No other animal in the ocean elicits such a strong mix of emotion. As divers, awe and intrigue are top of mind when we encounter sharks. For many who have not witnessed the beauty and grace of these animals, nor learned of their vulnerability, what arises is fear. But that’s the thing about sharks: The more frequently one encounters them in their natural environment, the more we can’t help but feel admiration and respect.

It’s not about fear at all, but a desire to get closer and understand more deeply. At these eight destinations, divers and even swimmers can do exactly that when they enter into the worlds and minds of these undeniably complex predators.

AUSTRALIA

Sooner or later, the animal outsmarts the process. What nobody in Port Lincoln, South Australia, saw coming was the white sharks gaming the system in a way that benefited both the sharks and the humans who come to see them.

“Some of the sharks get a bit clever,” says Dean Spraakman, an underwater cinematographer and regular Shark Week contributor based in the city of Adelaide. “They figure out that if they breach from underneath they get the bait every time.”

The result? Every day of his three-week charter with locally based liveaboard operator Rodney Fox Shark Expeditions, Spraakman saw 15-foot females breaching off the back of the boat. “It’s a dream to see a 5-meter shark right in front of you, midair,” he says. “I had to pinch myself—I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

The best time of day to witness the behavior is at twilight, when the sun is low and visibility from the surface down into the water is limited at best. “The sharks really love it,” Spraakman says.

Of course, divers also want the thrills of seeing white sharks in the water. A unique feature of the 18-passenger M/V Rodney Fox is that one of the shark cages offers ocean-floor diving, carrying three scuba-certified guests along with a dive professional to 66 feet of depth. In this setup, divers witness sharks overhead, as well as from every side. The second cage aboard offers surface diving, open to anyone age 8 and above, no dive certification required—making shark diving available for anyone and everyone.

DEAN SPRAAKMAN is an Adelaide, Australia-based underwater cinematographer. His work has appeared in the Discovery Channel Shark Week program Mega Sharks of Dangerous Reef about the white sharks of South Australia. He contributed to Great White Fight Club, which looked to answer whether female white sharks in New Zealand waters dominate the males. Spraakman has also worked as an underwater cameraman for the shows Bull Shark Bandits and Super Shark Highway.

WHEN TO GO Year-round, with April to July considered the best season. December and January also bring big numbers of sharks.

CONDITIONS Visibility can be up to 60 feet. Water temperatures average around 60 to 66 degrees.

OPERATOR Rodney Fox Shark Expeditions (rodneyfox.com.au)

BAHAMAS

It makes sense that Stuart Cove’s Dive Bahamas, the dive company that helped to pioneer shark diving, not only offers some of the best introductory predator dives but also one of the most hair-raising shark experiences on the planet for advanced divers.

By request only—and that request can be made by a single diver—this operator offers a night dive to one of its regular feeding sites off Nassau, including Runway or Shark Arena, for an experience in pitch darkness.

It’s a dive that Mark Rackley, a Florida-based underwater cinematographer and Shark Week shooter of 20 years, took on while filming. “It’s super eerie to be down at 60 feet, with sharks all around you, and you can’t see that far in front of you,” he says.

The only time these Caribbean reef sharks are visible is when they cross into the beams of divers’ lights.

“It’s super eerie to be down at 60 feet, with sharks all around you, and you can’t see that far in front of you.” —UNDERWATER CINEMATOGRAPHER MARK RACKLEY

“Your skin is crawling because you know that they are all around you, and you can’t see them,” says Stuart Cove, owner of the operation.

The PADI Five Star Dive Center has a perfect safety record, but that doesn’t mean the survival brain stays calm through the experience.

It’s the swim down to the site and then again back up to the boat that can be unnerving. “It reminds me of reading in bed when you’re a kid and you get up to turn the light off and you have that 20 feet with the light off and you fear the boogeyman might come.”

“Once you’re on the bottom, you can pick the sharks out with your light and everything is cool again,” says Cove.

WHEN TO GO Year-round.

CONDITIONS Visibility by day is 100 feet; at night, viz is limited to the power of your underwater light. Water temperatures average from the mid-70s in winter to the mid-80s in summer.

REQUIREMENTS You need only be open-water certified and have completed a daytime dive to one of the shark sites in order to book the night dive.

