Scuba Diving with Sharks in Busan

Saturday night in Busan.

We met up with my friends and went to a dog cafe. Yes, they have those. Sounds strange but for some foreigners who haven't seen a real dog in ages, it's rather great. They only have small tiny dogs in korea with dyed ears and bows in their fur. But this cafe had big dogs!! You pay to get in and you order any drink and you just play with dogs. They come sit on your lap while you eat and try to steal your food. It's fun really! .. I guess except for those with dog allergies.

After, we got some fried chicken for dinner. Then got a crepe from a small little shop with Koreans dressed up all European like. It was rather cute and the crepes were delicious. Then we got a cheese kimchijeon - (kimchi pancake). It is now high on my list of all time favorite korean dishes. It was THAT good! Seriously. Crave that thing all. the. time.

















Busan Aquarium.
Where WE were the exhibit.

So maybe you know this term -- YOLO (you only live once)? I think that would have to apply to this situation. Or as my friend Julie put it - YODO (you only die once). However you look at it - this was one of those. One of those crazy experiences that you just can't really recount all that well, one of those you had to be there moments... one of those, did I really do that?

Good thing there's videos, because looking back I almost  don't believe I did it. It was for sure the craziest/coolest/scariest things I've done in Korea. I think this tops me jumping off a mountain, and that was pretty crazy. But this was crazier because 1. I am kind of afraid of drowning and 2. THERE WAS NOTHING BETWEEN ME AND AN 8 FOOT SHARK. nothing!

We get to the aquarium, head inside with the instructor and go through some secret black doors and end up in some back rooms of the aquarium. I felt so important. We first did some class work: signed some papers, learned about what we would see in the tank (you know just some black tip and white tip reef sharks, grey nurse sharks, groupers, sting rays, etc.) and learned a bit about how to scuba dive. Then we were off to change into our full one piece, super sexy wetsuits.

And then it was time, to practice breathing underwater. Because that is normal. This was Alex and I's first time scuba diving. I have been snorkeling once, but never fully under the water with a huge tank on my back.

There was a huge sea turtle swimming in the practice pool. He gave me some 'fin, noggin' dudddeeeeee'. They are quite huge and I pretty dangerous for divers, so they aren't allowed to be in the pools when we are. They still can't quite tell the difference between the divers who feed them and us, even though they are how old?! You think they would figure it out!

Ok, now time to face my fear, I was honestly more scared about scuba diving. I'm a certified lifeguard, but afraid of drowning. (Weird? Well if you haven't figured it out yet, I'm a bit weird. Phew we got that out of the way!) And then... being 15 feet under water, with a bunch of weights around my waist to keep me at the bottom... is a bit scary. Oh and yeah, there were going to be meat eating, scary looking, 8 foot creatures swimming all around me. So, yeah breathing and staying calm through out this whole thing was going to be my biggest problem!

In the practice tank, he first showed us how to do the exercises and then we did them back to him. I passed first time. Yippee. I did ok with most of them mentally, except the one where I had to pull the regulator (or mouthpiece) out of my mouth and then be able to put it back in without swallowing a ton of water, or you know drowning. I passed it first time, I don't even really know how.

Then he said, ok - let's go. I asked him if I could practice more. I was like buddy, I had a whole 2 minutes of breathing under water with this thing in my mouth and now you're just going to throw me in to a shark tank!!! He seemed confident I would survive, so I tried to stay calm and got in the water. Breathe in slowly and deeply, and back out. I just kept telling myself to breathe, breathe, breathe. It was weird hearing myself breathe and seeing all the bubbles come out. It was rather loud. I sounded like Darth Vader, well and sort of looked like him too I guess.

We climbed in using a rope down the side of the tunnel, where all the aquarium visitors were walking under. That's not nerve raking at all and of course I almost fall, but I luckily caught myself. Hopefully that doesn't end up on youtube.

We made it to the bottom, ears all popped and ready to meet Mr. Bruce face to face..... No, just kidding. Nothing in life will ever make you ready for that!

We had to kind of moon walk around the bottom, hopping around over rocks and such. We got to look for shark teeth. That was right up my alley. I'm a 4-leaf clover finder. I have found over 100 probably and even found a few 5-leaf clovers. I also love and am not too bad at mushroom hunting. Something about finding the needle in the haystack really satisfies me. So I did a lot of looking down. Also not such a bad thing, so I didn't notice the terrifying animals as much either.















