It’s Valentine’s Day and not everybody wants a bouquet of flowers and chocolates from their loved one. For shark lovers and adventurous divers, there are some great liveaboards to choose from to share time with your dive buddy for life and show a little shark love in 2018.
Diving with great white sharks from Nautilus Belle Amie in Guadalupe
Here are our top 5 liveaboards for shark lovers:
Guadalupe Island, Baja California
This wouldn’t be a shark diving article without mentioning the premier place to dive with great white sharks. Guadalupe liveaboards offer the opportunity to get up close and personal with great whites in calm, crystal clear and turquoise waters. Other great white diving locations have cooler water temperatures, but Guadalupe’s water temperature is a relatively warm 19 to 22 degrees Celsius. This makes it easier to spend longer in the water with these magnificent sharks. The shark diving season is approximately July to December, with the larger female sharks appearing in October and November. Liveaboards depart from San Diego and there are a variety of Guadalupe liveaboard diving vessels available. Divers looking for luxury should consider the custom-built Nautilus Belle Amie; complete with soundproofing for better sleep, premium suites, and a fantastic food and wine selection.
Nautilus Belle Amie Guadalupe
Ari Atoll, Maldives
Ari Atoll is the most reliable Maldives location for whale shark diving, as well as being great for manta rays, reefs sharks and turtles. The dive sites are dominated by thilas, or pinnacles, and kandus, which are current-filled channels from the open ocean that attract large marine life. Maamgili Beyru in the southern part of Ari Atoll is great for juvenile whale sharks year-round, with balmy water temperatures of 26 to 29 degrees Celsius. There are numerous Ari Atoll liveaboard diving vessels to choose from and divers looking for serious luxury and pampering should consider the Scubaspa Ying, complete with six full-time spa therapists.
Encounter whale sharks from Scubaspa Ying
Room with a view: A treatment room aboard Scubaspa Ying
Tiger Beach, Bahamas
Tiger Beach is fantastic for diving with tiger sharks and is just an hour off the coast of Grand Bahama Island. With no current, great visibility, and dive depths of 6 to 30 meters, it is easy diving with some of the world’s most characterful sharks. October to January are the peak months for tiger sharks, though they are present year-round. Divers can also enjoy nurse sharks, Caribbean reef sharks, and lemon sharks. The Bahamas Master has tiger shark and dolphin combination safaris; visiting Tiger Beach and White Sand Ridge, which is famous for dolphin encounters.
Photo: Robert Wilpernig. Courtesy of Bahamas Master
Bahamas Master
Monad Shoal, Malapascua, Philippines
Monad shoal is an underwater island at 20 meters depth, famed for its thresher shark encounters. With thresher sharks being critically endangered, this is one of the few areas in the world where divers have a high chance of seeing these shy and cautious sharks. The Monad shoal acts as a cleaning station for thresher sharks visiting in the early morning, so expect to be in the water at dawn. The current and depth at Monad Shoal make it more suited to advanced divers and nitrox diving is recommended. Liveaboard diving there is possible year-round and the water temperature is consistently warm, at 24 to 30 degrees Celsius. The beautiful S/Y Philippine Siren yacht is perfect for a luxurious liveaboard and offers Monad Shoal as a destination.
Philippine Siren
Malpelo Island, Colombia
Malpelo Island is a tiny island in the East Pacific Ocean, accessed by Panama liveaboard diving. It has a well-deserved reputation for abundant schooling sharks, though is less well-known than its equivalent at Cocos Island in Costa Rica. Divers at Malpelo can enjoy large schools of hammerhead sharks, silky sharks, and numerous free-swimming moray eels. Divers may also see Galapagos sharks, sandtiger sharks, and whale sharks. The sea conditions of this wild and remote dive area can make it challenging and great for drift dives. The peak dive season is May to September, with silky sharks arriving in large numbers during July and August. Only one liveaboard dive cruise is allowed at this UNESCO World Heritage Site at any one time, making it a crowd-free shark diving experience.
Discover more liveaboard diving holiday solutions around the world at Liveaboard.com.