OPERATOR Stuart Cove’s Dive Bahamas (stuartcove.com)

SOUTH AFRICA

False Bay, off Cape Town, South Africa—where the Atlantic meets the Indian Ocean—is the roulette of shark diving due to the diversity of species that call this dynamic area home.

White sharks established the destination as a cagediving hotspot, with operators including Apex Shark Expeditions running day trips as well as five- to 10-day sailings.

Trips typically start near Seal Island, which stretches 5 acres and serves as ground zero for sharks thanks to a population of more than 64,000 shark McNuggets—er, cape fur seals. The Apex Expeditions vessel lowers a floating surface cage and starts towing the seal decoys. Then you wait. Until— “They just show up in your face,” says underwater cinematographer Mark Rackley. “The animals are so massive and unpredictable.”

For most people, the feelings that bubble up are a mix of thrill and fear. “What makes this experience so incredible is to go face to face with a great white and not get killed,” says Rackley. “I didn’t sleep for three days after I first filmed great whites, I was so excited.”

In recent years, white shark populations have been on the decline due to overfishing and increased numbers of orcas, known to send these predators fleeing. Meanwhile, a variety of other shark species have taken their slot in the food chain and in the tourism circuits. The current lineup known to drop in on False Bay tours includes sevengill sharks, bronze whalers, makos and blue sharks.

The latter two species are also the focus of PADI Career Development Center Pisces Divers’ pelagic magic dive, a daytime trip to blue water for an open-ocean, cage-free guided snorkel or scuba dive.

Blue sharks, thin like cigars with saucerlike black eyes, are especially curious, zipping up to visitors and darting away at the last second.

Bronze whalers, aka copper sharks, are a schooling species seen during Apex cage dives and sometimes gathering by the dozen.

Born and raised in the Florida Keys, MARK RACKLEY is a waterman who has been behind the camera filming wildlife for more than 30 years. His work has been seen on Animal Planet, Discovery, History, National Geographic and MTV. He started at 19 as a spearfishermen, then grabbed a camera and never put it down. Drawn to working with predators, including swimming outside the cage with white sharks, he says, “I’m not like normal people.”

WHEN TO GO Peak season for white sharks is mid-June to mid-July. For bronze whalers, it’s September to April. Pelagic magic is offered November to June.

CONDITIONS Water temps dip to 65 degrees in June and July. December and January bring temps of 80 degrees.

REQUIREMENTS Guests must be at least 8 years of age.

OPERATORS Apex Shark Expeditions (apexpredators.com); Pisces Divers (piscesdivers.co.za)

COLOMBIA

Maybe it’s the fact that the Seaflower Biosphere Reserve protects the waters surrounding the island of Providencia, Colombia. Maybe it’s that this still under-the-radar dive destination is shared more by word-of-mouth than flashy advertisements. No matter the reason, know this: Providencia is home to still-healthy coral reefs, and in turn, legions of Caribbean reef sharks.

“Every day you can dive with sharks because they are here every day,” says Karol Yela, PADI AmbassaDiver and divemaster with Sirius Dive Shop. “Of the more than 30 dive sites, 20 of them regularly have sharks,” she estimates.The island stands out not just for the frequency of shark sightings, but also for the proximity of the sharks’ approach. “It’s amazing how close they get to you—you can just feel their energy,” she says.

Providencia’s shark population is continually growing, exemplifying what health and abundance look like. Yela has even encountered juvenile reef sharks just 24 inches long. “I had never seen that before,” she says. That baby was in a pack with three medium sharks, each 3 feet long.

And species diversity on the reef means there’s always the chance for a surprise, including the occasional tiger shark encounter. The most recent meeting was with a tiger that spanned more than 15 feet, swimming with Yela and her group of divers for more than 30 minutes. “He was looking at us with curiosity the whole time,” she says.

The tiger, like other sharks local to the marine park, edged within touching range of the group.“That’s really the wow factor,” says Yela. “Our guests say the biggest surprise is that the sharks swim up so close—it’s amazing.”

KAROL YELA is a PADI AmbassaDiver for Colombia. Back in 2022, she quit her job with the Ministry of Sports to compete in the Colombia reality TV show Desafio against 43 other athletes, coming in third overall. Today, she works as a divemaster, enjoying the beach and ocean every day. Yela can be found on Instagram @KarolYela01.

