shark diving blog, video blog, swimming with sharks, eli martinez, eli the shark guy, eli the shark guy martinez, eli shark, shark diver magazine, shark diver

diving with tiger sharks

Tigers and Great Hammerheads... Final Trip of 2021.

This is my trip report for our final trip of the 2021 season… I do hope you enjoy.

Day 1 - We arrived at Tiger Beach, Bahamas around 2 PM. The sharks were waiting there to greet us; 30 plus reef sharks were already swimming around, along with a handful of lemon sharks. Down below on the ocean floor, we could already see tigers. Conditions were beautiful, the kind of water you dream about when you plan trips to this spot. This first dive was a gear check, so we did not add any bait to the water. But, I tell you, it is always a great check-out dive when you have tiger sharks hanging out. Without adding chum in the water, we had four tigers hanging around.

The view under the boat.

When I dropped in, I noticed the massive school of horse-eyed jacks hanging out underneath the boat. There were tens of thousands of them. It was a nice-sized school, the biggest I’d ever seen. Looking at that, I knew if the weather and the vis held up, it would be great opportunities for everyone to capture different images of the iconic sharks that hang out here.

One of my favorite things about this dive site is the reef itself off Tiger Beach. Because there are so many sharks on this reef, nobody fishes or spear fishes here, so it is stunning and filled with life; Massive groupers, hogfish, huge snappers, reefs filled with cleaner fish. It is a sight to see, just perfection, unlike anything else you will ever see in the Bahamas. Most of the reefs with no sharks are empty compared to the spot we dive at TB.

We finished the day with two dives and four tiger sharks…it will be a great week of diving!


Day 2 - Conditions were murky today, so we decided to dive with the sharks without feeding them. We had a bunch of hungry tigers hanging around, so I know they were disappointed with this decision, but for the safety of our guests, I felt it was best not to bring a box down and just enjoy the action diving around the area with the sharks. It was a really good day of diving and so much fun. We also had our first bull shark of the trip show up. It was a solitary individual hanging around us. Usually though, when one shows up, more will follow.

We had five different tiger sharks here with us. Jitterbug, Emma, Carrie, Kim Possible, and Freckles. It is always great seeing these big sharks show up. Especially old friends like Emma, she is still around, which makes my heart happy. Unfortunately, she showed up with a damaged jaw from a hook on the left side of the corner of her mouth. Poor girl, we almost lost her. It truly is tough being a shark.

Bull shark.


Day 3 - Today was an EPIC day of diving. From the moment we woke up to every single dive of the day. Damn, it was so good. We started the day motoring over from the spot the captain took us to for sleep. He always leaves Tiger Beach at night to sleep in calmer waters. When we arrived at Tiger Beach, we were greeted by a pod of Atlantic spotted dolphins. They were in a social mood, and Finch asked us if we wanted to go for a swim with them. Of course, most of us said yes, and off we went. We had a couple of fun sessions with them, dancing and rolling around - after we returned to Tiger Beach and began our day of diving.

We dove four tanks today. Our final dive was a dusk/night dive with the tigers. From the word go, it was just a great day of diving. I fed on the second dive, and it was crazy good and scary. We had 11 tigers show up. Ten of them were players, all coming into the box. There were a lot of intense moments for me on that dive. But thankfully, the tigers were all well behaved, and it turned into just one of those dives that will stay with me forever.

We also had a great hammerhead do a swim by today. Everyone was super excited to see it, especially Steve. LOL, He saw the hammer and swam after it to get a better capture of it, mid-swim he caught himself and said, “Uh-oh, I screwed up.” LMAO, the hammer was gone. In all fairness to Steve, the hammer would not have stayed around. Unless the great hammerhead goes in for food, it will not stay around. They are timid that way. It was just fun to watch Steve kicking himself over it.

The whole day was just so much fun and beautiful. We had excellent conditions and a lot of tigers; it was the kind of day you dream of and want for your guests.


Day 4 - This is our final day of diving here at Tiger Beach. We have had a really good time here with a hell of a lot of tiger sharks. Today another bull shark showed up. So now we have two hanging around... It adds to the excitement of the dive, for sure.

I genuinely love this place. There is so much magic at this spot. Thanks to TB, we have learned so much about tiger sharks. The amount of time we can spend with them on a dive is genuinely a unique experience. A piece of my soul will forever be here. Tonite we leave for Bimini and the great hammerheads. We also discussed trying to find dolphins in the morning before we head to the hammerhead spot. It will be a cool way to kick off the Bimini part of the trip if we can find them.


Day 5 - We woke up to the sound of the DD engine starting up. Capt Scott arrived at Bimini in the wee hours of the morning and then passed out. So early this morning, he cranked the engine to life, and off we went to find some dolphins to swim with. It did not take long. We found a small pod of about five dolphins swimming around, wanting to play. So we quickly geared up and off into the water we went. It was a quick, fun session, and we managed to swim with them for almost an hour. After finishing with them, we went over to the hammerhead spot to begin chumming for these extraordinary animals.

