Swimming with bull sharks: Cuba’s underwater tourism bet

Ken Gargett · November 26, 2022

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Swimming with bull sharks: Cuba’s underwater tourism bet

Updated 3:25 AM EST, Sun November 20, 2022

Playa Santa Lucía, CubaCNN —

The shark turns and swims directly at me.

There is only open water between us, no cage to protect against the approaching bull shark, the species considered by many scientists to be the most aggressive in the world.

I am beginning to have second thoughts about this assignment.

Before we entered the ocean, Oromelio “Oro” Rodriguez Salabarría, the Cuban scuba instructor next to me, swore he never had a client bitten by a shark. Not even a mordisco or a nibble.

I had hired local guides and spent weeks dealing with different entities inside Cuba’s sprawling bureaucracy to arrange a dive with these sharks. The government-run Shark Friends Dive Center, in the remote Cuban beach town of Playa Santa Lucía, is the only place in the country, one of a handful in the world, where divers can swim with bull sharks.

With more than 350 teeth, a muscular appearance and the occasional propensity to attack boats and people, bull sharks have a fearsome reputation. Still, attacks on humans are rare – while people regularly kill bull sharks for their fins, liver and skin.

Increasingly, some governments though – including here in Cuba – are looking to protect sharks and capitalize on the high of a close encounter, no longer fearing sharks will scare visitors off beaches, but will actually attract them. The Cuban government is promoting package tours where visitors experience the island’s iconic old cars and cigars followed by a dive with the toothy predators.

“People come to Cuba from around the world to swim with the sharks,” said Dan Whittle, senior director at Environmental Defense Fund, a non-profit group that in 2015 worked with the Cuban government, local scientists and fisheries to implement greater protections for marine life on the island.

“A live shark in the water in some of these national parks is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars,” he said. He estimates that shark tourism in Cuba adds up to millions of dollars annually.

Before the pandemic, the dive center in Playa Santa Lucía used to attract shark buffs from around the world.

Riccardo Lombardo/REDA&CO/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

Oro, a gray-haired, gravelly voiced scuba instructor with more than 20 years experience guiding shark dives, is enthusiastic about the appeal. “It’s the myth of the shark being dangerous, a maneater, that it is aggressive,” Oro says.

“Then you manage to see a shark a meter and a half away and when you come out of the water, you say, ‘This the best dive of my life!’”

A growing industry

Tour operators in the Bahamas have already discovered what a big business shark diving can be. According to a study in Biological Conservation, in 2014, divers visiting the Bahamas to swim with sharks contributed over $100 million to the local economy there.

While shark tourism in Cuba is a much smaller operation, guides are hopeful that the island’s pristine reefs and increased efforts to safeguard the approximately 100 species of native sharks will draw visitors who so far have been slow to return since the pandemic.

Cuba is looking to protect its sharks -- and capitalize on the high of a close encounter.

Shark Friends Dive Center Playa Santa Lucia, Cuba

02 bull sharks

Shark Friends Dive Center Playa Santa Lucia, Cuba

Before Covid, the dive center in Playa Santa Lucía used to attract shark buffs from around the world, guides said. Now clients are scant. Carrie Prevost, a Canadian tourist, was one of only a handful of recent visitors to opt to go swimming with the bull sharks.

“It’s a world I don’t belong in, and it’s very exciting to have opportunity to do this. I am both excited and nervous at the same time,” she told CNN.

As she suited up in dive gear for her first attempt to see the sharks, Prevost admitted that the theme song from the movie “Jaws” was playing in her head.

“I watched the movie very young, and I was afraid to swim in pools, let alone the ocean, so this is a challenge to overcome,” she said.

Marine biologists say that despite the widespread publicity that attacks on humans can generate, sharks usually do not present any danger and are necessary to maintain healthy reefs and fish populations.

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Shark diving guides have worked to educate the local population on this point, making the case to local fishermen that the sharks can bring a tangible economic benefit.

“We tell residents not to kill them, not to fish for them. We are always working on that,” said scuba guide Lazaro Suarez Zayas. “The bull shark is not in danger of extinction, but it’s from this area, and we use it as a natural resource so we should protect them.”

Some guides, proud of their connection to the animals, say they believe the sharks recognize them.

As soon as he gets in the water for our dive with the sharks, Lazaro quickly spears a few snappers. He says he wants to draw in the sharks but not overstimulate them.

