If you're looking for an epic shark dive, options abound in the Bahamas. Caribbean reef sharks await at Grand Bahama and New Providence, where divers are offered exciting dives with them. Hungry for more thrills? Tiger and lemon shark enounters at Tiger Beach, and great hammerhead aggregations in Bimini are sure to up your adrenaline.

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California's Channel Islands has both heartwarming and heart-pounding big-animal ecounters. Cageless encounters with sleek blue sharks await thrill-seekers.

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California's Channel Islands has both heartwarming and heart-pounding big-animal encounters. Playful pinnipeds like this sea lion pup are eager to display their acrobatic skills, pirouetting and barrel rolling for their bubble-blowing friends.

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Four currents – the Equatorial Counter Current, Humboldt, South Equatorial and North Equatorial – converge in the Galapagos, a cluster of 19 islands roughly 600 miles from Ecuador's coast. The upwellings and currents pack the waters with nutrients and meals of all sizes, supporting a big population of big animals. This year, the Galapagos Islands came in second place among Pacific and Indian oceans destinations for encounters with the big stuff. This pelagic-animal outpost consistently wins because it's a no-brainer anytime of year: Show up June through November for whale shark season, or January through may to swim alongside schools of rays and hammerheads.

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For the 22nd year in a row, our readers weighed in on their favorite dive sites around the world — from North America to the Caribbean and Atlantic to the Pacific and Indian Oceans — to bring our 2015 Top 100 Reader's Choice Awards to life.

For variety, we have selected one destination in each region (Caribbean and Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, and North America) to write about. Not all selections are the first-place winners in the Best Big Animals category. For a complete list of Top 100 Readers Choice winners in this category, please scroll down.

BEST BIG ANIMALS CARIBBEAN AND ATLANTIC

1. Bahamas

2. Belize

3. Turks and Caicos

4. Mexico

5. Cayman Islands

BEST BIG ANIMALS NORTH AMERICA

1. North Carolina

2. Florida

3. Texas

4. California

5. British Columbia, Canada

BEST BIG ANIMALS PACIFIC AND INDIAN OCEANS

1. French Polynesia

2. Galapagos

3. Mexico

4. Palau

5. Costa Rica