Scuba diving up close with bull sharks in Fiji (with video)
Without doubt the highlight of our island hopping trip with Awesome Adventures Fiji was the shark diving at Barefoot Kuata island. It was mind-blowingly incredible!
Bull sharks are one of the most powerful and dangerous sharks in the world, so the idea of diving within inches of them will probably fill you with terror. But if you’re heading to the Yasawa Islands, you simply MUST do this experience! The instructors at Barefoot are really experienced and professional, they put you at ease straight away. And the dive is set up very cleverly, I felt safe the whole time. Well, relatively speaking, we were face to face with some of the sea’s biggest predators after all ha!
It was a 20 minute boat ride out to the dive site, and this waiting was probably the most nerve wracking part! Once in the water we descended about 10 metres, regrouped, and then slowly made our way down a gentle slope to 22 metres where the bull sharks were circling around waiting for us. We knelt down in a line behind a small rocky wall, where we created a kind of wall of our own, but ours was made of bubbles! Sharks don’t like the bubbles that divers produce, so this kept them from getting too close! The instructors also had long metal poles to push the sharks away if they were invading our personal space too much, but they didn’t really need to use them.
Once our bubble wall was well and truly established, the feeding of the sharks began and seeing these awesomely impressive animals gliding through the water within a metre of us was just unreal. I thought my eyes were going to pop out of my head! The instructors fed them fish heads using a (very) long pole and the other fish that were around would have a little munch before a bull shark swooped in and pinched it.
They generally have a pecking order where the big ones get first dibs on the fish heads. But we did have one jaw dropping moment when two went for the food at the same time and they crashed as one accidentally bit the other. It was epic though!
After 20 minutes or so we slowly made our way back up the hill and the sharks disappeared into the deep. Then it was a quick float around the coral reef before taking to the surface, bubbling (literally) with adrenaline!
It was honestly one of the most amazing experiences of my life, and I defy anyone not to love it! It’s not cheap at 299 Fijian dollars, but no expense is spared to make sure it runs smoothly, for the protection of the divers and conservation of the sharks. For example, as there were seven or eight of us doing the dive, five divemasters/instructors came along with us, so we were only ever a second or two away from help.
Just note that you can only do this dive if you have at least Open Water certification as it descends to 22 metres. There is an intro dive for beginners where you can see the bull sharks, but it’s hit or miss as to whether they’re there, and they’re also further away seeing as you have to stay shallower. So get your certification before you head to Kuata, it’s more than worth it and diving is the best fun anyway! 🙂