At a depth of more than 80 feet underwater, we swim by the wreck of a Spanish ship that sank more than a century ago and Lazaro turns to me and makes the sign of a fin on top his head with one of his hands.

At first, I don’t see anything in the piercing blue water. Then a bull shark emerges into view.

We sit on the bottom of the ocean floor as the shark circles around. It is longer than I am. Another shark arrives and the two quickly gobble up the fish that Lazaro dispatched. He feeds the fish directly into the sharks’ mouths, withdrawing his hand at the last moment before their teeth close down.

Bull sharks have a fearsome reputation, but attacks on humans are rare.

Shark Friends Dive Center Playa Santa Lucia, Cuba

The larger shark fixes its midnight black eyes on me and heads in my direction. I remember what the guides said about not panicking, swimming off or thrashing in a way that would give the shark the impression I am injured or easy prey.

Even as my pulse quickens, it’s hard not to admire an animal so clearly in its element. The shark swims behind me. I swivel my head while motioning the “ok” sign to Lazaro and Oro.

It’s just checking me out… I think.

For a few brief seconds, the circling shark holds my full attention as if there were nothing else in the world. Will it attack or come in for an even closer look? What can the guides really do to protect me?

It is exhilarating to be just feet away – just as the guides promised me, this is already one of the best dives of my life. Thankfully, the fascination I feel for the shark isn’t mutual.

After a few close passes, the shark loses interest and slowly swims away.

Bill Hayes · November 28, 2022

Bull sharks are most dangerous in shallow dirty/brakish water where they use their senses to detect movement etc. They will take swimmers in waist deep water in Aus. A girl got taken a few years back just paddling. They can swim up estuaries and can survive in fresh water. I wouldn't be swimming in the Brisbane river or Gold Coast canals that's for sure. But in clear water they are far more behaved and in some places are hand fed. Would be an interesting tourism opportunity for Cuba but I would be hesitant to trust any of the equipment they would supply for scuba. Bringing your own gear would be far too much of a hassle. Good diving around Cuba apparently, and Fidel used to like spearfishing I heard. Cheers

KCCubano · November 28, 2022

53 minutes ago, Bill Hayes said:

Bull sharks are most dangerous in shallow dirty/brakish water where they use their senses to detect movement etc. They will take swimmers in waist deep water in Aus. A girl got taken a few years back just paddling. They can swim up estuaries and can survive in fresh water. I wouldn't be swimming in the Brisbane river or Gold Coast canals that's for sure. But in clear water they are far more behaved and in some places are hand fed. Would be an interesting tourism opportunity for Cuba but I would be hesitant to trust any of the equipment they would supply for scuba. Bringing your own gear would be far too much of a hassle. Good diving around Cuba apparently, and Fidel used to like spearfishing I heard. Cheers

Ha! No way in hell would I trust their outdated equipment! Yes Bulls are very adaptive. They have swam up Mississippi River as far as St Louis. Thats a haul from the Gulf!

Ken Gargett · November 28, 2022

2 hours ago, Bill Hayes said:

Bull sharks are most dangerous in shallow dirty/brakish water where they use their senses to detect movement etc. They will take swimmers in waist deep water in Aus. A girl got taken a few years back just paddling. They can swim up estuaries and can survive in fresh water. I wouldn't be swimming in the Brisbane river or Gold Coast canals that's for sure. But in clear water they are far more behaved and in some places are hand fed. Would be an interesting tourism opportunity for Cuba but I would be hesitant to trust any of the equipment they would supply for scuba. Bringing your own gear would be far too much of a hassle. Good diving around Cuba apparently, and Fidel used to like spearfishing I heard. Cheers

a few years back, was watching a doco on bull sharks. settled in and the very first scenes looked familiar. then i realised that it was the brizzy river, directly outside one of my best mate's houses. was not an aussie doco but apparently southeast Qld and cuba are two of the world's best places for bulls. another over in northeast africa. the mate mentioned below was telling me how soldiers would swim in pools protected by sandbanks from the surf, to cool off. the bulls learnt to surf over the banks on incoming tides and hit the soldiers and then surf back out. they are not stupid.