WHEN TO GO Year-round

CONDITIONS Visibility can range from 60 to 100 feet. Average water temperature is 81 degrees.

OPERATOR Sirius Dive Shop (siriusdiveshop.com)

Related Reading: How Captive Breeding is Helping Shark Conservation

BELIZE

Shark Ray Alley is where you’ll see the biggest numbers—dozens at a time—of nurse sharks off Ambergris Caye, Belize, but it’s the everyday reef dives where you’ll witness this species’ most curious behavior.

When the Caribbean began seeing a rise of voracious nonendemic lionfish, nurse sharks adapted at lightning speed, learning that divers would hunt on their behalf. “They seem to be saying, ‘Could you spear that for me?’” says Rachel Graham, executive director of MarAlliance, a conservation organization focused on the preservation of threatened marine species.

Nurse sharks in Belize have learned to wait patiently outside any reef hole that a diver thrusts a spear into. Over time, their expectations have widened. “Now nurse sharks see any stick and think, yum—so that’s occasionally a yum for GoPros and yum for strobes,” she says.

Entertaining as it may be to draw a captive shark audience, this arrangement isn’t helpful for the health of these animals. Instead, the best practice would be to store any speared lionfish in a catch container and refrain from reinforcing the behavior.

This unique behavior contrasts their reputation as a “couch potato” shark, as Graham calls them due to their daytime resting patterns in unfed populations.

It’s a species that she finds remarkable. “Their strength and flexibility are tremendous,” she says of this species that is closely related to the whale shark. “People don’t realize how graceful they are and their ability to bend and bite their tail, which helps them wiggle in and out of tight coral spaces,” a maneuver most sharks cannot do.

Graham calls these sharks the puppy dogs of the sea but recommends giving them a wide berth. This way, visitors can witness more of their inherent characteristics, from their powerful musculature to their undeniable grace.

DR. RACHEL GRAHAM holds a Ph.D. in marine sciences. She completed her graduate studies on whale sharks. Graham grew up in North Africa, developing a love for animals, especially those not commonly beloved by others: snakes, bats and, of course, sharks. Her passion for diving started in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and the Red Sea. She’s studied the shark populations of Belize, Cuba and now Panama. Today, she serves as executive director of MarAlliance.

WHEN TO GO Year-round.

CONDITIONS Visibility averages around 60 to 75 feet at Shark Ray Alley. Water temps can be between 80 and 84 degrees.

OPERATOR Amigos del Mar (amigosdivebelize.com)

NORTH CAROLINA

It’s more than luck that explains why the sand tiger sharks off North Carolina’s coast congregate reliably on the same handful of wrecks. Scientists call this quirk “site fidelity,” and it seems to be one of the defining characteristics of sand tigers. “We don’t know of many other sharks that have a home base,” says Holly Doerr, a research scientist with North Carolina Aquariums, an organization spearheading ongoing research with this shark population.

The lineup of sites favored by this species includes a few wrecks off Morehead City—the 251-foot Caribsea freighter, the 409-foot Aeolus cable-laying ship and the 180-foot Spar.

“What you’ll encounter is a docile, slow-moving shark that is almost suspended in the water column,” says Doerr.

Although it might be easy to assume these slow-moving sharks are also slow-witted, this is far from fact. Research is still in its nascent stages, but Doerr and her fellow scientists are finding evidence that these sharks may have far more complex social patterns than many other sharks.

“We don’t tend to think of fish as seeking out other fish counterparts that they remember and recognize, but that’s exactly what they seem to be doing,” she says. It points to the fact that “this shark seems to have a slightly larger and more complex brain” than originally thought.

NC Aquariums teams welcome citizen scientist photographs of the area’s sand tigers, provided they capture the animal’s entire lateral area, which can be used to identify individuals based on their unique pattern of spots. It’s one way divers who visit these wrecks can give back while connecting firsthand with the population that calls these wrecks home.

HOLLY DOERR works as a shark research scientist with North Carolina Aquariums. She grew up far from the ocean in St. Louis, Missouri, but still developed a love of sharks, going on to earn a master’s in marine science through the California State University system and Moss Landing Marine Labs in Monterey Bay. “I am passionate about conservation and want future generations to enjoy the ocean and all its wonders as they were meant to be enjoyed,” she says.