Nurse shark.

The boys dropped in and began scraping bait, hoping to attract a hammer in early for us. It took a couple of hours of chumming before the first great hammerhead showed up. After a while, a second shark arrived. Of course, we also had a lot of nurse sharks hanging around as well. What a thorn those pesky nurse sharks can be, but they were entertaining during the downtime while we waited for hammers to come in.


Day 6 - We started chumming right after breakfast for the hammerheads. Playing with the Bimini hammers is so different than the TB sharks. Here off Bimini, you have to wait much longer for the sharks to show up, and the pace and the action are often much slower. Of course, when the hammerheads arrive, it is game on, and they are so much fun. I love them. It is always a fun ride.

Overall the trip was a huge success, the guests had a lot of fun, and the animals were on point! A huge thanks to the DD crew for always taking care of us, and to my guests who joined us...Thank you so much for the laughs and the fun, love and miss you guys… until the next one!

Love you guys!

Trip # 1 of the New Year!

freckles 2.jpg

We just returned from Tiger Beach, Bahamas for the first trip of the new travel year. I wish I could say it was the perfect trip, with perfect seas and lots and lots of big sharks. Sadly, we can’t say that. I am happy to report that we had lots of big sharks, however the conditions were less than favorable. We had wind, and swells and horrible, horrible visibility. We did make the most of it though and dove as much as the ocean would allow us too. And thankfully everyone that joined us was super pumped and made the most of everyday we were out there. So thanks again to our friends who joined us out there, you guys are awesome.

I did keep a journal of our trip, so figured the best way to narrate this story is to give you guys a look at my daily journal - and the highs and lows of life in and on the ocean for this trip.

January 20, 2020 - Sitting here at Fish Tales, and haven’t been able to dive yet. It has been crap vis with wind all morning. When we arrived, we had just hit low tide and with the wind, we didn’t have any visibility. So this morning has been a lot of editing for me and chatting it up with a few of our guests.

AT THE END OF THE DAY…
Today’s dive report - It was shit, shit, shit visibility at Fish Tales. We had plenty of tigers including; Hook, Maui, I think Tequila made an appearance, Dirty girl? (I think), a couple of tigers I didn’t really know and Jitter Bug is back. Damn! She is no  longer pregnant, which means, she pupped her first litter of babies. This was officially her first litter. So this means, she will be fattening up this season and maybe she will be breeding again this season. I don’t know if she will be breeding this winter, not sure when exactly she pupped? But next winter for sure she will. So if we are on schedule for a late winter 2020 mating, then the following winter 2021, she should be pupping again. So my prediction is she will show up very fat in December 2021. If she doesn’t breed sooner.  

Hook in the murk.

Hook in the murk.

Anyway, so we did three dives today including a sunset dive that turned into a night dive, with a bait crate, which was scary as fudge. There was four tigers including Jitter Bug. Hook showed up and so did Dirty Girl, and some random tiger I didn’t know. The vis was horrible, maybe 15-20 feet, if that. I only brought five pieces of bait down with me, and thankfully so. The tigers didn’t go crazy because the bait scent was not strong. Jitterbug was a pain in the ass and super on fire. She is still up to her old trick and really hard to work with. I do hope she calms down. Never fun when she acts like that, especially at night in low vis conditions.

Tomorrow looks like it may be blown out and if it is, I am going to record our first podcast with Capt. Scott. It is fitting that he is part of my first podcast. I built my career abroad the Dolphin Dream working with tigers, and this is a great way to pay homage to the super good guy that helped me do it. Gonna be a good day, either way! 

Dusk dive with reef shark.

Dusk dive with reef shark.


Jitterbug

Jitterbug

January 21, 2020 - Weather day. However we did get one morning dive in. It was a freaking mess. We had ok vis near the surface, but at the bottom it was complete shit. When we jumped in, we had some swells, but no whitecaps, by the middle of the dive the vis got worse and we called it a day. When I hit the surface, the wind had kicked in hard and the boat was rocking and rolling in a stormy sea. The ocean was mean today. After everyone boarded up, we ran for a safe place to lee up.

We had three tigers, Freckles, Jitterbug and Kim Possible. Stressful day. Jitterbug, is such a pesky shark. Tigers are comfortable in the murk, and we needed to keep a close eye on her whenever she showed up. Today also marked the return of bull sharks ( they were around the prior week, but my first time seeing them here this winter season), to Tiger Beach. In December they were a no-show, but they were back. Here off TB, they are well behaved, so they are always a welcomed treat.

