My time in Saipan flew past all too quickly. It was a fantastic learning experience, hard work, and so much fun. Having told you what I was doing over there, I wanted to share one of the highlights from the days aboard a small research vessel with Steve Lindfield.

On a day out in the field, Steve and I were dropping BRUVS units in around 30m of water. Steve jumped into the water to spot where the one particular unit landed while I released the rope. Our boat driver John John suddenly shouted out

“Steve, Shark”

A big grin on his face, Steve waved off John John’s comment, thinking it’s a joke and continues to peer down at the sinking cameras.

Suddenly a large dark shadow enters my field of view, this time both John John and I shout

“Steve! Shark!”

Steve peers just below the surface and circles, coming back to the surface, a grin still spread across his face.

“Oh. There is a shark” he laughs, “hand me the video camera Will”

No way I think to myself, I’m not letting you have all the fun! Grabbing the video camera from the boats hold, I slide into the water from the bow of the boat and meet Steve in the water. Looking at each other we both take a breath… diving down towards the shark.

What followed was truly an amazing experience and one that I will always remember. The shark was a friendly female Silky Shark around 2 meters in length. Letting us swim with her for over an hour, she seemed just as happy as we were to swim with one another.

Here is short clip of the experience.