Shark Diving with Great Hammerheads

Off the coast of Bimini Island in the Bahamas you’ll find the sleek and beautiful great hammerhead shark. I spent a couple of days shark diving with the great hammerheads and here’s how you can see them too. Just don’t touch.

As an avid scuba diver I’m always looking for my next exciting dive. I’ve been diving in several locations now, a few of them more than once so I wanted to do something new.

Since the large majority of my dives have been reef dives, including the one where I almost drown, a few different options came to mind. Shark diving sat clearly at the top of the list. But what kind of shark?

With a rough date set, I began researching the different types of shark diving currently available. I had some general criteria for the type and location of dive I wanted.

I already had an Africa trip in the works so that was out, Australia was too far away for such a short trip, and I didn’t want to go to Mexico again so soon. This had me focusing on the Caribbean.

In the Caribbean there were a ton of options but the large majority were reef sharks, nurse sharks, and bull sharks. I’ve see them all more times than I can count.

I wanted something new that not everyone does while visiting some big flashy resort, but at the same time, I needed to be able to book it all on a week’s notice. Pack and Go!

The Verdict is in! Shark diving with Great Hammerheads!

Looking a little deeper I came across great hammerhead and tiger shark diving, both out of the Bahamas.

They each made fine choices and being super indecisive, I used the scientific method to make my decision. I posted an Instagram poll and diving with hammerheads won by a slim margin. I don’t think I could have been more pleased with the results.

Where and When to go Hammerhead Shark Diving

To go shark diving with great hammerheads *the common name of this particular hammerhead species – its scientific name being Sphyrna mokarran* in the Caribbean you have a very specific location and window of opportunity.

This dive only runs during the winter season from December to April, there is limited availability (yes, I lucked out), and it’s in a small area, North Bimini Island in The Bahamas. I would recommend you book this one well in advance.

This underwater safari as they call it, is offered by Neal Watson’s Bimini Scuba Center.

They aren’t the only operation that offers diving with great hammerhead sharks, but they were the first. In operation for almost 45 years, it was them, or more specifically the current owner’s father who first located the hammerhead site.

Neal’s crew was incredibly knowledgeable about the species and managed to locate the hammerheads in very short order.

The Conditions

The dive itself takes place at about twenty-five feet, with a very strong current. The current is so strong that a high amount of weight is required.

I ended up using twenty-eight pounds of weight while wearing a 3/2mm wetsuit which is insane, but it kept me planted in one spot.

Prior to this I had never used more than sixteen pounds, which is still a lot, and that was in a cold freshwater quarry with about 16+mm of rubber.

I’d like to note that the bottom was sand. I know that many people don’t like touching anything and I agree. (Don’t swim through those stupid freakin rock tunnels you see on reefs! Someone always bangs the sides!)

I asked my guide about this before we went down. We stayed in one specific spot and it was the equivalent of being on a beach.

I was still iffy on it, but without being pinned to the bottom, you weren’t participating in this dive.

The actual Shark Diving with Great Hammerheads. What’s it like?

After a safety talk which covers how to deal with the hammerheads and the plethora of nurse sharks, you’re ready to go.

Once you jump in the water, you follow the anchor line to the bottom where the dive master will already be set with the bait box.

This is to keep everyone in the predetermined spot. You then line up with everyone else to each side of the box and behind a three foot piece of PVC pipe that is stuck into the sand.

The pvc pipe is used for guiding/blocking the hammerheads away if they get too close. I didn’t use mine on any because I wanted them close.

As for the nurse sharks, there were probably about fifteen laying on the bottom. They would slowly creep closer and closer hoping to grab some of the bait.

Nurse sharks are docile, but you still need to keep an eye on them because they will bite in defense if threatened.

One bull shark showed up as well but it never came close before leaving. This was good because once one bull shark shows up, others usually follow.

They group up, and then take over the entire site as a pack, chasing off the loosely grouped hammers.

While your head will be on a swivel, there is a second guide in the water who stays behind the group as a sort of rear guard watching your back.

I feel like this was more to help guard against a pack of bulls coming from behind or for if a tiger shark decided to show up. Tiger sharks too? More on that below!

Great Hammerheads are huge!

Great Hammerheads are the largest of the hammerhead species, growing up to twenty feet long. So you will see them coming in this clear water.

They’re going to swim all around you. Often turning on a dime with so much force that you can feel the rush of water over the already strong current.

The dive master will make it even better by throw pieces of bait into the water in front of you. By doing this he’s able to lead them up and over your head. I fell on my butt once (all that weight!) while one buzzed me.

Then, every ten or so minutes, the guide will knock on the box as a signal and everyone rotates their positions. This ensures that everyone gets a chance to be as close to the bait as possible.

Remember how I said I lucked out? My group only had four divers but the group the following day had twelve. Book in advance! These dives do fill up.

