I recently spent the most amazing 5 weeks diving in the South Pacific. One of the reasons I went was I absolutely love to dive with sharks. Some people think diving with sharks means you have a death wish or are reckless, but I firmly believe that although you need to have a healthy respect for these beautiful creatures, you take a much bigger risk by driving on Route 128 on the way to work in the morning.
After only a few days on the first boat, a pattern quickly emerged where we would do a deep morning dive straight down the side of a wall or bommie (a sea mount made out of coral) clanking on the side of our tanks hoping to attract sharks. We would descend, keeping the wall or bommie to our back and wait for the sharks to appear and circle in front of us. Those who know me from my early diving days will be struck by this as for the first two years of my diving career, not only was I terrified at the thought of encountering ones of these creatures, but I refused to allow the word itself to be uttered in my presence. If it were absolutely necessary to refer to one of these creatures, it must be referred to as the "S-word." [It is of course ironic that the first time I actually encountered one of these beautiful creatures, instead of reacting with fear as I expected, I eagerly peered under a coral ledge with a flashlight trying to get a better view of a 4 foot nurse shark sleeping in the sand, while it cowered to get away from me and my dive light. But, I digress.]
Now, on this particular morning, the crew of the boat told us that hammerheads were frequently seen at this site. I very quickly entered the water as I was on a quest to find hammerheads which by far are my favorite shark.
Some of the bommies we dove dropped nearly vertically. This bommie had much more of a gradual drop, closer to 45 degrees. I proceeded down along the edge of the bommie, busily clanking the side of my tank with my flashlight. At about 130 feet, the bommie abruptly stopped the 45 degree slope and became nearly vertical. However, I didn't really notice, mostly due to the fact I was intently searching the blue water for sharks, but I must confess partly due to nitrogen narcosis. Since I had continued descending but at the 45 degree angle, after I had continued down for another 30 feet, I was actually about 30 feet away from the bommie in blue water, instead of a few feet as I expected. Finally, two moderately large sharks appeared - not hammerheads, but 8 foot grey reef sharks. It was only then that I realized that I was a good distance away from the bommie itself, and instead of circling in front of both me and the bommie as the sharks usually do, they were circling around me -- basically between me and the bommie. Now, I no longer have that irrational fear of sharks I had when I was first certified, but I'm no fool -- I was 160 feet deep, noticeably affected by narcosis, I had two large sharks circling me, the bottom was at least another couple of hundred feet down, and I had no wall or bommie behind me. I decided that discretion being the better part of valor, I would be much happier if I had a bommie at my back.
Now at this point in the story I should point out that had this story been fiction, I would have had a much more exciting ending (to the story and/or to me). However, this being real-life, these sharks behaved as the vast majority of sharks behave the vast majority of the time: they kept their distance as I moved back in towards the wall. I, more comfortable now that I had a wall to my back, watched these two magnificent creatures until my Delphi started blinking at me to ascend.