necrotimus
Stop looking at my title!
And so did I much to my dismay...
As part of my wife's birthday extravaganza we went snorkeling with sharks at Adventure Aquarium in Camden NJ. Although it was a little expensive it was amazing. There were three types of sharks in the tank sand tiger sharks, sandbar sharks, and nurse sharks. The nurse sharks are mostly nocturnal so we didn't get a chance to observe those in action. The largest shark in the tank was a sand tiger at over 11 feet and 600lbs. Oh and don't worry "I'm sure they are well fed"... well the big one was on a diet... gulp!
So we get a short educational lesson on the sharks then it is time to put on our blue wetsuits. I'm guessing they were blue so our parts would be easier to locate once the tank was filled with our blood. Once we are all dressed and showered we headed to the tank. The tank is huge 550,000 gallons and over 20 sharks amongst another 800+ creatures. The water was a nice balmy 70 degrees. It sounds warm but its ice cold.
When we got into the tank we were on a kind of balcony that ran along two walls. The water was probably about 3 feet deep on the balcony and they kindly informed us some of the sharks like to jump the wall and swim in the balcony. So they send someone out with us to fend off any aggressive sharks. You will notice in the picture his 'defense' is a 2 foot pole (and no it is not electrified). Once we get in the water we have to practice swimming along the path making very slow and deliberate movements so as not to agitate the sharks. So we are belly down in the water with the nice cold water pouring down our backs and its time to swim to our 'station'.
It’s creepy once you put your head under the water because all sound except your breathing and your heartbeat cease to exist. As you swim along the balcony their are large open breaks and you immediately picture Jaws and a shark swimming through the gap to grab your mid section before anyone notices. Once we get to the 'station' you place your hands on the rock wall and your feet against the wall behind you. You are allowed to extend your head past your hands to basically look down but not much further. They also remind you that there is plenty of room under us and the sharks like to disappear under you and then appear right in front of your face. PS no sudden movements... if the startle you are you feel frightened then push back with your hands SLOWLY so your head is as far back from the rock wall.
So once all the people dumb enough to do this are there you are free to 'assume the position'. WOW! You can see clear across the tank. All the sharks are nervous of the new stuff in their environment so they have moved across the tank from us. You can also see people walking through the shark tunnel and can occasionally hear them SAFELY jumping up and down and taunting the sharks. Slowly the sharks get braver and they start to widen their swimming lanes and start a slow process of circling with us at the outer edge of their paths. At first they are more than 20 feet away but quickly the braver ones have halved that distance. When you are underwater looking directly into a sharks eyes from ten feet away you quickly realize how fast they could cover that distance. Their size is also deceptive as they approach you head on. You feel like you could easily take it if it came at you but once it turns away you see that the small shark is really a nice 9 foot behemoth. Slowly the continue to widen their circle, still maintaining a five foot buffer or more but now there are more of them and now they are swimming out of sight underneath you. You are starting to loose track of where they are and you can't always keep all their positions in your head.
Always looming is the 11 footer. She shadows the smaller ones always maintaining a respective distance but always there. She has very sharp teeth... the kind that go in all directions for pinning her prey. There is no mistaking the fact that you are an idiot for getting in the water with her. After 15 minutes the "smaller" 6-9 foot sharks are within inches. At one point a 7 footer swims within 8 inches of my wife and our guide is forced to use his 2 foot rod to push the shark out of the way. My wife didn't even flinch (the same woman who is afraid of getting on roller coasters or flying on planes with me)... meanwhile I pushed my head back as far as I could.
Once are 15 minutes were up it was 15 minutes in the stingray tank to feed them. Yes they still do have their stingers. They are like puppies though. They know they are going to get fed so they start bumping and nudging you and sucking on your fingers and toes. Compared to the sharks 15 minutes in a tank with barbed stingrays was a nice swim! Then after we hand fed them it was back into the shark pool. My wife asked if I wanted to be on the outside since I was in the middle last time. Do I look like an idiot?
My confidence was much higher this time (confidence we'd be eaten!). We also got to see a sawfish up close, the one with the chainsaw nose, which everyone said was amazing. It swam past us twice and was really awesome looking. Of course it distracted me from the sharks so I was dismayed to notice the 11 footer had started to come closer along with most of the other sharks. It was definitely an experience to watch them swim within feet of you staring into their eyes, pretending not to be afraid in case they can sense fear. There were a couple times my hear rate went up as they would meet your eyes and accelerate towards you but then lazily turn away. It seems like they are always watching you.
Anyway my wife was very happy and she has resumed talking about cage diving with great whites. great....