Mind your air!

On the bottom you monitor your own air with nobody checking in to ask what you’ve got left. It is a slightly less than two hour dive and if you can last that long on one tank then have at it.

Otherwise, when you start getting low, signal to the dive master and follow the line back up for a quick tank swap.

This is what most people do.

Going in February, I was freezing! The water was cold so I burnt my air a lot faster than normal considering we weren’t moving. I swapped out at around 55 minutes.

I could have made it longer but I used this as an opportunity to change my GoPro battery and SD Card… Which promptly failed and required me to immediately get back out of the water. GoPros need dual card slots.

Two other divers swapped shortly after while the third, a visiting dive instructor from Brazil, stayed down the entire time on a single tank.

If you decide that you’ve seen enough, you’re free to just stay on the boat and forego the second tank.

After you’re all set with your new tank you jump back in and follow the line back down and to the group. We stayed on the bottom for around another forty to forty-five minutes before surfacing. I had plenty of air left so I was sad.

We saw five hammers but there are often more.

At the time of my surfacing to swap tanks there were three hammerheads below including a fifteen foot giant.

Upon returning, two more had shown up bringing our total to five of these beauties.

I wish I could have gotten a few pictures of all five together but they were so loosely grouped together that it just wasn’t in the cards. Who knows, maybe if the visibility had been better… Stupid rain.

Additional Dives

In addition to great hammerhead safaris, Neal Watson’s Bimini Scuba Center operates three dive boats, including a sixty foot glass bottom boat suited for divers, snorkelers, and sightseers.

Other available specialty dives are: wreck, wild dolphin, reef sharks, sting rays, white tip sharks and tiger sharks.

There is one tiger shark named Joker that occasionally shows up with the hammerheads. Don’t worry, she’s gentle. Tiger sharks have an unfair reputation.

With tigers, it’s more that when they get something in front of them, they’ll close their eyes and blindly chomp away rather than them actually going after humans like many people think.

Unfortunately Joker was a no show for us, but I was told that she had been showing up for several weeks prior my trip.

Want to see tigers but Joker was a no show? Neal’s team also offers off island expeditions to Tiger Beach for tiger shark diving and Cat Island for oceanic whitetip sharks.

Not scuba certified and still want to see sharks?

If Diving with great hammerheads is a bit out of your wheel house, ask about the bull shark cage. It’s off of a floating dock. You hop in the cage and breathe through a regulator that’s connected to a tank on the dock by a fifteen foot hose. While you’re in the cage, the bulls will swim all around you.

Don’t reach out though. Attacks are extremely rare anywhere in the world, but bull sharks are aggressive and considered to be one of, if not the most dangerous sharks to humans.

*This means don’t jump in the water at the marina. They’re all over the place.*

Dive Shop Alternatives

There is another dive shop on North Bimini called Bimini Undersea that also offers this expedition. Prices seem to be comparable, but at the time of writing, it appears from their availability calendar that they only offer it on the weekend.

This may only be because the season was ending, I’m not sure.

If you don’t want to stay on Bimini you can also go through a dive shop in Nassau or Freeport. Several offer hammerhead expeditions but they’re going to take you to the same spot, off the coast of Bimini.

Should you go with them, you can expect to pay a much higher cost, less availability (upon checking there were only 2 trips listed per month) and less flexibility.

With Bimini Scuba Center you can do hammerhead trips of as little as 1 day but the off island shops lock you into something longer, presumably due to the logistics.

Getting To Bimini

North Bimini isn’t a difficult island to reach but it’s far from the easiest, or the cheapest.

As such, you have a few options for getting there which vary depending on the cost and level of novelty you’re looking for.

Easiest:

Book a flight from anywhere to Bimini (BIM) which will first bring you to Fort Lauderdale (FLL). From there you’ll transfer to a Silver Airways plane for a quick forty five minute jump to South Bimini Airport.

The Silver Airways flights are small so expect a layover. I had twelve other people on my Silver flight there with only six fellow passengers on the way back.

The option to fly to Bimini from Miami does exist, but when I checked at the time of writing, there were only one or two flights listed for the entire month with some months completely blank.

I’m not sure how long you’re looking to stay there but I doubt it’s an entire month.

Alternatives:

​Already in the Bahamas and want to go diving with hammerhead sharks? Book a direct flight from Nassau (NAS) to Bimini via Western Air. I did this when I had returned to the Bahamas to dive at Tiger Beach.

Regrettably, the weather completely washed out all diving on that trip,

Western Air is another small airline that specializes on flights throughout The Bahamas, Caribbean, Central and South America so again, flight options will be limited.

Most Novel:

Want to arrive looking the part of an adventurer or get some great pictures? Book a Sea Plane! Tropic Ocean Air Sea Plane Service offers sea planes from either Fort Lauderdale (Sheltair) or from Miami (Watson Island).

