Between a Shark and a Hard Place - Part 1
Daily Telegraph (UK, 1999)

Caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, I’ll take my chances on the sea every time. A reflection betrayed the look-out on shore as our diving boat chugged at full throttle towards Western Little Torres. Fierce gales blew as the monsoon took hold. Yet the threatening soldiers kept watch through the storm: sharp-eyed men patrolling the surface while the sharks maintained surveillance below.

The skipper brought the boat as close to the rocks as he dared. "Jump now," he ordered, shouting to make himself heard above the wind. We plopped one by one into the water, not pausing to regroup on the surface. I finned headfirst, down and away from the whirling propellers into calmer sea.

Beneath the white caps, the water was so clear it was difficult to guess our depth without checking the gauges. These conditions deprive the senses and give divers the illusion of flying. Orange fusiliers swam in a lazy spiral. A large shoal of silver mackerel passed by, traveling mob-banded for protection. Barracuda hovered in the current as we neared the cave entrance.

 This may be the last place on Earth where man is not top of the food chain. Sharks give the orders in the waters surrounding the 804 islands that make up Burma’s Mergui or Myeik Archipelago. The islands are uninhabited, apart from the military (who style Burma "Myanmar") and the handful of Moken sea gypsies who’ve escaped resettlement. Wildlife has evolved without interference, cut off from the rest of the world by the melting ice cap, then by malarial swamp and dense jungle.

The few dive expeditions admitted into the region since 1997 have discovered one of the highest concentrations of sharks on Earth. As we swam towards the cave our dive leader, Brendon, pointed to a trio of delinquent white-tip reef sharks circling nearby. At any time, a dozen or more reef, gray nurse, hammerheads and bull sharks can be found lurking in this cave nicknamed "In through the Out Door".

The entrance was about 60 feet below the surface, a misty curtain of plankton partly obscuring the opening. Yet we were able to see without torches by the natural light that filtered through a gap in the ceiling. The sharks lie motionless on the floor for hours at a time. Nobody really knows why, but one theory is that the highly oxygenated freshwater current in this cave helps to get rid of parasites. Whatever the reason, they wake refreshed and ready to feed.