I spent the next week with Jayne and Colin in Sydney, getting a few more dives in at Chowder Bay and Bare Island (with pygmy pipehorses, red indianfish, octopus, nudibranchs, and cuttlefish galore!) before the end of the year.

I was excited to be spending New Year’s Eve in Sydney, as its one of the biggest holidays in Australia and Sydney is the place to be! Colin works for the Port Authority and was able to get us a spot at the pilot house, right alongside the Sydney Harbor Bridge. We got there in the late afternoon with a packed picnic dinner and drinks for the evening. We were accompanied by Jayne’s friends Karen and Richard, and settled down at one of the tables right alongside the water. We enjoyed a sunny evening, watching the hustle and bustle on the harbor as everyone prepared for that evening’s events. We even had one of the firework barges anchored just off from the pilot house, giving us front row seats for the stunning show to come. At 9 o’clock, the first round of fireworks went off, giving us a nice show of dazzle and color, as well as building anticipation for the main event at midnight. We spent the evening chatting away, eager for midnight. Finally, the time had come and the countdown began. You could hear everyone around the harbor counting down to midnight and as the clock struck 12, the show began, with 10 minutes of fantastic explosions. It was one of the best firework shows I’ve seen and around 2 AM we made our way home, having brought in the new year with style.

 

I spent the first day of 2016 preparing for my next adventure – I was to be spending the next 3 weeks in Fiji and I was stoked to be going back after an incredible trip in October. I flew from Sydney to Nadi the next day, catching a taxi from the airport to Pacific Harbor, where I’d be spending my first week diving with Beqa Adventure Divers (BAD) and learning how to combine dive tourism with marine conservation.

 

I was excited for this adventure for two reasons – the first, of course, being that I would be diving with bull sharks for the week and the second (and main reason) was that I’d be learning how Mike Neumann (the owner) effectively used dive tourism to create a marine reserve (read more about it here: http://fijisharkdive.com/conservation/)  that has positively affected the local community and marine ecosystem. I spent that Sunday getting settled into my accommodation in Pacific Harbour, as there are no shark dives that go out on Sunday or Wednesday. I did some errands, including getting groceries and preparing my dive gear and camera for my first day of diving. I was excited but also nervous for the week of diving.

 

Monday morning I caught a ride to the dive shop with some of the staff, where I filled out paperwork and got all my gear sorted for the day. I had a bit of time before the rest of the guests arrived and I had the chance to quickly catch up with Mike, the owner, before getting loaded on the boats and heading out to the dive. I was immediately impressed by the operation at BAD – the staff have everything down to a finely tuned process, from getting guests’ gear and everything loaded on the boats, to a thorough boat and dive briefing, to two well-executed dives at Shark Reef. Once the guests had all arrived, we were directed to our boat, where the gear was already set up and waiting for us. We were given weights, then one of the crew began the boat briefing as we slowly cruised down the channel. Immediately following the boat briefing was the dive briefing, which the crew can deliver without skipping a beat. With the aid of a dive site diagram, they walk you through the entire dive so you know exactly what to expect from the moment we’re 5 minutes away from the dive site to the moment we exit the water back onto the boat. My excitement heightened as we left the boat channel and made our way out to Shark Reef. I’d done shark dives before, but they get me excited every time because each one is so different from the other. Upon nearing the site, the staff helped us to kit up and once we had moored, we were helped to the back where we jumped in the water, floating on the surface until everyone was in and ready to descend. Guided by the divemasters, we descended as a group down to the 30-meter feeding arena, which is a flat area with a stone wall built up, where the guests all kneel behind. There are about 8 crew that come with the guests, all of whom are equipped with large metal poles used to nudge away any sharks that get too curious or come too close. After the guests kneel behind the wall, the staff stands behind them, posed like guardians watching over the awestruck divers. Once everyone is settled in place, a few guides swim over to the aluminum feeding box that sits inside the arena, already stocked with fish heads, while one divemaster swims above the arena with a wheelie bin full of heads as well. They switch between the two different feeding methods, starting with hand feeding the 3 to 3.5 meter sharks to the controlled dispersal of food from the wheelie bin above. We spent 15 minutes at 30 meters with at least 25 bull sharks, and I’m pretty sure my eyes were the size of dinner plates the entire time. The sharks would come so close to us, but not once did I feel endangered by these giant creatures.

