Unique 'Bimini Bull Run' shark dive experience coming to the Big Game Club
ALICE TOWN, Bimini — The Bimini Big Game Club Resort & Marina announced plans Monday for a unique one-day guaranteed shark encounter experience that will also help fund regional shark tagging and conservation efforts through a partnership with the Shark-Free Marinas initiative.
The Bimini Bull Run is a first for the global shark diving industry, providing divers and non-divers with an up-close and personal adrenaline packed thrill of shark encounters from the safety of specially designed cage systems attached directly to the docks at The Big Game Club Marina. The system will employ a unique “Hooka’ air system, allowing non-certified divers to experience the opportunity in addition to those certified divers who would prefer to SCUBA.
“You can fly from South Florida, check into your hotel room and be in a Shark Cage all in less than an hour,” said Michael Weber, Big Game Club General Manager.
For those who prefer to stay firmly on dry land, the Bimini Big Game Club is also constructing a new bar at Bimini Bull Run to allow those interested in an educational look at these wonderful sharks from behind safety rails. Bimini Big Game Club also conducts other types of dive expeditions in Bimini, a tiny, but historically significant Bahamas out-island less than 30 minutes flight-time from Southeast Florida. The 51-room resort and marina offers various wreck and reef dives, thrilling offshore shark dives, and world-class offshore big game fishing trips and well as a variety of family-friendly watersport activities.
Weber said the Bimini Bull Run operation will feature safe encounters with a variety of sharks, including Bull, Tiger and Lemon sharks.
“As a Shark-Free Marina member we only welcome live sharks at our docks,” said Weber. “We are very excited to be able to partner with conservation organizations like The Shark-Free Marinas initiative to help fund regional shark research and the ability to introduce the world of sharks in their own environment and in a manner that is safe both for the sharks and humans.”
Weber said the Bahamas, a collection of 700 islands sweeping across 240,000 square miles of territorial waters was recently declared a Shark Sanctuary with the government banning commercial shark fishing. One of the premier shark-watching destinations for divers, reeling in $800 million over the past 20 years for the Bahamian national economy, sharks in the Bahamas are big business and certainly worth more alive than dead. Globally, sharks are under attack with estimates of up to 90 million harvested annually commercially for their fins, considered a delicacy in certain areas of the world.