I was sitting earlier this evening looking through photos on my Facebook page and I came across a whole album from 1st April 2011 that I'd kind of forgotten about. I hadn't forgotten the event, only the photos. It was an event arranged by Martin at Ace Divers.
1st April. April Fools Day. The significance of the date didn't escape me as I contemplated what I was going to be doing that day. I can't deny I was looking forward to it but there was a small, terrified voice in the back of my mind that surfaced occasionally to ask me what on Earth I was doing. What I was going to be doing was going to Deep Sea World to dive with Tinkerbell and her friends. Tinkerbell is a Sand Tiger Shark who is over 3 metres long. Admittedly I'd not heard any horror stories about customers being eaten but I tend to be a bit behind with the news so that meant nothing.
On the day, we arrived with our scuba gear which was swallowed by a huge dumb waiter and transported down a couple of floors below the car park. We were allowed to bring a couple of guests so we brought Alan and Lomai and thanks to Lomai bringing her camera we have plenty of photos to remember it by. We were taken into a presentation room and given a briefing about the dive, what to expect, the dos and don'ts, the most important don't being "don't touch the sharks". As if I needed to be told! We were then split into groups of 4 for the dive and The Boy and I (or was it just The Boy?) volunteered to be in group 1. The good thing about that was that we didn't have time to stand in the tunnel and watch the sharks before we got into the tank beside them, so I was spared this view until after I came out:
I'm not sure whether that's Tink or one of her buddies. We went to get changed while the other groups went off to the tunnel to watch us. We didn't need to wear fins as the water is only 3 metres deep in the shark tank so we would be (moon)walking along the bottom rather than swimming. We jumped into a shallow tank in the quarantine area, did our weight checks then ducked through to the platform we would descend from:
Some of the smaller fish swim around you while you're on the platform and there's a rope to guide you down to the sandy bottom.
Once you get in there you look like a munchkin through the thick, curved glass of the tunnel. The munchkin in the pink mask is me. You don't really appreciate how much smaller everything looks from the tunnel until you've seen it all from inside the tank.
As you walk along the sandy bottom you have to keep your eyes open as there are flat fish and rays lying, hiding in the sand & I don't think they'd be too impressed at being stood on. There were also two Angel sharks when we were there. Since then, the female has given birth to almost 20 babies so there will be a whole lot more of them to look out for once they're all in the big tank. There are photos of the babies here: Baby Angel Sharks
You can see a fish half buried in the sand in this photo in front of me & The Boy:
As you can see, we were both kneeling down in the last photo. That means there must have been a shark nearby. The Deep Sea World guides who were in the tank with us kept a look out and signalled to us all to kneel if a shark was near. Like the one below. It's behind you!
Or, in this case, it's above you!
I did find the view of Tinkerbell's teeth a little worrying when she was directly overhead but she was perfectly well behaved while we were visiting. The Boy had our camera and was trying to get a few up close, candid shots:
For a wee bit of authentic atmosphere, check out these videos The Boy took from inside the tank:
And then there's this one:
We had a tour of the shark pool and all it's wee nooks and crannies. That meant jumping over the tunnel a couple of times. Once again, the Deep Sea World guides made sure that our way was clear for jumping so that we didn't head butt a shark on the way over the top. Here's me being ably assisted by Tina:
And here's the live action version:
Oops! I uploaded the wrong video, LOL. Try this one:
Then it was The Boy's turn. He managed to avoid the flat fish on top of the tunnel:
Naturally, The Boy couldn't resist messing about, he never can, so he posed for a few photos minus an air supply:
Eventually we went full circle and ended up back where we started so we ascended the rope to get back to the platform and out.
We enjoyed the experience so much we went back and did it all again in September. The staff at Deep Sea World looked after us extremely well both times (Tina in April and Suzie in September) and the sharks are totally awesome, especially Tinkerbell. I cant wait to see the baby Angel Sharks in the flesh. I've only seen photos so far.
