Pat Ford on “Playing with Sharks”

Pat Ford – Author, Photographer

I’ve always been fascinated with sharks.  Most fishing encounters with sharks happen when the shark attacks whatever is on your line and the attacks are both awesome and savage, but that’s only one phase of a sharks existence.  Ninety percent of the time sharks are easy going and couldn’t care less about someone in the water with them.  If anything they stay away from you unless you’re dragging along a stringer of freshly speared fish.

Shark Diver Magazine’s Eli Martinez is doing everything he can to protect sharks and educate the public about how peaceful these creatures actually are.  I dove with Eli at Tiger Beach where we spent a week with tigers up to 1300 lbs plus lemons and Caribbean reef sharks but last January, I joined him off Bimini to dive with hammerheads. [Continue Reading]

I’d never been in the water with a great hammerhead before and it was amazing.  At one point we had 5 hammerheads between 250 and 700 lbs swimming with us plus a bunch of bull sharks that hung around just out of camera range.  Eli fed the T-Heads and watching them move among the divers was fascinating.  They can turn on a dime and would pass within inches of us repeatedly without showing any signs of aggression.  I hope these photos give you some idea of what an unforgettable experience this was.

You can learn more about Pat Ford by clicking here or visit his website: http://www.patfordphotos.com/

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