shark species week #3
Grey reef shark and the diver, Vertigo Point, Yap Island, Micronesia
Nikon D300 + Nikkor 12-24mm, Sea&Sea compact dome port, strobes Sea&Sea YS-250 x 2
this image is 10% cropped from right and 5% from bottom, no color correction of any kind
Location on Google Maps
Wikipedia reference
Moving up shark hierarchy towards next reef shark specie - grey reef shark ! Bigger and more dangerous than whitetip and blacktip reef sharks, it's one of the most common species in Pacific and Indian ocean. I can describe grey reef sharks as mean - they can be very curious, and can be aggressive towards divers, especially if cornered or baited with food. For photographer they are wonderful subject, thanks to classic shape and silverish reflective skin. First time in my life I meet them in Palau in 2005, during liveaboad trip on Palau Aggressor II yacht. They were abundant at famous Blue Corner site, patrolling blue in numbers at the oceanic current crossroads. I met quite a few grey reef sharks later in Rangiroa atoll in French Polynesia, during mating season - literally hundreds of them. Maldives had very few and my best grey reef experience definitely belongs to my visit to Yap Island - they have wonderful dive site called Vertigo, where sharks are regularly baited for the diving groups. Vertigo has very beautiful blue-blue water with visibility of 30 meters, and seeing silver sharks very close with wonderful clean background was really cool experience. Another big interaction with grey reefs happened in Fiji, at the famous shark Reef - best months for seeing them where are May to August. But watch out for your strobes - they really attracted by electric current, and grey reefs are the champions of bumping into my light equipment ! ;)
Grey reef can grow well above 2m in length - but most of specimens I saw in my life were somewhere between 1.5 to 2m.