HAPPY NEW YEAR! Nantucket Clipper is still docked at Marigot, St. Martin. Many people say that today is really the start of the new millenium, not last January first. So, to start the new millenium off with some excitement we’re going to swim with animals that many people are afraid of – sharks! Many people think sharks swim around looking for people to eat. This is not true. We met some people who are trying to educate people about sharks by taking them to meet the animals up close underwater! In Philipsburg, Dive Safaris has started a shark feeding-awareness program for scuba divers. They invited us to join them on a shark feeding. Our divemaster – and the head shark feeder – is Stada. Stada is a scuba diving instructor from Czechoslovakia. He takes us about two miles into the Caribbean Sea from Philipsburg on a small Dive Safaris boat. Stada brings shark food, called a chumsicle on the trip. A chumsicle is a bunch of fish blood and guts frozen solid in a pail – a popsicle for sharks! Sticking out the chumsicle is a rope with a snap hook on the end. When we get to the shark-feeding site, Stada clips the chumsicle on to a rope that is anchored to the bottom of the sea and drops the chumsicle into the water. As the chumsicle sinks to the bottom, Stada moves our boat about 100 feet and anchors. He moves the boat because if a bunch of sharks are eating the chumsicle, we don’t want to jump on top of them! After putting on our diving equipment, we jump into the water and follow Stada down to the bottom where he put the chumsicle. When we get to the food, we find six sharks already eating! The sharks are Caribbean reef sharks from three to six feet long. Even though we’re swimming right next to the chumsicle, the sharks are not paying any attention to us. They are just interested in the food. Other fish are eating the chumsicle, too, but the sharks do not pay any attention to the fish either. The sharks circle the chumsicle and bite is as they swim by. As we watch the sharks feeding, Stada watches from the side, holding a long plastic pole. If the sharks come to close to us, he’ll use the pole gently nudge them away. It takes the sharks 30 minutes to eat all of the chumsicle. After they’re done, they slowly swim away. The sharks are not interested in us! When we return to the boat after our exciting shark feeding dive, Stada tells us that Dive Safaris takes scuba-diving tourists to dive with sharks to prove the animals are not the scary, people-eating monsters that people see on TV or in the movies. Sharks are like underwater garbage collectors. They eat fish and other underwater animals that are sick, dying or dead. Eating all those sick and dead animals keeps the oceans clean and healthy, so other animals do not catch the same diseases. |
After Stada drops the chumsicle into the water, sharks and other fish come to eat it. Can you find the three sharks? The line you see is the rope the chumsicle is hooked to.
These Caribbean reef sharks are about six feet long. See the shark with the chumsicle in its mouth? The other fish are yellowtail snappers, except for the fish with the big black eyes, called a horse-eye jack.
Mr. Brown photographing three sharks. One shark is eating the chumsicle. Can you find all three sharks?
Staden watches the sharks as they feed. He holds a long plastic pole to gently nudge the sharks away if they come too close to us.
Sharks are like underwater garbage collectors. Can you find the six Caribbean reefs sharks in this picture? |
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January 1, 2001
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