Diving with sharks at the Busan Aquarium is just another thing I'm able to cross off my things to do list while in Korea. According to my Lonely Planet book, it's one of the top ten things to do in Korea and I'm happy I had the chance to do it.
Before the dive, I kept psyching myself out by looking at ridiculous pictures of sharks and watching Expedition: Great White (horrible idea), so I was super nervous going into it. We had some brief classroom training and then learned the essential skills in a practice tank. Besides learning how to breathe with the mouthpiece and tank, we also had to learn what to do in a few worst case scenarios.
The first scenario was what to do if your goggles flooded or got foggy. The instructor showed us what to do and what NOT to do in this situation. However, when you're underwater, breathing through a tube, then suddenly have water flood your mask and are unable to see, it's not always the easiest situation to solve. The first time I tried to get the water out (I still don't understand how it works) I had a minor freak out and did exactly what he told us NOT to do. I eventually passed the underwater test and then had to learn what to do if my mouthpiece fell out. This one was a bit easier, but it was still not the ideal situation. I guess it's good to know what to do in those worst case scenarios, but to be honest, I just crossed my fingers and hoped I wouldn't have to deal with a flooded mask or defective mouthpiece.
After freaking myself out by watching YouTube clips from Jaws, little did I know that the sharks were the least of my worries in the tank. There were sand tiger sharks and black finned sharks in the tank, both of which were totally nonaggressive. However, our instructor warned us about the giant groupers and sea turtles. The groupers were about eight feet long, not the most glamorous looking creatures and had mouths about the size of well... me. I think I laughed out loud when he mentioned the sea turtles because I immediately thought of the chill, surfer dudes from Finding Nemo. The previous day both the giant groupers and sea turtles were a little aggressive towards the divers. Luckily, during my dive, the groupers were pretty tame and the sea turtles were locked up in a different tank.
Once in the tank, it was a whole different world down there. The sharks were literally inches away from me and I even found a shark tooth! It was cool to look out and sea (ha) all of the people watching us from the outside. The actual dive was about 30 minutes and walking around on the bottom of the tank felt like I was walking on the moon (assuming what that feels like).
I'm still unsure if I'll ever get SCUBA certified, but I'm happy I had the experience of diving.
Pre-dive smiles.
Thumbs up!
Real shark... rawr.
Peace.
First entering the tank. I look terrified.
One of the many GIANT groupers in the tank.
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