Soon after we were in the tank a couple of groupers swam near me and kind of started fighting. Now these things, Michael warned us are more dangerous than the sharks. And they are bigger too. I was not so comfortable with the tussle happening near my head.

We hopped along, found some nice shark teeth, saw a sting ray, lots of little fish, some sharks were lerking but nothing too scary. I was freezing cold, so I was shaking, it might have been nervousness, fear as well. But I was remaining fairly calm.


Actually the hardest and weirdest thing for me was that there was no talking. I think that should be the next invention - a regulator that allows you to talk under water - or maybe they have that! So it was kind of a personal experience, yes there were people around but you couldn't talk about it, only point and signal that you were ok. And at one point, I realized if you have anxiety or can freak out easily, this is not the activity for you. You have to be in your head and know how to stay calm and just breathe. Just keep breathing... what do we do we breathe, breathe breathe, breathe.

All was well, no close encounters. I was feeling pretty good about the whole experience. But just then I look up and there he was... staring me right in the eyes. Bruce. 8 feet long, hundreds of sharp teeth exposed, beady little eyes. Michael warned us not to play chicken with the shark. So I froze. I have never been so still in my entire life. EVER. He looked at me for what seemed like 10 minutes and I looked right back at him, into those little eyes of his. All his teeth were exposed, he was terrifying looking but yet seemed so tranquil. I kept saying breathe, breathe.. but every time I would breathe it was so loud. Dang it Darth Vador, quiet, do you not see there is an 8 foot killing machine staring at you. But not breathing was not an option as I'm sure the whole 'breathe deep and slowly and continuously' was well out of my mind at this point, well except the continuos part, I'm sure I was breathing more than continuos if that is possible. I have really never been this calm but scared, thrilled but terrified in my life - thinking holy cow this is the coolest but scariest but weirdest thing I've EVER DONE!

Then he bit off my arm.

Ok, just kidding, he didn't. He slowly, I mean very, very slowly swam right past me, between the instructor and I... As if he was saying, yeah you best stay out my way lady, next time won't end so well. Maybe he wasn't as close as I think. But I think when it's a shark, anything closer than 50 feet is wayyyyy too close, right?!

After about 45 minutes of diving, we climbed back out and that was that. It was so surreal. I couldn't believe what had just happened. I knew I was a bit nervous the whole time but we found out just how nervous, when we compared the amount of air we had left in our tanks. I had about 100 PSI left... Alex had about 80 and the experienced divers were at 150 something. We started with the same (about 200). Yeah, we were sucking down that air, basically eating it! But can you blame us? There were sharks EVERYWHERE!! And it was cold. And it was our first time.

So, why are we all so scared of sharks? I just don't really get it! I don't think anyone really loves them and is not a bit scared they will eat them. But here's the truth....

Sharks kill only 12 people a year. That's it. I'm not trying to down play the loss of lives, but you have a greater chance of dying while golfing then you do from a shark attack. But still we are so scared of them! It doesn't really make sense. 

And in that fear of them, we forget that we need to protect them. Humans kill around 100 MILLION sharks a YEAR! 100 million!!! That's 11,000 an hour and 264,000 a day. Let that sink in. They kill one human a month, we kill 792,000 of them.

A good percentage of that is shark finning. They catch the shark, cut off the top fin and throw them back to die. The fins are used to make a 100 dollar bowl of soup in China and a couple other places.

Most of you reading this are probably not the fisherman, you are probably not the ones killing the sharks, but you may not have been aware this is happening. And that's what I wish to do right now. Is to make you aware. 

Sharks are the ruler of the ocean. The oceans need them and we need them alive in the ocean to keep the balance.

You can bet I was afraid when that shark was starring me in the eyes as he slowly swam by. I kept thinking, well this might be it. But during the longest and stillest minute of my life... I realized how slow moving and peaceful they really are. They are not so terrifying and are quite amazing, really. It's like they are dressed up in their halloween costume all the time. And underneath the mask is a cute, fun, playful, wonderful creature.

Think of that next time you see a shark. -- He's just all dressed up for Halloween!


To watch the youtube video I put together of the experience -- click here! Enjoy :)


Note: Photos from underwater are not mine. They are screenshots from a couple different videos and photographs from a guy who was with us!