Honolulu, HI

When my wife and were looking for a thrill on the island of Oahu, we thought of one thing: shark cage diving! There are two shark dive operations on the north shore, based in Haleiwa. We went out with Hawaii Shark Encounters. We left early in the morning from the Haleiwa small boat harbor.

After a short ride in a fast speedboat we arrived at a spot about three miles offshore where a shark cage was already tethered to a buoy and bobbing in the swells. There were about a dozen shark divers on the boat that morning, all snorkelers; FYI: this outfit does not do scuba diving. After a pre-dive safety and informational briefing about how to enter the cage and what types of sharks we’d likely be seeing, it was time to enter the water!

The cage itself is large enough to comfortably hold six snorkelers at a time. It is basically a large rectangle with metal bars on the bottom and lower sides, but the upper three feet or so is a plexiglass sheet with no bars—thus affording an unobstructed view. Several large floats on the top of the cage make it float atop the waves, and the boat is tethered to the cage during the dive. My wife and I were in the second group of six to enter the cage. Each group has thirty minutes in the water. While on the boat, we had a good view of the sharks that gathered after chum was placed in the water.

The most commonly kind of shark seen was called a sandbar shark. These are your typical gray, predatory-looking sharks-on-the-prowl. We were also lucky enough to see a couple of large Galapagos sharks. Every now and then, the boat crew told us they see the much bigger (and more dangerous) tiger sharks, and even less frequently than that—the mighty great white, but we didn’t see any of those on our trip. It was really cool to watch the sharks thrashing around and cruising on the surface of the water while we waited our turn for the cage.

Finally we entered the cage, cameras in hand, and wow, was it exciting! Seeing the sharks swim by so close underwater was just amazing. Sometimes they swam straight at the cage before veering off, and other times they just swam a lazy circle around the cage. Some sharks would come up from the bottom, which was a little scary, because there are open bars on the bottom, so you have to watch your feet!

The half-hour in the cage went by in the blink of an eye. My wife’s only complaint was that the water was cold! This is because we were three miles offshore in deep, open water. I wore a lycra top and some light gloves.

Besides sharks, we also saw other fish such as schooling baitfish and these cool trumpetfish that would hang out in the shade of the cage.

After taking lots of awesome pictures and video, we climbed out of the cage back into the boat. Everyone was simply amazed at how unique of an experience this was. And there were all kinds of people participating—old, young, and in between. Some, like us, were experienced divers, while others were from the midwest and had never even been snorkeling before! What a first time! All in all, it was a fantastic experience, highly recommended.

Tips & info:
Hawaii Shark Encounters: http://www.hawaiisharkencounters.com/
North Shore Shark Adventures: http://www.sharktourshawaii.com/
-Bring a waterproof camera even if you have to buy one of those disposable ones!