You don’t have to be Jacques Cousteau to go scuba-diving with sharks. Just ask his son, fellow sea-explorer Jean-Michel Cousteau: “I took the Duchess of York, who was afraid of water,” he says.
“In three days, this incredible lady learned to scuba dive, put a chain-mail suit on, and went and fed sharks in the Bahamas.”
She’s not alone. Not by a long shot. “If somebody said twenty years ago the hottest thing in scuba diving was going to be shark diving, it would have been quite amazing,” says National Geographic underwater photographer David Doubilet.
“It used to be very hard to get shots of sharks.”
Today, there are scores of jaw-dropping shark-sighting hotspots in the Bahamas and beyond, with guided tours ranging from simple, inexpensive snorkeling trips off the coast of Mexico to swanky seven-day yacht-propelled scuba excursions in the Galapagos Islands.
Sinking our teeth into this adventurous trend, we’ve assembled a panel of noted shark experts to compile a list of the World’s Scariest Shark Dives.
Bring your best waterproof camera. And try to remember to use it.
“I took away my camera because I just couldn’t believe the size,” says five-foot-five former model turned underwater photographer Caterina Gennaro about her first up-close encounter with an approximately 21-foot-long great white shark.
“It didn’t look real. It looked prehistoric, like a dinosaur,” she says.
“People think great whites are scary looking, but when you watch them under water it’s amazing
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