarily safe when you follow the protocols," he says, pointing
out that there has never been a serious accident during Stuart Cove's
dives. In fact, there have only been a handful of minor injuries --
usually caused by careless divers flailing their limbs near the
feeding -- requiring nothing more than a few stitches.

As for shark attacks on swimmers on Bahamian beaches, there has been
no increase since the shark dives began in the early 1990s.

Speaker does not buy the argument that feeding sharks causes an
association with humans and food. "If they associated boats with food,
they'd follow us to other dive sites. But that doesn't happen."

The sharks stay at the feeding sites and come out only when fed. "If
it was dangerous, people would be getting hurt all the time. By taking
people on these dives, we're trying to reprogram the Hollywood myths."

Geoff Burgess, who manages the International Shark Attack File for the
Florida Museum of Natural History, agrees that the feedings probably
have no effect on shark attacks. (The summer of 2005 also saw several
highly publicized shark attacks in Florida, despite the state's ban on
feeding.)

Burgess is more concerned with how the feedings affect the sharks.
"Sharks are a highly migratory species. We don't know how their
movements are being altered around feeding sites." He believes the
feedings may lead to changes in their behaviour and the ecology of the
areas where they occur. He also feels the experiences are
less-than-authentic. "What people come to see are sharks in their
natural environment, but what they see are highly trained animals."

Back in the water, as the last of the bait is fed to the sharks,
things begin to calm down. The sharks' erratic motion becomes fluid
and graceful again. The school surrounding the feeder disperses as the
sharks cruise off into the blue. I follow the other divers forward,
and begin sifting through the white sand with my fingers. After
several minutes, I find two small teeth left behind by the sharks,
tiny souvenirs from the deep.

Pack your bags

WHERE TO STAY

Nassau Beach Hotel: http://www.nassaubeachhotel.com; 1-888-627-7282.
Rates start at $120 a night for a standard room.

SHARK DIVES

Stuart Cove's Dive Bahamas: 1-800-879-9832; http://www.stuartcove.com.
Two shark dives cost $155.

Walker's Cay Undersea Adventures: Walker's Cay, Bahamas;
1-800-327-8150; www.nealwatson.com/WalkersCay.html. Two dive shark
encounters, $110.

There are many outfitters in different parts of the world that offer
scuba trips in waters where divers are likely to encounter sharks.
They include:

Peter Hughes Diving: Florida; 1-800-932-6237;
http://www.peterhughes.com.

Aggressor Fleet: Hawaii; 1-800-348-2628; http://www.aggressor.com.

Mollie Dean Cruises: Lami, Fiji; 679-336-1171; http://www.sere.com.fj.

MORE INFORMATION

The Islands of the Bahamas Tourism: 1-800-224-2627;
http://www.bahamas.co