 

The staff did a phenomenal job of knowing when a shark was too interested and made me feel completely protected the whole time. At 15 minutes, the divemasters guided us up to the next feeding station at 10 meters, where Pappa would hand-feed grey reef sharks as we knelt behind another stone wall for 15 minutes. To finish the dive, we were escorted to the final feeding station at 4 meters, where we would watch Pappa hand-feed whitetip reef sharks while we simultaneously did a nice, long 12 minute safety stop. I surfaced from the dive absolutely buzzing with excitement.

The dive had blown every single expectation I had, leaving me completely enamored with the bull sharks. To top it all off, after we had all surfaced, Mike walked over to me and opened his hand, where 4 shark teeth where lying. Two bull shark teeth (one from the top and one from the bottom jaw), a grey reef tooth, and a teeny whitetip reef shark tooth. It was one of the best presents I’d received all year and I carefully placed the shiny white teeth away in my camera bag, before turning and talking with Mike and his staff for the rest of the surface interval. After an hour or so, we had another thorough dive briefing for our second dive, which would be similar to, but slightly different from the first. We then kitted up and hopped in the water, descending as one large group down to a feeding station at 15 meters. We would spend the whole dive lying on our bellies behind a short stone wall at 15 meters, watching as the divemasters hand-feed from another aluminum box as well as fed from the mid-water wheelie bin.

To my great delight, the sharks came even closer during the second dive and I attempted to snap photos while absorbing the whole experience in. After 35 minutes, we were escorted up to 5 meters for our safety stop, and then climbed up on the boat. I had finished my first day of diving with bull sharks and was completely blown away. Mike invited me out for lunch after we got back to the dive shop, and I jumped at the chance to talk with him one on one about his operation. I knew very little about Mike before coming out to BAD but I learned one thing very quickly – he says exactly what he means and he never sugar coats it. He tells you what he thinks without having any qualms, and I have to admit, it was definitely intimidating for me. Shortly after sitting down and ordering our food Mike looks at me and asks “So what is your purpose of coming out here and what do you want to do with your life?” Now, these are questions that I’ve been asked before so I told him I wanted to learn more about how he used dive tourism to create a marine reserve and transitioned into my worked-out spiel of how I want to combine dive tourism with marine conservation education for guests as well as local communities. Before I was able to get much further he asked “But is that an effective way of implementing marine conservation? When has democracy ever truly achieved marine conservation? Educating the public won’t really effectively create a change” (or something along those lines, I was pretty dumbstruck at his blunt points).  I struggled to defend my reasoning for pursuing public education before realizing that Mike was completely correct. In very few circumstances does teaching the general public about marine conservation effectuate a real change. Mind. Blown. I have to admit, I felt a strong wave of despair upon realizing that what I’d come to think was my calling was, in fact, an ineffective way to accomplish marine conservation goals and that I’d have to completely rethink my career goals and aspirations. I was also completely dumbstruck at how bluntly Mike had challenged my perspectives. While my initial reaction was to feel distraught, a voice in my head said, “Michele – this is exactly what you need to hear. For months you’ve been saying that you want to help areas with marine conservation without really saying how you can efficiently do this. Maybe it’s time I seriously think about how marine reserves and protected areas are actually brought about and figure out how I can use my skill sets to be a part of that process.” Hearing those words from Mike were the wonderful wake up call I needed. It was a tough pill to swallow, but I’m so glad we had that conversation and his no-nonsense mindset called me out on my wishy-washy ambitions. We spent the rest of our lunch discussing effective marine conservation and parted our ways for the afternoon. I had gotten much more than I bargained for with my first day at BAD and was really looking forward to the week ahead. Although I was still quite intimidated by Mike, I was looking forward to talking with him more and hearing his frank perspective.