WHEN TO GO Sharks are present and active year-round. May to October is the peak season.

CONDITIONS Viz varies between 30 and 100 feet, depending on the site. Summer water temps average 76 degrees.

OPERATOR Olympus Dive Center (olympusdiving.com)

FIJI

Fiji’s Beqa Island is most known for the bull sharks that show up in the dozens to every feeding dive, but perhaps just as big a draw are the seven additional species, including tigers, in the mix.

In the shark hierarchy, it’s the tigers that dominate. “Tigers demand such a presence—it’s hard not to give them your full attention,” says Andy Casagrande, underwater cinematographer and longtime Shark Week contributor.

This predator is known for its hulking size, up to 18 feet in length. It tends to swim slowly, almost coasting, and keeps frequent eye contact with divers, making them a favorite among photographers.

It’s through this eye contact that divers can let tigers know they are not intimidated. Casagrande stresses the importance of acting like a predator, not prey, around these animals.

Tigers know their power—and so do the other sharks. “When tigers come on the scene, bull sharks change behavior,” he says.

In this feeding dive, bull sharks approach the bait again and again, but when the much larger tigers show up, they act reserved, keeping more to the periphery. It’s this interplay between species that makes this shark dive truly stand out. In addition to the tigers and bulls, divers may see silvertip, sicklefin lemon, gray, whitetip reef and tawny nurse sharks.

“Fiji has a phenomenal shark dive—it’s got great viz and the sharks are super reliable,” says Casagrande. “You can’t go wrong.”

ANDY BRANDY CASAGRANDE IV frequently contributes to Discovery Channel’s Shark Week. He is a twotime Emmy award–winning filmmaker. He is known for the 2017 documentary Shark Dive, created to change how viewers see sharks. He has worked on dozens of sharkthemed shows, including World’s Biggest Tiger Shark.

WHEN TO GO Year-round.

CONDITIONS Visibility is typically 70 feet or more. Water temps range from 71 to 84 degrees.

REQUIREMENTS Certified divers with fewer than 30 dives will be assigned a divemaster for added supervision. Full, dark-colored wetsuits are required.

OPERATOR Beqa Lagoon Resort (beqalagoonresort.com)

Related Reading: Looking for Lost Sharks

INDONESIA

Located on the southwestern coast of West Papua, Triton Bay abounds with silversides that draw in hungry Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins (a rare, pink species), whale sharks and humans. “You basically have all three species competing with each other,” says Mark Erdmann, vice president of Asia-Pacific marine programs with Conservation International.

Humans rely on bagans, aka a floating lift net system with lots of lights. Every four hours, the nets draw up piles and piles of baitfish.

Waiting just alongside are whale sharks.

Most of the netting occurs at night, wrapping up in the wee hours of the day. It’s during that first morning dive that people can see the greatest numbers.

“You can literally be sandwiched in between six whale sharks actively feeding,” he says. “You get fantastically close encounters and can easily photograph their suction feeding.”

With so many whale sharks and so much action, it’s possible to witness more unusual behaviors in the environment.

“My favorite encounter was when I was cruising around, looking for mantas, when I found this big cloud of fish and wasn’t sure what was going on,”says Erdmann. Swimming closer, he found a 6-foot juvenile female whale shark, itself a rare encounter. Stranger still was that it was being harassed by a pack of giant trevally. “The giant trevally were taking turns rushing in and bumping her,” he says of this bullying behavior. “As soon as she saw me, she made a beeline toward me to wipe off the trevallies.”

She stayed with him for 45 minutes, until Erdmann had to call the dive. It was a truly unique chance to swim with a shark for nearly an hour, as well as witness a novel interaction.

It’s just one more reason that Triton Bay is a favorite among researchers and divers. With its abundance and diversity of species, it’s almost guaranteed to serve up never-before-seen behaviors.

MARK ERDMANN serves as the vice president of Conservation International’s marine Asia-Pacific division. He is a fish scientist who focuses on endangered sharks and rays, including oceanic and reef mantas, walking sharks, zebra sharks and wobbegong sharks.

WHEN TO GO The best season for whale shark encounters is October to March.

CONDITIONS Water temperatures stay around 84 degrees all year.

OPERATOR Raja Ampat Aggressor (aggressor.com)