Today, 12-17-08, I was surprised to discover two of the primary turtle caves at Airport Beach occupied by White Tip Reef Sharks. They were tucked way back in the dark and not visible what so ever from the surface. The sharks were resting probably 5-6' below the surface; quite shallow water.

The two shots above were taken with the Nikon and under poor ambient light conditions. This shark has moved deeper into the cave when I returned with the Olympus and there wasn't a decent shot to be had of it. I did use the Olympus with flash to get the images below. First image is the same shark above but shot through a hole into the cave and the other two shots are of the second shark in a different cave. I reached the camera into the caves for these shots and it is not clear from the images just how well protected and hidden these fish really are.

Shortly after returning to the beach after taking the shots of the sharks, I saw a couple eagle rays frollicking on the surface just off the beach so I went in again and swam with them for about 15 minutes. At times they would just stop swimming and hover.

Two days later and I found a small WhiteTip shark in one of the turtle's caves again. The vis was not great due to swell and the sky dark and overcast. I had a LED flashlight with me which provided for some lighting.

In the shot above, I shoved the camera in under the ledge and shot from the left side. You can just make out the sharks head in the center of the image. Below, I accessed the cave from the right side, above the sharks head:

Above is a shot of the cave and below, I swam in closer and you can just make out the shark in the shadow. The fish-eye lens distorts the perspective quite a bit.

Next day and likely the same shark was again in this cave. Shots below taken with the Olympus 1030 Stylus: