Cat Island was a total surprise and exceeded any and all of my expectations. Of course the trip started out rocky. This was an exploratory trip, and my first out to the southern islands. It was a total crap shoot - but I was confident that we were going to be able to find the sharks. But after our first day on the water, I was worried that I had finally pushed the envelope too far on my 'off the beaten path' adventures. The reason why was that I decided to hire a local fisherman to take us out to find sharks. He was an old salt who was confident he could find sharks for us, so after a few back and forth phone calls, I decided to book his boat for 6 days. But what I didn't know was that despite the fact that he new where to find sharks, he just did not understand how to find them, or what we were trying to do...

I was extremely excited about this trip. It was an exploratory trip to a new place; a new adventure, a new shark species to shoot, I had a bunch of great friends with me, a beautiful beach house to kick back in. This was just the kind of adventure I live for. However, the high all came crashing down after our first day on the water. It was just a complete cluster frup. The captain had no idea about what he was doing despite his assurance that he knew what I wanted. On our phone conversations I explained to him the importance of chum and bait. He said, no problem, he would have plenty. Well when he pulled out the chum on day one, I went into shock when I saw that it was only a couple of small reef fish heads. I was thinking "oh shit, were screwed," the reality set in that I hired a captain who had no idea how to chum for sharks. He was a typical Bahamian fisherman, but like all Bahamian fishermen they spend their whole life trying to avoid all contact with sharks, so in his mind, all you need to do was grab a rod and reel, throw your hook - catch a fish - and the sharks would come running. Other than that, he had no idea how to attract them. Chumming for sharks was a new concept to him, and one he just did not quite understand. Naturally we ended up finding no sharks on the first day of our shark trip.

We returned to port, and after a long talk with our captain, he assured me that he would have plenty of the right kind of bait for the following morning - and todays mistakes were a thing of the past. Fortunately, I had a good group of people who had been with me on previous trips and understood the concept of exploratory trips. They know that on these kind of trips, sometimes shit goes bad. So on our second day of the trip we headed out to a spot where the captain had seen plenty of oceanics in the past. As promised the captain showed up with plenty of fish carcasses for the day, and I felt confident things were going to go well. The currents were ripping, but it was still a diveable day - so we thought. We dropped our baitbox in and settled down for what I hoped would be a sharky afternoon. About 3 hours into chumming, the captain starts pulling up the bait boxes and was preparing to go home. I was asleep in the front of the boat, when shark videographer, Vinny comes and tells me that the captain was pulling anchor. I woke up fast and went to find out what's happening. The captain tells me, "well you all are asleep, no one is getting in the water!" I'm scratching my head, trying to wrap my mind around what he is telling me. So I try explaining to him again what shark diving is, He just stood there looking at me, and I knew he still didn't get it. But he resigned and looks at me, totally frustrated, and says "ok, whatever you want, we will wait." and drops the bait boxes back in the water. I go back to the front of the boat, and I can feel all eyes on me. The pressure was intense, and I was thinking - I made a mistake hiring this guy to help us find sharks.

About 30 minutes later, our Captain starts jumping up and down and pointing, "SHARK!, WE GOT SHARKS!" I jumped up and looked out into the water to see the most beautiful dorsal fin I have ever seen. A 5 foot oceanic whitetip was cruising around the boat checking out what was going on. Her white speckeled dorsal and pectoral fins were huge and looked exaggerated compared to her petite body. Before the shark showed up, the boat was a quiet, calm scene, but when the captain yelled, "shark," the boat turned into pure chaos. A mad dash for snorkel gear, wetsuits, cameras, dive weights was all the captain and his first mate saw. The first one in the water was shooter George Gross, he jumped in and was quicky investigated by the oceanic. Our captain started freaking out and yelling, "The shark is coming towards you!" and "The shark is behind you!!!" He was scared to death. It was comedy. Bahamians are truly terrifed of sharks, they grow up hearing stories about how sharks, especially oceanics would just rip you apart, and this was the first time our captain had seen anything like this, so his nerves were shot.

