Am I insatiable or what??

I got back recently from South Africa where the "tiger action" was sub-standard, unfortunately: Rough seas, winds, relatively low water temperatures, very poor visibility, few tigers, and those who showed up didn't stay, were not 'players' as the local shark operators say - it just was not what I expected.

About a week before I arrived in Cape Town, I was informed that six tiger sharks were killed when they got entangled in the infamous shark nets of Scottburgh - not a good foreboding at all...

My very last day at Aliwal Shoal, however, was fantastic: 25 m viz (the best I ever experienced in Aliwal Shoal), four tigers - plus the usual bonus of 30-40 black tips sharks. They are beautiful, 'sharky' sharks, between 1.5 and 2 meters, and their behavior always reminds me that sharks are being called 'pesce cane' (dog fish) in vernacular Italian. The black tips are like a bunch of lovely, completely non-aggressive dogs, especially when they 'infest' the waters!

Yet the underrated black tips pale, indeed become almost irrelevant when the first tiger shark arrives at the scene, attracted by the chum and bait. I am not being a shark racist but that's just the way it is - for me and most other folks. Tigers simply spoil you.

It is impossible to get used to the sensation you feel when the tigers swim by intensely looking at you. I simply refuse to believe that they do so to check you out as potential prey; such observation is sheer non-sense, uttered by people who don't know.

Tiger sharks look at you, and approach you, calmly, because they are just as curious as you are when you see other creatures. No other reason. Or do you perhaps think of a succulent dish when you get to see a pig in a barn or in the wild? No, you most likely don't, even if you weren't Jewish...

Tigers are the most majestic sharks: Gentle, sure of themselves, inquisitive, yet cautious, and if judged by their dark, large eyes they look highly intelligent. All tiger sharks look intelligent which is not what can be said about many (most?) humans... :-)

So, anyway, here I am back in Bolivia, already looking forward to my next tiger shark adventure later this year - not in South Africa but in the incredibly clear waters of the Bahamas, and as if my good friend Der Playbird, aka Paul Spielvogel, could have sensed my joyful anticipation, he sent me some very sharp photographs today, to "brighten my day" as he put it.

"Brighten my day"? Boy, yes, alter Playbird, you could say THAT!!!

When I look at these images that were taken back in 2008, I KNOW what happiness means to me - there is nothing that could make me happier than swimming with tigers, touching them gently, marvelling at them, just being in their realm for hours and hours in a row, not getting tired, let alone bored.


Ohmygosh, I wrote more than I wanted to... Sorry! I tend to babble...Now have a look at the Spielvogel photographs, and enjoy them:

Tigers are just so very responsive - they are simply the coolest sharks x far!

No!! I am not trying to ride her. Just comfortable being so close to her - she must have felt likewise, otherwise she would not have put on that smile on her face!! :-)

I know, I know - some people disapprove of touching wild animals - well, I don't. What can I do?... I love it, and I know I don't hurt them.

Hmmmm - this babe just didn't want me to get too close to her - happens, especially with guys my age.... Hehehehehehe!!

When I lived in the Bahamas (1974 - 1980) the Ministry of Tourism came out with a new catchy slogan: "It's better in the Bahamas" - definitely not an exaggeration as you can see...

Click on images to enlarge

Best beach in the world? Tiger Beach!!

My friend Paul Spielvogel, aka Paul Playbird, another multi-talent, not unlike Fiona Ayerst, sent me these photographs today:

Tiger and lemon girls feeling comfortable next to a submarine wolf.

"I need you girls to get a bit closer."

Click on images to enlarge

Paul is a passionate underwater photographer and a successful lawyer with a doctorate degree - I told him that in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland he would be addressed to as "Herr Doktor Schpielfogel", in court as well as in his super market or laundry shop, and also underwater.... :-)

Herr Doktor Schpielfogel knows that happiness to me means playing at the best beach in the world. So, with these images he made my day, actually my night as it is 2:00 a.m. right now!

The "Year of the Shark" initiative and its future.

Paul Spielvogel shot this captivating image of a lemon shark and a freediving sea wolf at Tiger Beach: It says what the "Year of the Shark" is all about - LET SHARKS LIVE!!!

Click on image to enlarge

Here is what my friend Mark Harding, a committed shark and manta conservationist, wrote to the Let Sharks Live group today:

Quote

As part of our initiative to take the Year of the Shark on into the future, and to help our message grow, we had discussed the way that our web presence should progress, and the majority of opinion settled on a blog style presence.

I managed to find some time over the holiday period to register the Let Sharks Live movement as now owning a blog site hosted by worldpress. You can find it here:

http://letsharkslive.wordpress.com/

Unquote

Please also read what I posted about Mark almost two years ago.

Mark has a personal blogspot full of interesting stuff as well.

Sharks in USA Today with Jupp

Photo by: Paul Spielvogel

I think you remember Jupp Kerckerinck zur Borg - a refresh in case you do not.  Regardless, he just sent me an email this morning mentioning that he got a hit in the USA Today - nice start to the New Year.

Tiger Beach Freedom

Where on earth can you find this??

