great hammerhead diving in bimini bahamas

We have just closed out our 2015 Great Hammerhead shark season here on Bimini and enjoyed incredible diving with some great friends. Bimini has truly become a unique dive destination offering the best encounters with the generally shy great hammerhead shark. Similar to Tiger Beach, divers can expect calm, clear and shallow conditions, optimal for extended bottom times and great for photography.

Although there were a few weather days during the season, every group spent a ton of time underwater with the great hammerheads. Our dives averaged about 90 minutes and we saw anywhere from 3 to 8 great hammerheads each day on the water. We had no days without the sharks and the chum times spanned between 15 minutes up to 1 hour. There were also a few days where we simply landed on the hammerheads, and no waiting was required.

In addition to the stars of the show, we also regularly had nurse sharks, sometimes too many. We did see the occasional bull shark, but none that came in close, tried for the bait, or pushed the hammerheads away.

Our groups stayed at either the Bimini Big Game Club, or the Sea Crest Hotel and Marina. The Big Game Club was a great, friendly resort atmosphere with hotel, bar/restaurant, pool and marina all in one. Sea Crest offers great accommodations and the marina/boat are right outside the guest rooms. There’s no restaurant at Sea Crest, so most of the guests staying there took the opportunity to explore the island and visit a number of local eateries.

We’d like to thank all of our friends for visiting us and the great hammerheads in Bimini this year. It was great to add this species to our expedition calendar. The folks on Bimini have been great to us and we loved meeting up with the Bimini Biological Field Station for educational talks with the groups. We’re proud to have supported Sharks4Kids, a non-profit program run by Jillian and Duncan and happy to have met Grant and Katie who serve on the Bimini Tourism Advisory Board.

We’re sad to leave Bimini but super excited to return home to Cat Island for the beginning of our Oceanic Whitetip Shark diving season. We’ll be returning to Bimini in January of 2016 for the hammerheads once again.

Interested in diving with the great hammerhead shark? Click here to learn more about our great hammerhead shark diving expeditions.