 

Danny, the European scholar, had arrived Monday evening and would be spending 10 days with Mike, and we headed to BAD together the next day with Nani, one of Mike’s staff who was kindly housing us for the week. Not only was I looking forward to another day of diving with the bull sharks, I was also looking forward to my first chance to spend more time with Danny and get to know him a bit better. It was the same process in the morning – wait for the rest of the guests to arrive before loading onto our boat and listening to the boat/dive briefing as we cruised down the channel to the ocean. Today would be very similar to yesterday with one exception – during the first dive, I’d be allowed over the wall to kneel on the right hand side of the arena with a staff watching over me. It’s an honor that Mike only allows to special guests and I was nervous and excited to be getting a new perspective during the dive. I’d be accompanied and looked after by Tubee, one of the top feeders who had been working for BAD for several years. Once all the guests had kneeled behind the wall, we slowly swam over the wall and positioned ourselves on the far right hand side. Before the dive Tubee briefed me, “You kneel down and I’ll stand behind you. I’ll protect you from any sharks coming from the side or behind, but you use your camera to push off any sharks that come too close from the front.” Don’t get me wrong, I completely trusted Tubee to protect me but as we swam over the wall and I kneeled down I couldn’t help but think, “What on earth am I doing here?!” But, despite my nerves, I couldn’t pass up this opportunity, and I settled in as the feeding began. It was incredible to be that much closer to the sharks and to no longer have the wall as a sense of protection. The sharks can essentially move all around you and come right up to you.

Tubee would push off sharks coming too close from the sides and I had a few times where I was using my camera not to take pictures but to push a shark away (yes, they came within inches of me and it was awesome). I felt more exhilarated during that dive then almost any other dive and despite having more than a few close encounters, I never felt unsafe– even when, at one point in the dive, I looked down to see a bull shark had almost half of my fin in its mouth. Guess they really do like the color white.  Once 15 minutes had passed, we worked our way up to the 10 meter feeding station, then finished the dive at the 4 meter feeding station.

I was actually buzzing during the surface interval, so stoked from the close encounters I had during the dive. I thanked Tubee for keeping me safe and chatted with Mike at the back of the boat before listening to the science briefing given by Manoa, one of the marine biologists who works for Mike. He spent 10 minutes talking about all the research BAD is involved with as well as the effectiveness of Shark Reef Marine Reserve, which was an incredible story of conservation. Before I knew it, we were gearing up for the second dive and hopping in to spend the next 40 minutes with 30+ bull sharks. Life was good. We made plans that evening to get dinner with Mike, enjoying delicious curry and great conversation about the marine world.

 

BAD doesn’t offer a shark feeding dive on Wednesday, but they had a boat going out to do two dives on a nice reef, so Danny and I tagged along to see what else is in Beqa Lagoon besides the bull sharks. We did two beautiful reef dives, where I came to learn I apparently make a lot of noises when I dive (i.e., squeaking and squealing through my regulator whenever I find something I think is cool). Danny didn’t fail to tease me for my silly noises, even going so far as to inducing a laugh attack at 15 meters that lasted a solid 5 minutes of the dive. The inner dive geek in me was satisfied with the dives as I even found a longnose hawkfish and white leaf fish at the end of the second dive! As much as I love the excitement and thrill of the sharks, I think I love finding odd and unusual marine life just a bit more.

Thursday was back to the usual shark dives and this time, Danny would be accompanying me in front of the wall. Today Manoa (also known as Batman) would be looking over us and I was excited to be back in the midst of the sharks, having a better idea of what to expect. It was another fantastic dive of up-close interactions with the sharks but this time the 15 minutes seemed to go by in a blink of an eye.

Before I knew it, we were already being called up to the 10 meter feeding station to watch the grey reef sharks being hand fed. We ended the dive back at the 4 meter feeding station, where Pappa patiently fed the eager sharks in the shallows. We had the usual hour-long surface interval with marine conservation talk, then kitted up to get back in for the second dive. I was determined for the second dive to get a good shot of a bull shark with mouth wide open going for a piece of bait from Tubee’s hand, and settled down on my stomach in the best position for the shot. Unfortunately, I could never quite get the timing right or a damselfish would be in the way and I didn’t quite get the shot.