(Photo: Fiona Ayerst)

This is what makes Tiger Beach so unique: The incredible clarity of the Bahamian Sea, the submarine beach, and the majestic tigers...

Felix and I have the added bonus that Captain Scott Smith of the "Dolphin Dream" allows us to freedive with the sharks. While it may not sound like a big deal, it is Scottie's way of saying: "I trust you guys as you know what you are doing."

Diving freedom and as little interference from the operator as possible (preferably none at all) is what I want, indeed need, to feel good when I dive with sharks.

I have free-dived almost all my life alone; it's been forty years when I saw my first shark while spear-fishing in the Virgin Islands. I was 27 then. Many shark operators are in their late thirties or early forties - what can they tell an old, saggy bagged sea wolf about shark-diving? :-)

Feeling good in good company...

(Photo: Dr. iur. Paul "Playbird" Spielvogel)

To imagine that somebody would tell me: Kneel down, here is your shark billy just in case, form a semi-circle, and don't touch "it" (touch what?, the fish called Wanda? :-) would be totally unacceptable - NO WAY, JOSE. Not for me!!!

Smiling Shark

Paul Spielvogel took this photo of the Wolf in Tiger Beach, Bahamas. Take a real close look...that is the face of someone that is completely in his element and happy to be with his friends.

Dances with Sharks

These are two photographs taken by Paul Spielvogel, Staff Photographer of Eli Martinez's Sharkdiver Magazine. Paul is an attorney, and photographing sharks is his hobby - or should I say his 'passion'? When Paul and I met on a fantastic Tiger Shark trip organized by Eli on Scottie Smith's Dolphin Dream II, we both immediately sensed that our 'chemistry' is made of the same elements... It is gratifying to meet congenial people.

I really like these pics: With them Paul captured the essence of my love for sharks. Whatever I had to say about digital photography (see the Nikonos V blog posted recently) does not apply here. I am glad Paul had a digital camera while I was playing with the sharks.

The lemon sharks of Tiger Beach are adorable, very much like a bunch of friendly dogs. They don't mind you being there, they might bump you gently but are not aggressive at all. The lemons of Tiger Beach are a real treat!

The tiger girl I am touching on her back is "Olga" - she is a cool 11 - 12 ft babe who established a special relationship with Folkart which I will keep discreetly as a secret.... :-)

Back Home...

Yes, when I am at Tiger Beach I feel like being back home. Being surrounded by sharks, Lemons and Tigers - BIG Tigers - is all an old Sea Wolf can ask for to be serene and happy. This time I joined Eli Martinez of the Sharkdiver Magazine who organized the trip.

The sharkdivers on board the Dolphin Dream II, owned and operated by the legendary Captain Scottie Smith, were all very cool people:

- Eli Martinez, appropriately knighted by our not-so-red baron, Jupp Kerckerinck zur Borg, as "Lord of Tiger Beach";

- Sharkdiver staff photographer Paul Spielvogel, smart and unassuming as myself (true heavy-weights are always unassuming - LOL!!!) and also a real shark nut. Paul has got to learn how to freedive and photograph at the same time, though - I will teach him the freediving part, he does not need to be taught photography: Paul has taken some master shots, soon to be displayed in this blogspot;

- two new friends, Germans, elegant Jupp, already mentioned above, and down-to-earth Folkart Schweizer, both around my age which made us some sort of slightly mature three musketeers among all those youngsters;

- Mark Carlson and Traci Kalar - our token love birds, always holding hands, topside and down below;

- bubbly Marina Scuseria, originally from Buenos Aires, now bored to death in boring Basle;

- quiet, almost enigmatic Robert Terpstra whose hand was brushed, and hurt, by an agitated lemon shark and could, thus, not dive right away;

- Brian Cleveland, who, as I later found out, is a successful monster movie producer (is that why he wanted to dive with, and film, tiger sharks?? :-);

- and, last certainly not least, Grant Nathan with his distinctive London accent (instead of 'stairs' he would say: 'apples and pears').

Have I forgotten someone? I hope not....

Unfortunately, the days went by very quickly, and although the tiger action was rather disappointing during the first four days, we had a fantastic last day wid dem big, big tiga babes!! Sharky as hell, and not to be forgotten soon, certainly not by Folkart - our novice shark diver.... :-)

Also, we had 'Julia' around us during the entire stay at Tiger Beach. And that was a real treat. Julia is a teenage great hammerhead shark, some 8 - 8 1/2 ft long, and she almost turned Tiger Beach into Hammer Beach with her continuous presence. It is rare to see great hammerheads at Tiger Beach, and if you are lucky enough to see one, it would be a short encounter.

Julia was rather shy in the beginning but when she realized that all those funny and dark looking creatures are shark fanatics, not out to harm her, she became very friendly and performed all kinds of aquabatics in front of us to show off her incredible grace...

I was the only freediver and the only one who still clings to his antique photographic equipment: an old Nikonos V with two lenses (28 and 20mm), no flash. Somebody tactfully reminded me that we are in the 21st century....

Wanna have a look at my retro-looking pics? I have selected 61 - you don't have to view them all; but they are there. Just click this link: http://www.flickr.com/gp/19925617@N00/1aKFw7

I will be back next year - for sure!!