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a few feet off the bottom and extended their hand. The dolphins responded by spinning us like tops for three or four revolutions. What a thrill it was to be turned into an underwater helicopter.
After the three skills, the pool was opened for the dolphins and divers to interact in a much less structured manner. The dolphins seemed to truly enjoy the company of divers as they made quick passes, sudden stops, and underwater barrel rolls . After about 40 minutes under water, the experience ended all too soon!
Shark Junction
At Shark Junction, divers are treated to the most interactive shark dive in the Bahamas. As many as two dozen reef sharks, ranging in size from 4 to 7 feet in length, pass close enough to touch. And they often do! Not in a threatening way, but many divers who
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have experienced this incredible dive arrive back at the docks with stories of being inadvertently nudged, or having sharks pass by so closely that they feel the surge of water displaced by the sharks tails.
The two primary feeders are Cristina Zenato, who over the past 15 years has become one of the World's foremost authorities on shark feeding, and Jim Bader who has been feeding for the past two years. Having the chance to observe both, you are going to have a safe, but high-voltage experience regardless of who is conducting the dive.
Once at the site, it doesn't take long for the sharks to show up. Looking down from the boat into over 100 feet of visibility, you can see sharks everywhere, closing in on Shark Junction before we'd even had the chance to enter the water. We began taking pictures looking over the side of
the boat. The sharks in the photos were actually almost 50 feet below us.
As we descended to the bottom, the sharks were already meandering through the feeding area. Then, with the sound of two splashes, they all "perked up". Looking up, I could see the feeders and a safety diver, easily recognized by their steel-mesh suits, making their way to the feeding area with a half- dozen Caribbean reef sharks in tow.
On this particular day, we had the luxury of both Jim Bader and Cristina Zenato as feeders; each taking a WXUQ ZLWK WKH WXEH RI ÀVK As they reached into the WXEH RI ÀVK DV PDQ\ DV 16 Caribbean reef sharks rushed in and began swimming in a tight circle around the feeders causing them to disappear behind a moving, circular wall of sharks. The pace picked up as a huge resident