Whether cage diving with great white sharks in South Africa or cuddling with reef sharks in the Maldives: There are many opportunities to meet the hunters of the sea on holiday.
Sharks exert a tremendous fascination on humans. The predatory fish scare many – inspired by Steven Spielberg’s horror thriller “Jaws” from 1975. The underwater predators have a reputation as cold-blooded killers.
But the statistics speak a different language: the countless sharks that populate the seas are faced with only a few dozen attacks on humans every year – very few of them fatally.
Around 500 shark species are known. They range from mighty calibers like five meter long tiger and hammerhead sharks to the pygmy lanternshark, which measures just 20 centimeters. Here’s an overview of the world’s shark locales:
Thailand
The Andaman Sea in the south of the country is teeming with sharks. Most pose no danger to humans. Small blacktip sharks can be observed from the shore at Maya Bay on Ko Phi Phi Le – made world famous by the hit film “The Beach” starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
Snorkeling trips to the famous Viking Cave, for example, as well as sunset tours to Bamboo Island, where a particularly large number of sharks cavort near the beach at dusk, can be made with colorful long-tail boats.
Speaking of “bamboo”: In the Marine Discovery Center, which is part of the resort SAii Phi Phi Island Village, bamboo sharks are bred and released as young animals into the wild. Interested parties can learn all about the species here, which looks rather cute and mostly stays on the sea floor. The project “Save Our Sharks” (“SOS”) aims to support the fragile marine ecosystem in the region.
Almost all shark species around Koh Phi Phi pose no serious threat to humans, says Bart Callens, SAii Resorts regional hotel manager. Nevertheless, he advises caution: “These are still wild animals and we always encourage our guests to keep a respectful distance.
South Africa
Almost anything is possible in the Cape country when it comes to sharks, most notably the famous great white shark cage diving. Off the coast of Gaansbai, a fishing village on the Atlantic, lies Shark Alley, a notorious hunting ground for the animals. They are lured with fish blood, while humans are lowered into the water in steel cages.
On the east coast, adrenaline junkies can get even closer to the predators: off Durban, they can snorkel with tiger sharks in the Indian Ocean without safety precautions and watch the animals silently glide past them.
So-called “shark spotters” are deployed around False Bay near Cape Town. They search the water surface for predatory fish from hills. Spot a great white fin, set off a deafening siren and raise a white flag with a black shark.
Fiji
With a bit of luck, divers can encounter eight different shark species in the Beqa Lagoon. The lagoon is a marine reserve and the underwater world is largely untouched.
Whether Indo-Pacific nurse sharks, bull sharks, or silvertip sharks: sightings are almost guaranteed as the animals are fed with fish.
Spain
Sharks are also regularly sighted off the Spanish Mediterranean coast. And also in the Atlantic, for example in Spanish Galicia or in Portugal, the animals sometimes appear near the coast. The sightings almost always cause a stir. Like in mid-April on Mallorca, when a blue shark got lost on the beach. Onlookers filmed how the big fish swam back into the sea under its own power.
Shark attacks on humans, meanwhile, are extremely rare – exactly six in number in Spain since 1847, according to statistics. Only one attack on a fisherman is known on Mallorca, and that was 70 years ago.
USA
Things look more dangerous here: With 41 known shark attacks, the country led the global list in 2022 – however, only one attack in Hawaii ended fatally. Especially in California, adventure seekers can get up close and personal with the giant in the territory of the dreaded “Great White”.
A good 40 kilometers from San Francisco lies the “Galapagos of North America”, as the Farallon Islands are called. The sanctuary is a playground for seabirds, sea lions, whales and sharks. The steel cage diving there is not for the faint of heart: It’s a “brutal” place, with often rough seas and abysmal weather, according to one organizer.
The islands are in the middle of the “Red Triangle”, where great white sharks hunt seals and endanger people on the beaches north of San Francisco. The popular Stinson Beach is often closed after sightings of one of the distinctive fins.
When surfing was banned for days in Stinson Beach in 1981, the operator of a surf shop came up with a “No Shark” logo that has since become iconic. It shows a shark in a red circle, crossed by a slash. The symbol adorns T-shirts, bumper stickers and souvenirs.
Australia
A 46-year-old surfer became the youngest victim of a shark off the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia in May. Not far away, however, tourists also voluntarily go close to great white sharks while “cage diving”. And on the Great Barrier Reef in the state of Queensland, divers and snorkelers are not afraid of contact either: the reef sharks, which are only 1.60 meters long, are also considered harmless and shy.
Despite this, Down Under is the country with the most shark attacks after the USA. Nets are supposed to protect swimmers on the world-famous Bondi Beach in Sydney – which they only do to a limited extent. “They are 150 meters long, but Bondi is almost 1,000 meters long,” criticizes Duncan Heuer from the “Saving Norman” initiative. He fights to protect endangered sand tiger sharks, which often perish in the nets.
Seychelles
In addition to whale sharks, the fish-rich waters are home to dozens of species, including nurse sharks, scalloped hammerheads, reef sharks, lemon sharks and silvertip sharks. You are well protected here: a third of the archipelago off the coast of East Africa is designated as a marine reserve.
But there was also horror news. In 2011, a British honeymooner was killed by a shark off the island of Praslin. In the same area, just two weeks earlier, a Frenchman had been the victim of a shark attack. The government then issued a bathing ban on some beaches for months. Strict fishing regulations were then put in place to keep the animals from being lured close to the beach.
Mexico
Encountering a whale shark is always impressive: The largest fish in the world can grow as long as a bus and has 3,600 tiny teeth in its mouth, which is up to 1.5 meters wide. And yet adventurous tourists with masks and snorkels in Mexico, among other places, jump carefree from excursion boats into the water to swim with the giant of the seas. Why the vacationers are so relaxed: The animals feed almost exclusively on plankton and small fish.
Anyone who meets the animal will probably never forget the experience. The gentle wanderers of the seas are loners. However, at certain times of the year they congregate in a few locations around the globe. Whale shark tourism is mostly well regulated because the animal is classified as endangered on the Red List of Threatened Species.
Maldives
Shark fishing has been banned around the atolls since 2010 – with positive consequences: not only has the shark population increased, but biodiversity has also increased. Interacting with or feeding the predatory fish is a popular tourist activity.
Attacks on humans are also rare here. “80 percent of serious shark attacks come from three species: great white, tiger, and bull sharks,” explains the Florida Program for Shark Research. However, these species are rarely found in the reef habitats of the Maldives. However, the longer “baited diving” is offered, the more likely it is that incidents will occur. “It’s only a matter of time before someone gets bitten by a reef shark.”