Why I Went Free Diving with Sharks in Hawaii with One Ocean Diving
As a kid, I was obsessed with sharks. I watched every movie about sharks, read book after book about sharks, and even created my own "Shark Encyclopedia" with maybe 20 pieces of printer paper, some pencil crayons and a turquoise duo-tang (I still have it to this day). Their size, fins and, of course, teeth excited me, as they were, in my mind, the ultimate predator of the ocean. Even with this appreciation for such a powerful living machine, I honestly grew up thinking that I never would go free diving with sharks. The proposition just seemed too dangerous. I would have to admire my favorite animal from pictures on the internet, or, best case if I was brave enough, in a shark cage. Then, while I was planning a recent trip to Hawaii, I discovered a company called One Ocean Diving - and that's when everything changed.
One Ocean Diving is based in Haliewa on the North Shore of the Hawaiian island of O'ahu. Their team of divers researches sharks off the coast of Hawaii, works to conserve them and their habitats, and, you guessed it, takes folks like myself out for free dives with them. They also educate their guests about sharks during each tour. Upon discovering One Ocean Diving and checking out their Instagram page (which is filled with photos and videos of other tourists swimming freely and seemingly peacefully with sharks in the wild), we contemplated booking a dive. Free diving with sharks seemed like a dream come true. And if other people had done it safely, why couldn't we? We looked up the reviews, determined that One Ocean Diving had great reviews, and, a little nervously, hit "book." And that was it. We were free diving with sharks.
On the day of the dive, we ate an Acai Bowl for breakfast up the road from the harbor. I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous. After all, I had grown up researching sharks, thinking they were the ultimate predator in the sea. How were we supposed to just hop into the water with them? We finished our Acai Bowl and headed to the harbor.
We quickly spotted the One Ocean Diving boat, hopped on and headed out of the harbor. The dive takes you almost four miles off shore to an area off the coast (called the pelagic zone) where Galapagos, Reef and sometimes Hammerhead sharks hang out. During the ride out, a One Ocean Diving instructor gave us a safety debriefing, told us about the different types of sharks we could see, and educated us about the common misconceptions of sharks and how they're not these aggressive man eaters that the media tries to make them out to be. We were told that sharks are typically just curious animals and, if we respected their space and followed the safety rules, they'd leave us alone. We were also told that sharks kill five people a year, while people kill 100,000,000 sharks (yes you read that right) a year for things like shark fin soup.
Armed with this new knowledge of how sharks actually behave, the boat reached the pelagic zone. As one of the divers explained that sharks, because of the electrodes in their snout, were attracted to the back of the boat where the motor's batteries are located, about five large Galapagos sharks popped up to the surface and trailed the boat. Their dorsal fins skimmed the surface of the water. My girlfriend and I looked at each other nervously. Our dive guide released the boat's ladder on the side of the boat. This was it. It was time to go free diving with sharks.
We hobbled down the ladder in our flippers, slowly slipped into the water and grabbed the safety lines on the side of the boat. After a moment, we submerged our heads and looked below our feet. About twenty Galapagos sharks swam in circles beneath our feet. More and more emerged from the depths as we floated there. And, to be 100% honest, all of the nervousness I felt evaporated. Just like that. Watching the sharks swim was mesmerizing. They floated around calmly, never approaching too close to us. They did, if anything, show mild curiosity to us, just as the instructor said. We stayed in the water for thirty minutes with them before heading back to shore.
I have to say, free diving with sharks with One Ocean Diving was one of the coolest things I have ever done. Not only did I get to swim alongside the animals I grew up admiring, I also got to learn that they are highly misunderstood animals, and truly mean no harm to human beings. I also got to learn that they need our help so that they can continue to keep our ocean's eco-systems strong and healthy. If you're heading to Hawaii, I would highly recommend checking out One Ocean Diving. You'll come out of it with a new appreciation for these beautiful animals, and probably have one of the best experiences of your life too. If you need more convincing, here are a few of the reasons to go free diving with sharks with One Ocean Diving:
Safety in the Water
First and foremost, One Ocean Diving provides an extremely safe experience while in the water with the sharks. The guides give a thorough safety debrief on the boat ride out to the pelagic zone, which covers topics such as where to be in relation to the boat, how to safely dive down towards the sharks, and how to always maintain eye contact with the sharks as they swim by so that they know you, too, are a predator.
Once you arrive at the pelagic zone where the sharks hangout, you can essentially hold onto a safety line on the side of the boat the whole time if you're nervous to actually free dive with them. The guides, however, create a safe perimeter around the boat that you are allowed to swim in. They also provide you with hand signals to let you know when it's safe to swim away from the safety line and free dive. On our dive, we were able to do a number of dives with our guides, and we felt safe and comfortable the entire time. I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to see the guides' safety hand signals in the water, but they made sure that we saw them and were fully comfortable and ready before we left the safety line to go free diving with sharks.
Shark Education
As mentioned above, the guides give a pretty thorough safety debriefing on how to stay safe in the water with the sharks. They also, however, give an incredible presentation on the different types of sharks that you can encounter in the water, what makes them unique, and why they hangout in the pelagic zone four miles off the coast of the North Shore of Hawaii.
The thing that I found the most interesting, though, was the education on the misconception of sharks. We've all grown up with the image of sharks as evil predators that are a threat to humans. Upon listening to our One Ocean Diving guides, it turns out that sharks are not really a threat to humans. They simply and typically just swim around with mild curiosity when we're hanging around them.
In fact, it turns out that humans are actually the bigger threat to sharks. As mentioned above, sharks kill 5 humans a year - humans kill 100,000,000 sharks per year. This one piece of education alone was enough to entirely shift my perspective on sharks. It seemed that they weren't these dangerous creatures that the media had depicted them to be - humans were.
Conservation Efforts
As mentioned above, One Ocean Diving provides a high level of safety and shark education to ensure that all of their guests leave with a renewed appreciation and understanding of how magical sharks are - and why they need our help. Because of this, One Ocean Diving is big on reposting their guests' social media posts to show their followers and potential future divers that previous guests have experienced the magic of free diving with sharks, and had realized the need too conserve them, too. We posted some photos on our Instagram accounts about our experience with the sharks, and One Ocean Diving reposted them literally the same day!
In addition, One Ocean Diving has set up One Ocean Conservation, which aims to change the global perception of sharks and help inspire marine change on a global level. Sharks have so many threats out there (including humans). One Ocean Conservation continually shares ways that their former guests (and future guests) can get involved to help conserve them, such as ongoing social media campaigns, beach cleanups, and suggestions to help make a difference in your every day life. To learn more and find out how you can help make a difference, follow them @oneoceanconservation.
So, if you, like me, grew up loving sharks but were always a little afraid to swim with them, or if you've always simply just been afraid of them, check out One Ocean Diving. They will educate you and change your perception of these magical creatures. They will also show you why they should be protected, make you feel safe in the water, and (in complete honesty) give you one of the wildest experiences of your life.
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