How To Dive with Tiger Sharks

Blowing Bubbles with the Perfect Predator:

Diving with tiger sharks is a bucket-list experience for many underwater enthusiasts. Known for their striking appearance and curious nature, these apex predators offer a thrilling adventure in some of the world's most beautiful waters.

When experiencing wildlife, particularly predators, just knowing where and when to see them is not enough. Doing your homework and understanding your limitations will set yourself, and the animals, up for a successful encounter. Fortunately, when diving with Tiger Sharks, there are very good dive operators in each of the locations below who can help you out.

If you're ready to encounter these magnificent creatures, here is the where, when and how to dive with Tiger Sharks.

WHERE AND WHEN TO DIVE WITH TIGER SHARKS

BAHAMAS OCTOBER TO JANUARY

Dive Type Boat Dive

Feeding Encounter

Depth 30ft

Experience Beginner

Best Dive Sites Tiger Beach, Bimini

The Bahamas is one of the premier locations for diving with tiger sharks. With crystal-clear waters and a rich marine ecosystem, it’s a diver’s paradise. The two famous sites here are Tiger Beach (Grand Bahama) and Bimini.

Tiger Beach is famous for its consistent sightings, this shallow sandbar is perfect for close encounters. You can often see several tigers up close, along with other species like lemon and nurse sharks.

The small islands of Bimini, famous for its fishing and Hemingway history, has become a mecca for shark divers. On a single dive here, you can find yourself surrounded by not just Tigers but also lemons, nurse and (in season) great hammerheads!

BIG ISLAND, HAWAII YEAR ROUND

Dive Type Boat or Shore Dive

Natural Encounter

Depth 60-80ft

Experience Advanced

Best Dive Sites Alula Beach

Tiger sharks can often be seen throughout the Hawaiian Islands, but it’s on the Big Island where you have your most consistent opportunity for natural encounters.

Halfway between Kona and the airport, Honokohau Marina is a busy hub of dive operators, snorkel tours, and most importantly for this article: fishing charter boats. The comings and goings of these vessels have welcomed in a few, rather large, tiger sharks. These animals frequent the marina as well as the waters just outside and that is where some magnificent encounters can be had. Best accomplished via one of the local dive operations, a shore dive to see these fairly habituated animals can also be accomplished by experienced divers.

JUPITER, FLORIDA JANUARY TO MAY

Dive Type Partial Drift Dive

Feeding Encounter

Depth 60-80ft

Experience Advanced

Best Dive Sites The Gulf Stream

Any visit to the Sunshine State offers an array of exciting experiences but above and below the surface, but none quite as exhilarating as a drift dive in the gulf stream scanning for Tiger Sharks!

January to May offer the best opportunity to encounter Tigers on a set of dives that year round has consistent encounters with lemon and bull sharks, attracted to the bait box carried by your guide. At the right time of year, great hammerheads are known to make appearances as well.

This is one of those dives that requires not only an Advanced level diving certification, but also a significant number of logged dives so: do your homework, choose a reputable dive operation, and know your limitations. If you aren’t ready for this one yet, make it a goal to get there. It is one-of-one in the dive world.

FUVAHMULAH, MALDIVES YEAR ROUND

Diving with Tiger Sharks in the Maldives

Dive Type Boat Dive, Reef

Natural Encounter

Depth 30 ft

Experience Beginner to Advanced

Best Dive Sites Tiger Harbour

The picturesque Maldives are world renowned as one of the best places in the world to see a number of pelagic species, and the southern atoll of Fuvahmulah is the best of the best. Its waters are frequented by thresher, silver tip, white tip, grey reef, hammerhead and whale sharks. Mola mola and gigantic oceanic manta rays also make Fuvah part of their journeys. However it is the large number of tiger sharks that are the biggest draw here.

Long attracted by the by-catch from a nearby harbor, in 2017 new regulations required fishermen to deposit their fish waste outside the harbor, resulting in a tourism boom. Now, well conducted dive operations bring divers to witness the large number of tiger sharks that rise from the depths to a comfortable 30 ft. Often as many as 15 tiger sharks can be seen at one time, making Fuvahmulah one of the best places in the world to see tiger sharks.

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HOW TO DIVE WITH TIGER SHARKS

Spending time in the water with predators such as Tiger Sharks can be one of travel's most rewarding experiences. However, these are wild animals and, as with all wildlife travel, “just winging it” doesn’t often produce the best results. So, here are some final tips on How to Dive with Tiger Sharks:

Do your homework

Dig hard into those dive shop reviews and make sure you are putting yourself in reputable hands.

Know your limitations

Always crucial with any scuba diving experience, it is especially important when you are around wildlife, that you acknowledge your limitations and do not put yourself in increased danger. If you are not ready yet, that is OK! Make it a goal, and keep on diving until you are!

Have the right gear

Encounters with wild animals are almost always unpredictable. Having predictable gear, such as an easy to use, high quality camera or a dive mask that you trust (a foggy rental mask can ruin any dive!) sets the stage for an unforgettable experience.

Manage expectations

Wildlife is just that: wild. They don’t adhere to our schedules or care about our dreams. Habitats, however, are predictable and the wildest creatures are often found in the wildest places. Revel in the magic of these increasingly rare environments, and if the animals show up…that is some great icing on that cake, baby!

Be present

Remember to put the camera down a couple times and just breathe it in.

THIS is what it's all about.