But I still thoroughly enjoyed the dive with some nice close passes by the massive bulls. Despite doing the exact same dives, I never found myself bored as each dive brought a new experience and more exhilaration. After we got back to the dive shop, Mike invited Danny and me out for lunch once again, where we yet again engaged in thought-provoking discussion about marine conservation and the diving world. By this time, although I was still quite intimidated by Mike, I also found myself really respecting him and admiring his perspective. It’s not often you get someone who so clearly speaks their mind and I found much of what we discussed to resonate with my own ideas and perspectives.

 

Friday, which would have normally been a shark feeding day, there would be no boats going out with BAD due to annual boat inspections that needed to be performed. Instead, upon Mike’s suggestion, I booked a morning of diving with another dive outfit which was a competitor of BAD. I was looking forward to seeing the differences between the two operations and after quickly getting my dive gear from BAD, caught a taxi to the other dive operation, where I was signed in and put on a boat for the morning. Diving with this company was a stark comparison to diving with BAD – the crew at BAD has a specific and detailed process for the day, while here the crew seemed to be quite lax about their operation. I won’t go into much detail with the way they ran their operation, because as my mother always taught me, “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” Let’s just say the only good thing that came from the dives was my first look at a silvertip shark, which was incredibly beautiful.

Otherwise, it was the most uncomfortable and on-edge I’ve been on a dive in a VERY long time, and it takes a lot to make me feel uncomfortable. Regardless, I was glad to have spent a day diving with another company in order to see the difference in operations as well as to understand and appreciate the need for a well-organized and executed operation. I headed back to BAD to drop off my dive gear and I ran into Tubee and Manoa, who invited Danny and me to drink kava that evening. I willingly agreed to the plan, as I always appreciate getting to know the locals and the BAD boys are a stellar group of guys. But before kava night, Danny, Nani, Mike and I went to get pizza as my last supper in Pacific Harbor. We enjoyed some delicious, handcrafted pizzas while looking out over the calm ocean. I was absolutely amazed by how quickly my time had come and gone with BAD – I’d be headed back to Nadi the next evening (after cramming one last morning of diving in with BAD). I was grateful to Mike for his generosity over the past week, I had certainly gained much more over the short week than I anticipated.

 

Saturday was my last diving chance with BAD, and I was determined to appreciate it to the fullest. Danny and I once again had the chance to position ourselves in front of the wall, with Manoa and Mavoa looking over us. It was an incredible 15 minutes at 30 meters, with the best visibility we’d had all week as well as the most sharks.

To make it even more special, as we turned to head up to the 10 meter feeding station, Mike pulled me quickly aside, pointing at a coral head just in front of the wall. It took a moment for me to realize why he was pointing – there on top of the coral was a beautiful, white shark tooth that I picked up and slipped into my BCD pocket. I know they aren’t hard to come by, but the shark teeth are such simple yet genuine mementos from these experiences and I cherished the ones I’d been given over the past week.

The second dive was by far the best 15-meter dive of the week – the sharks were continuously coming up close in good numbers, with some fantastic hand-feeding by Tubee, ending my time with BAD on an incredibly high note.

Back at the shop I said a fond farewell to Mike, who had to rush off to a meeting. I was sad to be leaving but was invited to return in September, so I already had something to look forward to. I also said my farewells to the crew and was sung the Fijian farewell song, Isa Lei, by all the crew. I grabbed all my dive gear and headed back to Nani’s, where I spent the rest of the afternoon packing my bags in preparation for my taxi back to Nadi that evening. It was much more difficult to leave Pacific Harbour then I anticipated, but with my next adventure starting the next morning, I didn’t have much time to dwell on it. I knew I’d be back and I had a whole 2 more weeks in Fiji to enjoy!

I’d like to give a massive thanks to Mike and the BAD crew for the amazing week. Like I mentioned above, I came away from that time having learned and experienced much more than I expected to – I will never forget the incredible dives and challenging conversations I had over such a short week.