January 22, 2020 - Well no diving today. We had some major weather issues this trip and we had to take shelter behind the island of Grand Bahamas. Some of the guests dove on a reef that was pretty, but no real life on it to pass the time. There are no animals due to the locals fishing it out. Sad really.

I did learn something amazing yesterday. One of my favorite tigers Freckles, showed up at TB this past October with a torn up dorsal fin. It looks like she will be breeding this winter and the boys are getting ready for her. In October, it didn’t look like a successful mating because only her dorsal fin was torn up. Normally, when I believe the matings are more successful is when the female has bite marks on her body, which shows me that she has allowed a male to get close enough to her to pin her down for a mating. I think fin bites only on a tiger, means she is running from them as they are trying to catch her. When I saw her yesterday, she had a lot more bite marks on her body, which showed me that she either had a successful pairing, or she is about to mate any day now.

I snapped a picture of her yesterday which showed her dorsal fin which is healing and filling in super fast. the time span is about three months. Their healing strength and speedy fin regeneration ability is awesome.

Tonite we depart for Bimini. Sadly, we did not have epic blue water dives for our guests with tiger sharks. We did have tiger sharks, but not the dives you read, see and dream about when planning a trip to Tiger Beach. Always makes me feel bad for our guests when that happens. The ocean can be cruel.

January 23, 2020 - BIMINI ISLAND well we had a good day of diving today. We dove three times with great hammerheads and bull sharks. The first dive, conditions were amazing. Blue water, lots of sun and four great hammerheads with well behaved nurse sharks. The boys put the bait box on a buoy and that seemed to help control the nurse sharks. The second and third dive, conditions sort of fell apart. We had low tide roll in with the weird smokey haze it brings with it. We had less hammers with about five bulls. They are getting braver it seems and may be forcing out the hammers.

I managed some fun pics that I am proud of. Hopefully tomorrow we will get better conditions and more chances for images. Hoping for a good last day for our guests, they deserve it after this week.

hammer 5.jpg

bull.jpg

January 24, 2020 - Final day of diving. Our day started out great. We woke up to a flat calm ocean with perfect skies. We had three great hammerheads show up and right away, it was going off. The hammers were coming in to the bait box and it was an amazing time. With the new baitbox set up, the nurse sharks were behaving themselves and it was just awesome. It was a great beginning to our day.

THEN… the bull sharks showed up and it became a shit show. The bulls scared off the hammerheads and they no longer were interested in visiting the bait box. So the dive turned into a bull shark dive, which wouldn’t be bad, if we were there to dive with bull sharks. The hammerheads were around, they just spent their time in the out skirts of the dive, and stopped coming in. All in all it was a good day of diving, but without the bulls, it would of been better.

I wanted to say thanks to our friends who joined us out there… thanks for being troopers while mother nature kicked us around. You guys are so freaking awesome!

IMG_0461.jpg





Tiger Beach Photo Gallery's

January has always meant Tigers and Great Hammerheads to us. For the past 7 , or 8? Maybe 9 years (don’t remember exactly when we started, it’s been a while.), we have run our annual trip to Tiger Beach for tiger sharks, and over the past 5 seasons great hammerheads. It has been an amazing time of year for us, with both highs and lows, because you never know what you are going to get when it comes to the weather. Some seasons we get perfect conditions, other seasons we get crap weather with challenging swells. The one thing that we have been fortunate to do is dive with big tigers and great hammerheads on ALL our January trips. Not that we haven’t on our October and December trips, because thankfully we have. But January is during the Bahamas winter season and you just never know what you are going to get. We kicked off 2019 with two back to back trips and here are a few images from our time spent here. I do hope you enjoy. Thanks again to our friends who joined us on these trips, you guys are amazing and we couldn’t do this without you. BIG HUG my friends.

Trip one. January 19 - 26, 2019.

Trip Two January 27 - February 3, 2019

maui 2.jpg

Tiger Shark Madness in the Bahamas

Hey guys, just wanted to share our latest and the first episode of our new weekly Youtube series, entitled, SDM Adventures. We started our Youtube channel back in 2011, but it has been off and on for new shows through the years, with no real direction. So I decided to commit to creating a series that shares our adventures, the highs and the lows of this crazy life we are living. So with no further ado, here it is.

A little back ground on this episode; we visited Tiger Beach in the Bahamas, last week to kick off the winter tiger shark season. October is when all the big females return to these waters to breed, socialize and fatten up a little before they leave to give birth. We spent five days here and dove 16 times during the week. On our second dive of the trip we had two tiger sharks show up and on the second to the last dive, we had 9 tiger sharks show up. It was one hell of a week.

In this episode I take you through our week, hope you enjoy…

Thank you for watching, if you like what you see, please share this video. Truly would appreciate that. Again we will be posting a weekly episode so please subscribe to our channel to check out more episodes.

6 tiger sharks on our 4th day of diving.

6 tiger sharks on our 4th day of diving.