We spent the next 30-45 minutes trying to get close to the shy shark, but we had to battle the ripping currents that were pulling us out and away from the boat. We finished the day with a few images and I was thrilled that we got the shark. I was hoping for more time with the shark, but it did not work out that way. The shark was shy and the ocean just did not want us to play. But our energy and excitement was renewed and my faith in our captain was restored. Our captain was all smiles, and in total disbelief at what he had just witnessed. The great thing was our captain finally understood what it was we were trying to do. I tried talking the captain into jumping in to see what shark diving is all about. He just said "tomorrow - I will jump in tomorrow."

The following day we went back out to the same spot. We had another 3 hour wait for the sharks. Today the currents were better and we had no problem staying in one spot. The first shark to show up was another five foot oceanic. We were thinking it might be the same shark from the previous day but we were not 100% sure if it was or not. We jumped in with the little shark and she just cruised around, investigated out hang baits, our cameras, and the boat. She was a total player and was a beautiful little shark and her colors just popped.

About 10 minutes into the dive/snorkel we had another oceanic show up, however this shark was a huge full grown pregnant female. These sharks were solid players and gave everyone the dream encounter they had hoped for. Days like this are what you spend all year thinking about when you dream of going on a trip like this. The larger shark it seems, was throwing her weight around because the smaller shark did not stick around for very long. The smaller shark kept moving further and further out, and after what seemed like a few short minutes, she sadly left. We stayed in the water the entire time, and the Captain finally relaxed and just enjoyed the show, throwing small pieces of bait to keep the shark close. Again I invited him in for a swim. He smiled and said "tomorrow, I will bring my mask and jump in tomorrow."

The shark could care less that we were there, and just cruised around seeking out scraps of fish. Sometimes coming in close, often within a few feet of us. She was beautiful, and her swollen belly gave all of us hope for the future of this species. I fell in love with oceanics, they are much like silky and blue sharks in their behavior, and I can see why oceanics are such a feared predator. They have no fear of divers, and if there is such a thing as royalty within the shark family, I would say oceanics are way up their in the social hiarchy - they have this air about them, such confident sharks. We dubbed our shark, Charlene. She was dangling a fisherman's hook and trailing about 50 feet of fishing line on her. So I dropped off my camera and borrowed a pair of pliers and cut as much of the line as possible. There are so many game fishermen around Cat Island that any shark living in these waters will have encounters with their lines at some point. Fortunately, they do not target sharks here, as the tuna and wahoo are plentiful, so sharks are often cut loose when one is pulled up to the boat. Some sharks are killed by the fishermen just because they don't like loosing their catches to the sharks, so part of our mission to the islands is to hopefully change their attitudes towards sharks. An uphill battle but we will work hard towards making that a reality.

We spent the next few days seeking out oceanics but were plagued by bad seas, which made the diving difficult. We also discovered that the spot we were diving while seeking out oceanics was also a great spot for lemon sharks, reef sharks, and the most exciting visitors to our chum slick were tiger sharks. We had 2 tiger sharks visit us while diving at the site we officially dubbed Charlene's Reef. It was awesome seeing all these species gathered together in one area. In fact I thought I was going to have a historic image when the oceanic dropped down onto the reef below. A lemon shark was also cruising to the same spot. I thought this unlikely pair was going to make a great shot together - but as soon as the lemon caught sight of the much larger and scarier looking oceanic, it turned on its tail and hauled ass out of there. It was funny to watch that lemon disappear.

Cat Island is truly an amazing place and the shark opportunites here are endless. I am looking forward to our 2011 Cat Island trip and to finally getting our captain to jump in and see what it is all about. He promised us on our last day out there, telling us..."Next season. For sure I will jump in next season."

A quick thank you to all my friends who joined me out there for this crazy, fun exploratory trip to one of the sharkiest islands in the Bahamas.