bull sharks are nasty pieces of work (ditto tigers). mate of mine headed up the queensland shark program - if anyone has ever seen river monsters, he is in that, fishing with jeremy wade. some of the stories he told me were terrifying. not sure if it is the same girl, bill, but he was telling me about one near moreton, i think, in a small channel. this was not brackish. clear water. said that they 'gloved' this poor girl. basically they swallow the arm and it comes out with only bone left. did both arms. poor girl never stood a chance. but that was just one of the stories he told me - we spent a week fishing on Christmas Is - and by the end, i was not going near a bath tub. needless to say, these days, he rarely puts a toe in the water.

one interesting thing was the shark nets. he was also in charge of them. said a third of the sharks they catch have been caught on the beach side of the net.

also, apparently dolphins are not nearly as clever as we are told. there was one dolphin up near noosa which had been caught on the shark lines they put out - great long lines with a giant hook and lump of flesh every so many yards. this dolphin, which they freed, had been caught not once but 37 times. so not a quick learner or mind of a goldfish?

Bill Hayes · November 28, 2022

Sounds like the same girl @Ken Gargett Was horrifying to hear about. I've seen bull sharks in the outer barrier reef and in the Solomons. I think they hand feed them somewhere in Fiji but wouldn't be turning my back on them. They are nasty pieces of work. Also swam with Tiger Sharks in the Coral Sea and was charged by a hungry 3.5m male and luckily live to tell the tale, thanks to the support boat. Tigers are ok until they aren't then it's a whole different level. Big flat heads and side to side movement with the jaws with angled teeth in opposite directions in upper and lower jaws so they can saw through turtles like tasty fish tacos! Ha ha!

Ken Gargett · November 28, 2022

3 minutes ago, Bill Hayes said:

Sounds like the same girl @Ken Gargett Was horrifying to hear about. I've seen bull sharks in the outer barrier reef and in the Solomons. I think they hand feed them somewhere in Fiji but wouldn't be turning my back on them. They are nasty pieces of work. Also swam with Tiger Sharks in the Coral Sea and was charged by a hungry 3.5m male and luckily live to tell the tale, thanks to the support boat. Tigers are ok until they aren't then it's a whole different level. Big flat heads and side to side movement with the jaws with angled teeth in opposite directions in upper and lower jaws so they can saw through turtles like tasty fish tacos! Ha ha!

bill, don't know if you recall that nightmare on the reef - like a movie - many years ago when a fishing boat went down. crew of 5-6 i think (may be 4). including the ex girlfriend of one of my editors, though i did not know him at the time. he told me the story a few years later. they managed to clamber into a large fishing esky which floated, in the hope of rescue. but not everyone could fit. so they took turns in being in the esky and hanging on. tiger found them. took the first one a day or two after they went down. came back a day or so later. kept coming back. eventually only one or possibly two, but i think it was just one, survived until they were found. the ex was one of those taken. horrific stuff.

Fuzz · November 28, 2022

6 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

bill, don't know if you recall that nightmare on the reef - like a movie - many years ago when a fishing boat went down. crew of 5-6 i think (may be 4). including the ex girlfriend of one of my editors, though i did not know him at the time. he told me the story a few years later. they managed to clamber into a large fishing esky which floated, in the hope of rescue. but not everyone could fit. so they took turns in being in the esky and hanging on. tiger found them. took the first one a day or two after they went down. came back a day or so later. kept coming back. eventually only one or possibly two, but i think it was just one, survived until they were found. the ex was one of those taken. horrific stuff.

Back in the early 80s? Somewhere around Townsville?

Corylax18 · November 28, 2022

Thanks for posting Ken! I've actually been looking at doing this for the last couple years. But this little "town" is about a 10 hour drive from Havana, so the logistics have been a nightmare. There hasnt really been any domestic air travel in Cuba since 2019.

I do have 28 Dives in Cuba though. Mostly in Bay of Pigs, but I spent a few days out in Maria la Gorda on the far western tip of the island this summer. No sharks, but loads of Rays, Fish, Coral, Invertebrates, Etc. Maria la Gorda is about 5-6 hours drive each way from Havana, but PdR is smack in the middle and makes for a perfect over night stop in either direction.

The diving down there is AMAZING, the total lack of commercial fishing and a real dive industry have left most of their reefs in amazing condition. You still see huge pockets of bleaching but, for the most part, its still a very healthy ecosystem.

I still havent had a chance to edit/upload any of my videos from this summer, but I posted a couple photos from my last trip and a video of a Cenote dive down to about 42m/140' in Bay of Pigs.

BoP dive: