Top Ten Spots for Experiencing Sharks

They say it is therapeutic to come face-to-face with fear. If that's the case, then diving cageless with reef sharks circling all around you is, perhaps, the most powerful dose of Prozac. Nassau attracts thousands of tourists every year who come to enjoy the corals and beautiful fish—but the desire to see something "big" has been increasingly on the rise. To satisfy shark seekers, many dive operations now guide curious travelers to prime locations where they can view gatherings of white or black reef tip sharks, from the comfort of the ocean floor.

The dive master dons chain mail before entering the water with bait to lure the hungry predators. That’s all it takes for the swarm to begin, while the audience below observes the feeding frenzy overhead. Luckily, all the focus is on the bait; the observers beneath them go unnoticed.

As with any tourist destination, the price can be quite hefty here. But the visibility of the Caribbean, and the unpredictability of the visitors you might encounter—anything from small reef sharks to the grand poo-bah of them all, the great white—it is no wonder that the Bahamas is pitched as the number one shark diving resort in the world.