AS more than forty dangerous reef sharks come swooping in for the hunks of bloody fish no one would
want to be in their midst.
With their ability to tear a human apart limb by limb, 60 feet down on the ocean floor with the hungry pack
wouldn’t seem a good idea.
But 39-year-old Andrea Lee has given up her job in Oxford to join a unique shark feeding programme in
the Bahamas.
Each day, Miss Lee, puts on her diving gear and a protective chain mail suit and dives down, together
with a metal box of fish chunks, to feed the hungry pack and capture them on camera.
The sharks are fed the great hunks of bloody fish on the end of a spear by a trained feeder, who also
wears chain mail. Miss Lee then captures the thrilling moments with her camera.
It is a far cry from her home in Oxford where she grew up with her sisters Karen, now 50, Suzanne, 42,
Janice, 48, and brother Clive, 45.
Miss Lee, who lives with her partner Marcos Mitsas, 38, a diving instructor, said: ‘The first time I went
down with the sharks was nerve wracking. I stood at the end of the boat ready to jump in and I could see
them all swimming beneath me.
‘I had to overcome my nerves to jump in. But once I got down there it was amazing.’
The feeding programme is run by diving centre Stuart Coves in the Bahamas.
Divers who want a close up encounter with the sharks also go down with the feeding programme and
observe from the ocean bed.
Amazingly when it started, there were just two reef sharks that came in for the free meals.
But since then more and more have learnt that the spot, just a five minute boat ride off the south coast of
Nassau, is the shark equivalent of a soup kitchen.
Now upto 50 reef sharks - mainly the bigger femailes - wait each day for the boat’s arrival and their tasty
snacks of fish heads and tails.
But it is a risky job. The chain mail suits which cover the arms and legs offer some protection, but the
sharks do still bite through it. But they are just mistaking limbs for bits of fish - so its really a case of
mistaken identity.’
Miss Lee said: ‘Occasionally the shark does get hold of the arm of the feeder and if that happens he
knows he mustn’t try and pull his arm away, or else the shark will start shaking his head around and it
would break every bone in his arm.
‘Instead he has to hug the sharks body to him with the other free arm and swim slowly upwards until the
shark releases him. But several of our feeders do have scars on their hands from shark bites.’
Caribbean reef sharks can grow up to ten feet in length and are considered dangerous.
Miss Lee said: ‘Luckily they are scavengers during the day which means it is unlikely that any of them
would attack us. Its a night when they become predators and go hunting for food.’
Miss Lee’s job is a far cry from her previous secretarial work in Oxford. She did a photography degree at
a university in Nottingham, and has been a qualified diving instructor for ten years.
She said: ‘My family were quite anxious when they knew what my new job was - and its worlds away from
secretarial work. My sisters and brother all have very good jobs - Janice is the director of a charitable
trust, Karens runs her own consultancy business, Suzanne is a english teacher and Clive is an account
manager. My job is very different to all of theirs.
‘Shark feeding programmes have been banned in Florida as they were getting too near coastal areas and
tourists were getting scared. But we do it quite a way off the coast and it is very controlled, so my family
knows that I’m being careful.
‘I really love the work. Sharks pick up the sound of a heartbeat when you enter the water, so the trick is
not to be scared! If they pick up a faster heartbeat, the feeding can be more frenzied than if the
heartbeats they pick up are slower.
‘We get mainly females who come for the feeding programme, and also the younger males who can be
more cocky and aggressive. There is a definite pecking order in the pack and its the same sharks who
come back each time as they have learnt that this is where they are fed.
‘There is one shark that we call The Joker, because he has part of one side of his jaw missing and it
makes his mouth look wider, just like Jack Nicholson’s character in Batman.’
Miss Lee has been with the feeding programme for a year, and has no plans to quit her work.
She said: ‘I am passionate about diving and animals. When I was training in photography I didn’t think I
would end up doing this - but it is the perfect job for me.’
For more information about the shark feeding programme, visit www.stuartcoves.com (PLEASE LEAVE
IN)