As part of my wife's birthday extravaganza we went snorkeling with sharks at Adventure Aquarium in Camden NJ. Although it was a little expensive it was amazing. There were three types of sharks in the tank sand tiger sharks, sandbar sharks, and nurse sharks. The nurse sharks are mostly nocturnal so we didn't get a chance to observe those in action. The largest shark in the tank was a sand tiger at over 11 feet and 600lbs. Oh and don't worry "I'm sure they are well fed"... well the big one was on a diet... gulp!
So we get a short educational lesson on the sharks then it is time to put on our blue wetsuits. I'm guessing they were blue so our parts would be easier to locate once the tank was filled with our blood. Once we are all dressed and showered we headed to the tank. The tank is huge 550,000 gallons and over 20 sharks amongst another 800+ creatures. The water was a nice balmy 70 degrees. It sounds warm but its ice cold.
When we got into the tank we were on a kind of balcony that ran along two walls. The water was probably about 3 feet deep on the balcony and they kindly informed us some of the sharks like to jump the wall and swim in the balcony. So they send someone out with us to fend off any aggressive sharks. You will notice in the picture his 'defense' is a 2 foot pole (and no it is not electrified). Once we get in the water we have to practice swimming along the path making very slow and deliberate movements so as not to agitate the sharks. So we are belly down in the water with the nice cold water pouring down our backs and its time to swim to our 'station'.
It’s creepy once you put your head under the water because all sound except your breathing and your heartbeat cease to exist. As you swim along the balcony their are large open breaks and you immediately picture Jaws and a shark swimming through the gap to grab your mid section before anyone notices. Once we get to the 'station' you place your hands on the rock wall and your feet against the wall behind you. You are allowed to extend your head past your hands to basically look down but not much further. They also remind you that there is plenty of room under us and the sharks like to disappear under you and then appear right in front of your face. PS no sudden movements... if the startle you are you feel frightened then push back with your hands SLOWLY so your head is as far back from the rock wall.
So once all the people dumb enough to do this are there you are free to 'assume the position'. WOW! You can see clear across the tank. All the sharks are nervous of the new stuff in their environment so they have moved across the tank from us. You can also see people walking through the shark tunnel and can occasionally hear them SAFELY jumping up and down and taunting the sharks. Slowly the sharks get braver and they start to widen their swimming lanes and start a slow process of circling with us at the outer edge of their paths. At first they are more than 20 feet away but quickly the braver ones have halved that distance. When you are underwater looking directly into a sharks eyes from ten feet away you quickly realize how fast they could cover that distance. Their size is also deceptive as they approach you head on. You feel like you could easily take it if it came at you but once it turns away you see that the small shark is really a nice 9 foot behemoth. Slowly the continue to widen their circle, still maintaining a five foot buffer or more but now there are more of them and now they are swimming out of sight underneath you. You are starting to loose track of where they are and you can't always keep all their positions in your head.
Always looming is the 11 footer. She shadows the smaller ones always maintaining a respective distance but always there. She has very sharp teeth... the kind that go in all directions for pinning her prey. There is no mistaking the fact that you are an idiot for getting in the water with her. After 15 minutes the "smaller" 6-9 foot sharks are within inches. At one point a 7 footer swims within 8 inches of my wife and our guide is forced to use his 2 foot rod to push the shark out of the way. My wife didn't even flinch (the same woman who is afraid of getting on roller coasters or flying on planes with me)... meanwhile I pushed my head back as far as I could.
Once are 15 minutes were up it was 15 minutes in the stingray tank to feed them. Yes they still do have their stingers. They are like puppies though. They know they are going to get fed so they start bumping and nudging you and sucking on your fingers and toes. Compared to the sharks 15 minutes in a tank with barbed stingrays was a nice swim! Then after we hand fed them it was back into the shark pool. My wife asked if I wanted to be on the outside since I was in the middle last time. Do I look like an idiot?
My confidence was much higher this time (confidence we'd be eaten!). We also got to see a sawfish up close, the one with the chainsaw nose, which everyone said was amazing. It swam past us twice and was really awesome looking. Of course it distracted me from the sharks so I was dismayed to notice the 11 footer had started to come closer along with most of the other sharks. It was definitely an experience to watch them swim within feet of you staring into their eyes, pretending not to be afraid in case they can sense fear. There were a couple times my hear rate went up as they would meet your eyes and accelerate towards you but then lazily turn away. It seems like they are always watching you.
Anyway my wife was very happy and she has resumed talking about cage diving with great whites. great....