Check out their Facebook page: Deep-Sea-World on Facebook
1st April. April Fools Day. The significance of the date didn't escape me as I contemplated what I was going to be doing that day. I can't deny I was looking forward to it but there was a small, terrified voice in the back of my mind that surfaced occasionally to ask me what on Earth I was doing. What I was going to be doing was going to Deep Sea World to dive with Tinkerbell and her friends. Tinkerbell is a Sand Tiger Shark who is over 3 metres long. Admittedly I'd not heard any horror stories about customers being eaten but I tend to be a bit behind with the news so that meant nothing.
On the day, we arrived with our scuba gear which was swallowed by a huge dumb waiter and transported down a couple of floors below the car park. We were allowed to bring a couple of guests so we brought Alan and Lomai and thanks to Lomai bringing her camera we have plenty of photos to remember it by. We were taken into a presentation room and given a briefing about the dive, what to expect, the dos and don'ts, the most important don't being "don't touch the sharks". As if I needed to be told! We were then split into groups of 4 for the dive and The Boy and I (or was it just The Boy?) volunteered to be in group 1. The good thing about that was that we didn't have time to stand in the tunnel and watch the sharks before we got into the tank beside them, so I was spared this view until after I came out:
I'm not sure whether that's Tink or one of her buddies. We went to get changed while the other groups went off to the tunnel to watch us. We didn't need to wear fins as the water is only 3 metres deep in the shark tank so we would be (moon)walking along the bottom rather than swimming. We jumped into a shallow tank in the quarantine area, did our weight checks then ducked through to the platform we would descend from:
Some of the smaller fish swim around you while you're on the platform and there's a rope to guide you down to the sandy bottom.
Once you get in there you look like a munchkin through the thick, curved glass of the tunnel. The munchkin in the pink mask is me. You don't really appreciate how much smaller everything looks from the tunnel until you've seen it all from inside the tank.
As you walk along the sandy bottom you have to keep your eyes open as there are flat fish and rays lying, hiding in the sand & I don't think they'd be too impressed at being stood on. There were also two Angel sharks when we were there. Since then, the female has given birth to almost 20 babies so there will be a whole lot more of them to look out for once they're all in the big tank. There are photos of the babies here: Baby Angel Sharks
You can see a fish half buried in the sand in this photo in front of me & The Boy:
As you can see, we were both kneeling down in the last photo. That means there must have been a shark nearby. The Deep Sea World guides who were in the tank with us kept a look out and signalled to us all to kneel if a shark was near. Like the one below. It's behind you!
Or, in this case, it's above you!
I did find the view of Tinkerbell's teeth a little worrying when she was directly overhead but she was perfectly well behaved while we were visiting. The Boy had our camera and was trying to get a few up close, candid shots:
For a wee bit of authentic atmosphere, check out these videos The Boy took from inside the tank:
And then there's this one:
We had a tour of the shark pool and all it's wee nooks and crannies. That meant jumping over the tunnel a couple of times. Once again, the Deep Sea World guides made sure that our way was clear for jumping so that we didn't head butt a shark on the way over the top. Here's me being ably assisted by Tina:
And here's the live action version:
Oops! I uploaded the wrong video, LOL. Try this one:
Then it was The Boy's turn. He managed to avoid the flat fish on top of the tunnel:
Naturally, The Boy couldn't resist messing about, he never can, so he posed for a few photos minus an air supply:
Eventually we went full circle and ended up back where we started so we ascended the rope to get back to the platform and out.
We enjoyed the experience so much we went back and did it all again in September. The staff at Deep Sea World looked after us extremely well both times (Tina in April and Suzie in September) and the sharks are totally awesome, especially Tinkerbell. I cant wait to see the baby Angel Sharks in the flesh. I've only seen photos so far.
Check out their Facebook page: Deep-Sea-World on Facebook
Wow! That looks awesome!! Would love to have a go at diving, maybe I'll look into it some time! Bet you go again soon to see the baby Angel Sharks!! Awwww!!! :)
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