While fun, a one way flight will cost you around the same amount as the Silver Airways round-trip.

Cheapest:

Sea Plane too small for your comfort? Take a FRS Caribbean ferry boat from Miami to Bimini. It should be noted that this ferry does not run every day and there is only one set departure time from each location)

There is also a slight chance of the ferry being canceled due to high seas. If this happens you could be left with the sea plane as your only choice given the lack of other flights.

BUT if the seas are calm and the limited schedule fits your main flights to and from Miami, this is your cheapest option.

I would have done this but I couldn’t find anything leaving (MIA) late enough in the day for the ferry to work with my schedule.

In retrospect, I could have taken the ferry there and then flown back to Fort Lauderdale. It still would have been cheaper than a Silver Airways round-trip. Prices fluctuate but a one way ticket seems to be in the $75-$80 range for economy.

Most Expensive:

If you’re a baller you might want to book a private charter from Florida. There are several charter companies such as EvoJets and Island Air Charters that operate flights from Florida to Bimini. Expect to pay a heck of a lot.

Travel Hack:

Book a direct flight to Fort Lauderdale (FLL) and then separately, book a flight from Fort Lauderdale to Bimini. This is what I did. Your layover will probably be longer, but if you’re able to piece it together, you can save yourself a bit of money.

I managed to save a little over $100 by booking this way. Just remember, the Silver Airways flights are very limited given the size of the airline so this may or may not always work.

I spent quite a bit of time on Skyscanner trying to find the cheapest flight combo.

Getting to Neal Watson’s Bimini Scuba Center

From Bimini International Airport (BIM) located on South Bimini Island, you first need to clear customs and immigration. After you that you’ll step outside and several local taxis will be sitting around.

They’ll ask where you’re going and then point you to the taxi you need.

For me, to get to North Bimini, it was the shuttle bus which takes you on a short ride (approx. ten minutes long) to the South Bimini Ferry Dock. Cost for the taxi was $5. You then take a short ferry ride to North Bimini for another $5.

Once on North Bimini, it all depends on where you’re staying.

There will be taxis waiting to pick people up at the dock but since I stayed at Bimini Big Game Club and this is where the Neal’s scuba center is located, I opted to walk the ten minutes there.

Walking from the ferry is a great way to see the island!

These taxis are all readily available so there is no need to book ahead of time.

Depending on availability and the time of day, your ferry captain may be able to drop you off directly at Bimini Big Game Club for a small additional fee.

I didn’t ask about this because I wanted to see what the town looked like.

As a male, the walk felt safe and nobody bothered me. Later, when I walked to the end of the island to take a few pictures, I had one person offering to, “get me anything I needed” (if you catch my drift) but that was it.

If you’re staying at Resort World Bimini (the most popular place to stay) you’ll need to take a different ferry. Just tell them where you’re staying they they’ll point you to the correct boat. From there it’s a thirty-five or so minute walk to the Bimini Scuba Center.

Cost

The cost is entirely dependent on what you want to do and where you choose to stay but this article is about diving with great hammerheads and there are hammerhead shark diving packages available through Bimini Big Game.

These packages can include multiple dives as well as lodging, but they seem to change, especially for the stay and dive packages so I’d inquire with them directly.

A single Great Hammerhead Dive:

Safari Cost: $299 + 12% VAT tax *includes tanks and weights* (at the time of writing)

Once your dives and rooms have been booked and you’re on the island, food will be your biggest expense. Remember, it’s a small, isolated island so everything has to be shipped in which drives prices way up. For example, I paid $5.50 for a small jar of peanut butter and this was in 2020.

Final Thoughts

These hammerhead sharks are absolutely stunning. So much so that I even adopted them as my part of my logo!

I’m always looking for something new and not generally one to do repeats of anything. But if given the opportunity, I would gladly go diving with hammerheads again.

The visibility wasn’t the greatest during my dives due to torrential rains the prior day but I was still able to enjoy everything. A group I met who went before the rain stated that the water was so clear that you could spot a quarter on the bottom.

While you can book as little as one day of diving, I would recommend booking at least 3 because as with any dive trip, you never know what’s going to happen in regards to the weather.

I did have one day where all of my dives were canceled due to the wind. The winds in the area usually come from a direction that allows the island to act as a buffer and protect the dive sites.

Unfortunately, an unusual downpour brought the storm in from the opposite direction. The water was very choppy as a result.

Neal told me that this rarely happens and it was just some very bad luck.

In exchange he let everyone who had a dive booked go in the bull shark tank free of charge. Thankfully, the wind clocked and we were able to dive the following day. While we were out there it was still super choppy so I can only imagine how it must have been.

Overall, in spite of the canceled dives, I still give the experience of shark diving with hammerheads a solid 5 stars.

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