Sharks

Yesterday I went diving at Fagaalu with a few of my dive buddies. It looked like it would be a pretty drab dive. The visibility was poor from the rain the night before. We decided to swim across the bay and drop in on a different part of the reef because the visibility is usually much better on that side. It was an excellent choice. The visibility probably went from 15 feet to around 100 feet. The coral was amazing and there was a lot of interesting sea life. We cruised around the reef farther than I had been before. About ten minutes into the dive I saw my friend Paul Brown motioning enthusiastically. I looked to my right and two Great Hammerhead sharks swam out about 7 to 10 feet over my head. One was around 6 feet long and the other around 7. They get up to 14 feet so these were younger sharks.

Hammerheads are an extremely rare site here so it was neat to see. What is funny though is that these are the first sharks that I have seen. The more common sharks have yet to be marked off on my checklist of sightings. We also saw a giant moray eel, longnose filefish, and some other interesting sea life. Suprisingly seeing my first sharks was not too scary. Maybe Paul's clapping in the background helped me feel a little safer. I mean sharks cant be dangerous if someone is clapping...right?