When I first heard that you can go bull shark diving in Playa del Carmen, so many thoughts ran through my mind. Since diving with bull sharks is at the very top of my bucketlist, the first questions of course were, “How much is it?”, “Are they here right now??”, “Do we have to be in a cage???”
At first I did a quick google search to find some answers. I was pretty surprised to see how many places offer the tours, and that they were even on big booking sites like Viator! But if I was going to go swimming with apex predators, I wanted to make sure it was done right!
A fellow expat named Claire who has lived here in Playa del Carmen for 3 years connected me with a girl from France who is a Marine Biologist. Her name is Kim, and she also started a small, all-female diving company here in Playa called Double K Diving! She was so incredibly knowledgeable and reassuring of all of my concerns, telling me I was going to absolutely love it, which I absolutely did!
So now that I’ve ticked off my major bucketlist of bull shark diving in Playa del Carmen, I can tell you what it’s like, how to plan it, and some tips!
(PS If You’re coming to this area of Mexico, please read my post first about “Is Mexico Safe? Safety Tips for Playa and Tulum”)
Bull Shark Diving in Playa del Carmen in a Nut Shell…
Female pregnant bull sharks supposedly started coming to the warm waters of Playa del Carmen several years ago. According to Kim, (who again, is a Marine Biologist), because it’s an area with no potential predators, and years ago some fishermen used to dump fish here so they were attracted in that particular spot.
Then, fishermen stared catching the sharks, and selling them as meat! In fact there was one fisherman who would go out nightly to catch them, and once he caught 12 in one night! To stop him and other locals from shark fishing, dive enthusiasts and companies actually pay them off, and have taught them to turn the sharks into a profitable tourist attraction, instead of a meal.
There is some debate about whether or not the bull shark diving in Playa del Carmen is ethical or not to the sharks. Well, in many of our opinions, allowing people to carefully observe them under water is A LOT better than observing them mounted on a wall or in a bowl of soup! There’s also a big debate about the companies that feed the sharks by hand in order to “put on a show” for divers. The dive I did didn’t do that, but even if it did, again, I’d rather people pay to see them, than locals kill them to get paid for their dead parts.
Now for the actual dive! It’s about 30-35 minutes and about 80-90 feet deep! It’s shorter because you go deeper, and use air faster. The cost for the shark dive plus a reef dive with Double K Diving is $135, and in my opinion 1000% worth it!
It’s a very straight forward process. The dive guides know where the bull sharks are (only about 400 meters from the beach, HA!), and you simply descend down a rope all the way to the bottom, sit down, and watch.
More details below!
Is Bull Shark Diving Dangerous?
Potentially. But not really with the ones you’ll be diving with in Playa del Carmen. This is because the ones that come to Playa are pregnant females, who come during their gestation period. There are also no males around so they are more relaxed.
However in other areas bull sharks can definitely be more dangerous. In fact you have probably heard that they are one of the most aggressive types of sharks!
But don’t worry, this dive is carefully executed in a way that is safe for you, and that they are used to! There has never been an incident with a bull shark in Playa del Carmen.
Is The Dive Scary?
Chances are that if you’re reading this, you aren’t too afraid of sharks. Because if you were there is no way in hell you’d even have ended up here!
For me personally, I was not afraid of being around the sharks at all, and actually found the experience to be very beautiful and peaceful. The only scary part for me, as an “anxious diver” was thinking about the depth since I’d never gone down that deep, and not being able to surface if I felt like it on my own (which you shouldn’t do anyway).
To be honest, I was a little panicky going down at first, but after a minute I could already see the bottom! And the sharks! As soon as I saw the sharks I got really excited and completely forgot about the depth! In fact, I was shocked when it was time to go up, because I was so mesmerized by the sharks swimming around us!
((BTW I had a traumatic dive experience in a cenote 2 years ago that made me afraid to dive again, but I REALLY wanted to see the sharks, so I practiced diving in Cozumel, then went and did it, now I’m not afraid anymore!!))
Powered by Froala Editor
