Kona Eco Adventures

    Yesterday we spent the day on the Manta, the pride of Kona Eco Adventures and Manta Ray Dives, searching for the wild animals of the Pacific Ocean.  We had been looking forward to this trip for a couple weeks.  This outfitter had been recommended as the best on the island for putting us in touch with large ocean animals, especially sharks.  For some time it had been our son Charles' dream to

Sandra stores her gear aboard the Manta

swim with a tiger shark and this was to be his opportunity.  And Sandra's and mine, as well.

   The night before Charles had prepared us for a tiger shark encounter by presenting a youtube video featuring Ocean Ramsey   And, yes, her parents, who live on the north shore of Oahu, really named her Ocean.  you can find mumerous Ocean Ramsey videos on youtube.

   If you don't have the patience to watch the videos, I will tell you that Ocean is young, a devastating  blonde and takes people swimming with sharks out of Haleiwa, Oahu...in her words, "every single day."  It is her contention that sharks, especially tigers, are not dangerous in most situations if you have an understanding of what makes them tick.

    Before we set sail on the Manta, our guide, Deron Verbeck, gave us a little pep talk during which he made each of us personally attest that we were good swimmers.  Sandra and I appreciated that interrogation.  More than once guests have told us they were experienced snorkelers, only to
demonstrate at an inopportune moment that they were actually afraid of the water.  I personally think going swimming in the ocean, Ramsey or no Ramsey, is serious business.  Clearly, swimming with sharks ups the ante.

Deron Verbeck, shark hunter.  Tap the top of the nose.

   In half an hour us seven hearty shark watchin' wannabes found ourselves in the Manta, motoring slowly in a circle at a fish farm offshore from the energy lab south of  KOA. While we sat attentively, Deron gave us his version of Ocean's speech.  His position was that if you didn't do the wrong thing, which is basically turning away from the shark and attempt a flailing escape, you would probably be OK.  They both thought that facing the shark, even swimming towards it, would deter the shark.  If the shark came towards you, like any gun toting resident of the Sunshine State, you should hold your ground.  If it kept coming, like a matador you should sidestep the charging beast and push down on its nose.  Ocean demonstrates this in her video.  Daron emphasized getting on top of the nose.  If your hand is on the chin, he said, the shark will open its mouth and you will be minus one hand.  Sort of like one of those amputations they perform in the Islamic Republic when you are caught with your hand in the cookie jar.  Bummer.

Sharks hate this.  I love to torture them. 

    Unlike Ms. Ramsey,  Deron thought a shark attack was perfectly possible and had anecdotes to prove his point..  He asked us to stay close to him in the water and if we saw a shark to point at it and yell into the snorkel (you guessed it) "Shark!"  My experience yelling into my snorkel tells me this would come out as "Thark!" At that point Deron would attempt to get between the tourist and the thark and put his hand on the head.  Good Deron.

Female Monk Seal at the fish farm.  Photo Chuck Hill the younger  Canon D10

    We went into the water in batches.  Sandra, Charles and I went first, trailing Deron as he crinkled a bottle.  This is apparently like Bill Murray tinkling the keys of Sigourney Weaver's piano.  The ghosts hate that...he likes to torture them.  In the case of the crinkled bottle the sharks would be curious and
come to check it out.  However, neither Bill Murray nor Daron Verbeck attracted anything with their auditory maneuvers.
   As we were starting to swim back to  boat, Super Dave yelled that a monk seal was a on the fish farm net.  We swam back and got a good look at a 700 pound female monk seal peering longingly through the fish farm screen at a swirling mass of amberjacks.

    From a fish watching standpoint, there was a large number of amberjacks swimming outside the screen.  our guide thought that most, but possibly not all, were escapees.

    We traded out groups for monk seal watching.  At the culmination of seal watching we were all back on board when Super Dave yelled, "Tiger Shark!"  Wiki wiki the terrific trio was back in the

Swimmers and Deron (left) with the big tiger.
Photo by Super Dave

water.  Moments later I was 20 feet away from a ten foot tiger shark.  I watched for five seconds at that close range and then he turned slowly and swam away.  We waited for a minute or two to see if he would return and then it was the next group's turn.  

    While they were in the water, Charles told me that he had seen two sharks, one was behind us while I was watching the one in front.  As he watched, that tiger turned away and at that point he came next to us for a look.  Super Dave apparently had both sharks in view, but Deron, Sandra and I were focused on the one in front.  for those few seconds, Charles was on his own. 

     The third group going in had the biggest treat.  A 14 foot tiger came within 20 feet of our boat.  We could see it from the deck.  It was much more brown than I would have expected and big.  Up on the bridge, Super Dave took a picture of this encounter with his cell phone.  Here you can see how close the swimmers were to the big tiger shark.  Note on the left that Daron is much closer to the shark.   And below you will see his picture of that beast that I borrowed from his Facebook page. 

    As the third group got back on board, the tiger sharks departed.  Before we left the area, a small group of bottle nose dolphins swam right aft of the Manta.  These, too, are big animals, three times larger than spinners.  But how could they possibly compete with tiger sharks?

   In a second installment I will blog about the rest of our adventure.  No tiger sharks, but some pretty cool stuff.

jeff

The biggest tiger shark as photographed by Deron Verbeck.   How cool is that?