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Unofficial report:

We had just finished our dive on the Caribsea wreck at a depth of 85 feet, and started doing our topside surface interval. At approx 10:45, two divers, Wade Madden and <unknown diver>, had just entered the water to begin their dive. Divemaster, Mike <unknown> grabbed his speargun and donned free-dive gear to go after wahoo.

At approx 10:55, Mike returned to the ship in a hurry and reported that a Great White Shark (Carcharodon carcharias) was swimming directly off the stern of the ship, by the trailing buoy line. Mike, who had seen another Great White while diving in Mozambique, Southern Africa, was certain that this was a Great White.

At approx 11:00, myself and the divers on board, who only minutes ago had been in the water rushed to the stern to see the shark. The shark encircled the ship several times coming within several feet of the port side. A companion ship, Outrageous, was anchored off the port bow and the shark also spent time visiting them.

The shark returned and swam past our ship's swim-up platform, a 12-foot wide deck. The shark was longer than the width of the deck. The shark cruised slowly, rolling on it's side at times, giving us a clear view of it's white under-side. Several times, the shark's dorsal fin broke the surface -- a truly ominous sight.

It was soon realized that the two divers were still known to be on the Caribsea. The ship's crew quickly made plans to notify the unsuspecting divers. The crew hastily wrote on a slate, "Great White Shark -- No Kidding", attached the slate to a speargun, and attached the speargun to the anchor line. By doing so, the speargun and slate slid down the anchor line, to a depth of approx 80 feet, where the two divers were beginning their ascent.

There was no time to do a decompression safety stop. Exit from the water was paramount.

The shark swam back behind the trailing buoy. We could soon see the fizzy bubbles coming to the surface indicating that the divers had decided to make their ascent. Everyone was instructed to back away from the stern and give the crew room. Captain Bobby loaded his speargun and took aim at the shark to provide cover, while the divers surfaced and hurridly scrambled hand-over-hand over the trailing line to the awaiting ladders. You could see the look of terror on their faces through their masks. Everyone on board shouted "Hurry! Hurry!" but were quickly silenced by the crew, "Stop! You'll make them panic!"

Safely on board, the divers had faces of sheer excitement.

The experience of diving in the close proximity of a Great White is an event all of us on the trip will share, and will be THE dive story for most of us. While we didn't have the same in-water visual experience as the the two divers and one free-diver, we were all in the water minutes ago and only minutes away from experiencing a face-to-snout Great White Shark encounter.

-- Scott A. Keen
Rescue / EAN diver, certified 1988
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