Great Hammerhead Shark Dive Encounters gets underway in Bimini

by John Bell on 5 Dec 2015 2015 Great Hammerhead Shark Dive Encounters - A bucket list diver opportunity to encounter the usually elusive Great Hammerhead shark starts next week—December 11-18— when Bimini Big Game Club Divers kicks off its Great Hammerhead Weeks program.

The endangered and elusive Great Hammerhead—the second largest predatory shark in the ocean—frequent the waters surrounding North and South Bimini in the winter months with cooler water temperatures and abundant sea life.

Great Hammerhead encounters are considered the pinnacle of shark diving in the Bahamas, and Bimini is one of only two places in the world where you will find a congregation of these elusive animals, which can grow to 20 feet or more.

Bimini Big Game Divers will operate two Great Hammerhead dives daily for designated weeks of December 11-18, 2015, and January 1-8, February 5-12 and March 8-18, 2016. For reservations and booking information contact the Big Game Dive Shop at dive@biggameclubbimini.com. For more information go to website.

Considered “shark diving central”, Bimini has more species of sharks closer to the docks than anywhere else in the Bahamas. According to the Bimini Biological Field Station, the Great Hammerhead Shark joins 12 other species of sharks found in the shallow water off Bimini. These species include Lemon, Caribbean Reef, Tiger, Blacktip, Nurse, Bull, Blacknose, Atlantic/Caribbean Sharpnose, Mako, Spiny Dogfish and Bigeye Thresher and Smooth Hound.

Less than 50 miles from South Florida, Bimini is one of the best places in the world where divers can encounter the fabled Sphyrna mokarran, a species that is easily recognized by its unusual and distinctive head, which is flattened and extended into a “hammer” shape. A favorite food is spotted eagle rays in the shallows near the island. The rays, according to divers, will often jump high into the air in an attempt to escape the Great Hammerheads Sharks.

Despite its size, the Great Hammerhead Shark rarely attack humans and is inquisitive with divers. As a result of being overfished for its large fins (shark fin soup), the species has been assessed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The Bahamas, a collection of 700 islands sweeping across 240,000 square miles of territorial waters, is one of the world’s premier shark-watching destinations for divers, reeling in $800 million over the past 20 years for the Bahamian national economy. Sharks in the Bahamas are big business and certainly worth more alive than dead. Globally, sharks are under attack with estimates of up to 90 million harvested annually commercially for their fins, considered a delicacy in certain areas of the world.