You make my shark beat. Beqa Lagoon,Fiji Islands

We had not been scuba diving for that long, so when we embarked on our most adventurous dive yet at dive number 16 we weren’t quite sure what to expect. How would we feel about coming face to face with a Tiger Shark, would it be scary or would it instil in us a love for them forevermore?

On the morning of our first shark dive (we won’t lie), we were nervous. The weather was worsening due to a cyclone in neighbouring Vanuatu and we weren’t quite cosy with the conditions of our dive boat, the diligence of our guides, nor our hire equipment. With a huge swell, the captain motored 30 minutes to the ‘Cathedral’ dive site and dropped the anchor.

As we prepared our dive equipment Peter was slightly green, sometimes the sea just gets too much for him! We opted to get in the water as soon as possible, remembering that someone had recently told us that it was ok to vomit in your regulator! As we immersed ourselves into the deep blue the current pushed hard against us, using the buoy line we managed to make our way down to the Cathedral’s sandy bottom at 21 meters. We waited for the stars of the show to appear.

Before we had time to settle, a huge 7 meter female Tiger Shark appeared, the tiger stripes on her pregnant body glistening as the sun streamed from above. We were mesmerised. One of the greatest predators, so close, so majestic and magical, right before our eyes. She was soon joined by 6 other large Tiger Sharks, some quirky lemon sharks and of course the mighty bull shark - about 20 of them!

We stayed mesmerised for the duration of the dive, begging them to come closer and closer. We emerged from that dive forever changed, and forever in love with the most misunderstood creature in our oceans.

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