Diving In Chain Mail
Michael Ramer is 17 years old and he is about to do something that practically no one in the world has done, let alone many 17 year olds. Michael is donning a chain mail dive suit and getting ready to jump into the ocean off Port Lucaya, Grand Bahama. Michael is learn- ing to feed sharks as part of his High School senior project.
At one point Michael looks up and says, “Am I really going to go down and feed sharks in the open ocean.”
As Michael gets dressed, his mother, Brenda, looks at me and says, “Am I a bad mom?” I reassure her that she is, in fact, a terrific mom because she is allowing her son to do something he is so clearly excited about – something he will cherish forever.
I can confidently reassure Brenda of her fine motherhood because of the diminutive woman quietly coaching Michael as he dons his chain mail. She is the woman who will stand next to Michael as he waves small fish in the water in front of hungry Caribbean reef and nurse sharks. She is the teacher, shark researcher and one of only a handful of shark feeder instructors in the world. She is Cristina Zenato.
Diving Dynamo
To follow Cristina Zenato around for a few days is to ignore pretty much everything we all understand about diving protocol. She dives more and in more varied environments in a week than most divers dive in a year. And she never slows down –never.
As Michael Ramer prepares for his first shark feed, Cristina quietly offers encouragement and coaching. Her confidence is remarkable and she instills that confidence in Michael and others around her. And confidence is important when you are about to jump into shark infested water with a container of fish and hand feed the ocean’s apex predators?
The Bahamas is experiencing a cold snap, much colder than most locals can remember. People are walking around Port Lucaya in parkas and the wind whipping around the buildings makes it feel more like the North- east US where I live than a tropical island.
One local told me, “This is the coldest I have ever been.”
The cold wind and choppy water make for a less than comfortable dive boat but every- one is focused on Michael and getting in the water for the feeding. Someone quips, “I can’t wait to jump in so I can warm up.”
Cristina is clad in dive gear and a huge parka to ward off the wind. She is giving Michael final pointers on keeping every possible inch of his tall athletic frame protected by the tightly woven chain mail sharksuits made by Neptunic. There is a final gear check; Michael hugs Brenda and then giant strides all around.
I pop my Apeks XTX100 second stage regulator into my mouth and follow the shark feeding team into the water, noting in my mind that I’m the only diver not wearing a Neptunic Sharksuit.
Cristina is clearly in charge as she and photographer Eddy Raphael descend to the staging area with Michael. They carry a specially designed tube containing the small fish that will be shark lunch today. This is a delicate time in the shark feeding course because if a diver is going to panic, this is when it is likely to happen.
The shark feeders begin their walk across the bottom to the feeding area. They move deliberately, Cristina offering Michael encouraging signals as Eddy snaps photo after photo.
And then the sharks come.
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