"Into A Lost World" (Part 3)
Life TRAVEL / August 2000

Text and photos by: Masha Nordbye

THE SHARK ENCOUNTER

In the morning we dropped anchor by Big Rock, a notorious predator location. "A very high concentration of sharks are in these waters," Graham informed us. "Up to seven varieties have been reported here during a single dive. These can include gray reef, bull, hammerhead, silver-tipped, whale, leopard, and nurse."

"My pulse rate has definitely accelerated," chipped in Fred. Andy, knowledgeable about sharks, explained to us that they had evolved little in the last 150 million years, and that they were a real force in driving natural selection. Sharks had known no other predator till man. In much of water around Asia, the shark population has already been killed off to supply the illegal shark fin (soup and medicine) industry. "You'll rarely sight sharks around Hong Kong anymore," he remarked, "so this is a fantastic opportunity to observe sharks in their natural environment."

Graham mapped out our next underwater scenario. "There's no real reason to be seriously scared. Sharks are just very inquisitive. Since we'll invading their patch, the sharks want to come and check us out. We'll not appear like food to them - just big, strange, bubble-blowing blobs."

Paveena still wanted to know how sharks act when threatened. "If you see their pectoral fins down along their sides and their back arched erratically," he answered, "you should clear out of their way. Always stay together and give off good vibrations!" Now more than ever, Fred wanted to keep close to Paveena.

Several years ago Graham discovered this diving site, which he named "In Thru the Out Door." As he explained, "On the way there, the current will push us around till we come into a gully in the middle of the rock. As you swim underneath it, you will enter the cave, which is filled with many small caverns. The dive is called 'In Thru the Out Door' because we go in the backdoor as the sharks swim out!"

Not only were we to encounter sharks, but we would also have to enter a deep, dark cave, a first for most of us. We all received large torches (diving flashlights), since visibility would be low. On the way toward the gully, Fred sighted a sea snake. Andy warned that they were highly poisonous and recommended we stay away. Then we entered the abyss of the cave, and nothing could have prepared me for what happened next. Imagine swimming into an eerie, dark void that enveloped each diver like a moist, pulsating womb. Our meager light cast only shadows upon silhouettes of unrecognized creatures, and then, out of nowhere, hundreds upon hundred of small formations swam through the beams.

"Look at all those fish," exclaimed Fred. "Those are all baby [juvenile] barracuda," interjected Andy.

Andy explained that one female barracuda can lay up to a million eggs in her lifetime. Barracuda are nocturnal, so during the day they school in large numbers (especially inside caves) for added protection.

At the moment, I couldn't concentrate on another word the professor said. All I could think about was not to feel scared or claustrophobic. When a diver is frightened, he can hyperventilate, which in turn screws up breathing; and here, encased in a big, solid chunk of rock seventy feet under the sea, there was no chance to quickly surface. "Don't worry, be happy," I heard a voice echo through my ears.

But these barracuda felt like mythological figures guarding the cave's entrance, and who knew what lurked farther inside. And then "Ulysses" in hie purple flippers jetted on by me. It was the fearless Graham, who proceeded, head first, into a murky cavern. I recalled the story of the Sirens. "Come, come." Graham's hypnotic voice lured me in. So down I went, and the entire wall moved beneath me. It was two massive nurse sharks that had spotted our alien group.

All of a sudden, the current began sucking me out the other side of the cave. In the midst of this chaotic churning, I caught Paveena's voice, "Oh my God! Shark, shark, shark!" It was time for our close encounter of the third kind. Four gray reef sharks darted near the exit hole from which I had just popped out.
"Must take a fair amount of food to keep those chaps going," observed Andy.

Somehow we made it back to the boat with all our limbs intact and our spirits soaring. After making it through such an incredible adventure, we confidently concluded that, indeed, the only thing to fear in life was fear itself. For millennia mankind had been frightened of the vastness of the seas that cover 70 percent of our world. It has only been during the last fifty years and with the invention of the Aqua-Lung that we have begun to unlock the mysteries of the ocean depths. And our own exploration proved that the bountiful waters and landscapes of the Mergui Archipelago, teeming with treasures, offer unlimited possibilities for discovery.

Masha Nordbye is a travel writer and documentary TV director who has traveled through more than eighty countries. Stay tuned for Action-Asia, coming soon to the Discovery Channel.