Sport Diver Magazine Dives Shark Reef

The Bahamas are a lovely, but far flung place, and so photographer Justin Lewis and I, on assignment for Sport Diver Magazine, traveled by small plane between various islands.
Our last stop was Long Island, home to Stella Maris Resort. The dive operation at Stella Maris Resort is long-lived (44 years of family-run operation) and equivalently polished, but they haven’t lost their sense of fun. We spent two days diving aboard the Sol Mar II diving with Matt Thomas and Robert Coakley, guides who knew the local reefs intimately, and also knew how to have fun. We dove the wreck of the M.V. Comberbach and a reef called Barracuda Heads, yet another Bahamian blue-on-blue spot populated by horn-like badinga sponges and great barracuda and schools of fish that threw their cloud shadows on the sand.
For divers, a trip to the Bahamas isn’t complete without a shark dive. I have been on other shark dives, and they have all been attention-getting (there’s no other alternative), but they’re often crowded too. Our shark dive with Stella Maris was attended by four divers, making the shark to diver ratio about three to one. We knelt on the white sand bottom. Above our heads – in blue, blue water not unlike sky – lean Caribbean reef sharks made anticipatory loops: they knew what was coming. When the sharks finally fed - making darting strikes into the proffered chum bucket - it was an unanticipated emotion I felt. Feeding is serious business for any living organism, and sharks eat with eye-popping panache, but beneath the water there was a palpable sense of serenity. When they weren’t striking at the bucket of fish chunks, the sharks moved like syrup. Pronging down from overhead, the sun bestowed the arena with a cathedral light.
Turn a shark on its back and it will slip into a sleeplike state biologists call tonic immobility. I knew exactly how they felt.
--- Ken McAlpine

Shark Reef - A Long Island, Bahamas Attraction

Diving is one of the star attractions at Stella Maris Resort. The crystal clear seas off Long Island beckon with a vast array of dive sites rich with underwater life. There are literally hundreds of sites to explore in pristine waters along two coastlines studded with reefs and ringed with beaches. During summer through fall divers may enjoy lower rates and surprisingly moderate temperatures at this resort which has attracted new and experienced divers for over 30 years.

The resort is the originator of Shark diving in The Bahamas. Shark Reef supplies weekly excitement as divers have the opportunity to examine some 8 to 18 Caribbean reef sharks in their natural setting.

The excitement does not stop there; Stella Maris diving also encompasses Conception Island Wall, undeniably one of the most pristine diving experiences in any waters. The wall begins at a shelf at about 50 feet and drops off into the Atlantic providing, magnificent coral formation and sea life to explore. One of the newest additions to this prestigious line up is The Blue Hole. Surrounded by land and recorded as the worlds deepest, this dive site is a must for Blue Hole collectors.

The seas off Long Island offers a vast array of pristine dive sites along two coastlines (Atlantic and Exuma Bank) across just 1 mile of average land width. Stella Maris offers an incredible variety of sites ranging from literally hundreds of coral head and reef sites of the northwest lee side stretching over some 15 miles to some three dozen or more explored northeast Atlantic locations.

The resort tailors dive excursions to the experienced or the novice diver. Beginning divers can test the waters with a Resort Course or complete their PADI Open Water Certifications in gin clear waters alive with shallow water reefs.