Pico Sport Whale Watching Diving - Wal Beobachtung Tauchen

Shark Diving Day Trip

Shark

Diving

The offshore banks around the Island of Pico offer excellent opportunities to dive with sharks.
The blue sharks and mako sharks often approach the divers up to arm’s length.
The main sharks we see are the blue sharks while the frequency of seeing Mako is less. Please keep this in mind when you plan your visit and you better book our shark weeks to have a better chance to see more species.

You might ask yourself how we get a shark that usually lives in depths of more than 500m can be seen at the surface.
The animals behaviour includes to come to the surface regually for a reason: FOOD
This can be the hunt in a feeding ball when pelagic fish create bait balls and push the bait fish to the surface. The other reason is that the sharks are also scavengers. Dead animals such as dead whales or fish that float the the surface constantly loose particles when they rot. This particles sink and the current takes it away. Once a shark “smells” this particles it starts to follow the trail and come to the surface.
We imitate this natural situation for the sharks. We use a tuna head and tuna blood to create a so called chum trail. Once the sharks have found the source they do not leave and stay for hours. As this is not a hunt in a feeding ball where speed is needed and competition takes place the animals are relaxed and cruise around the chum basket. They come near to the divers and get interested. Often they touch us with their flippers and also they are interested in electric sources such as camera strobes. They feel the energy with their senses. This is a lifetime experience.

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1 tank shark dive near Pico 200,- Euro

This dive will be done in the spots near Pico where the underwater structure provides aggregation points for sharks. For this dive we use speed zodiacs or smaller cabin boats.

2 tank shark dive at Condor Bank 350,- Euro

The day trip to Condor includes a fantastic seaside along the south coast of Faial. You see the volcano of Capelinhos. Also we are normally in company of whales and dolphins on our way to Condor bank.  Condor Bank is a conservation area that is protected. This the THE TOP SPOT to meet sharks. We use a comfortable day boat and focus to spend the time at Condor and attract as many sharks as possible. The trip is a beautiful day in the open Ocean !  On many days more than 10 Blues are around us. But this is also the best spot to meet the silberbullet….thats how we call the Mako Shark because it is so fast.

Equipment:

Please note that beside your regular dive gear you need to wear a hoody and gloves.

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Travel Dates 2023

Never forget the weather conditions and plan a comfortable time window to fullfill your dream. Our experience showed us to be as flexible as possible. In the Mid-Atlantic we sometimes have to deal with weather conditions which do not allow us to reach the offshore banks.

Shark season 27th June to 15th October

In our Megalodon project we assist the local University and scientist Jorge Fontes to tag sharks. This science has showed us the movement of the animals in the azorean waters but also in the Atlantic Ocean. Sharks move constantly between the deeps mountains and really stay for a longer time at one spot. That depends mail on the presence of food but also this is the natural behaviour of pelagic species. With this knowledge we were able to discover more diving spots in the last years and extend our knowledge about how to find the animals.   Currently we work in 3 different spots around Pico and Faial. While the spots near Pivo can be reached with our speed zodiacs in minutes the protected Condor bank is 22 miles away from madalena port. We usually use bigger comfortable boats and do 2 tank dives at Condor spending the day at the Ocean.

Megalodon Project

It is main concern to dive save and sustainable. Therefore we ask everybody that wants to join our shark trips to dive with us at least 1 day before in a class 1 spot around Pico. Not only that you can see fantastic marine life during this dive day it helps us to understand what your status is. Also it helps you to feel comfortable in Atlantic water conditions, get used to your rental gear and so on.

The day before your first trip to the sharks you will meet with your shark guide and get a detailed briefing about the dive.  We follow the theories of Professor Erich Ritter / Sharkschool that there are no dangerous sharks but only dangerous situations. When we started the shark diving 12 year ago Erich educated our skippers and crew. This knowledge has been passed on since that time.  Since nowadays work with the shark scientist Lukas Müller who is one of the leading shark scientists currently. With him we develop the guidelines for divers and Freediver and update constantly.