Mark's Blog: Bitten by a shark!

Time for an update, and I am currently in Dubai awaiting my flight home. A busy few days - diving in the Musandam and the Gulf, doing the Ultimate Dive in the Ambassador tank at the Atlantis hotel, and then spending a day being an aquarium diver for the day.

The main tank here is beyond awesome - 12 million litres of water, 9.6m deep, 76 metres long by 34 metres wide. Simply phenomenal - and YOU can dive in it.

The Ultimate Dive is limited to four people, and you get two dives in the tank, one a reef-fish feed and the other a ray feed. Unbelievable experience. Watch out for a full article on this in a future issue.

But back to the bite! I spent a day as an aquarium diver, as beyond the glamorous bit of swimming around on front of everyone, you also have to prepare food, feed the fish, clean the windows, dust the bottom, spread the sand, etc. Six divers do four 75-minute dives every day doing this - it is a major task to keep the tank looking fantastic.

I got to feed the sharks in the shark tank, and the bowmouth sharks were boisterous to say the least, but that went ok, it was the guitarsharks that were the issue. I slid some squid into its mouth and moved my hand away, but not quick enough - it darted forward and got my little finger in its mouth. Ouch! Luckily no teeth as such, just hard plates for crushing its prey. Hurt like hell and gave the team here a good laugh! Only thing to show for it is a tiny bit of bruising under the nail. Phew... I will leave the 'real' shark bites to the likes of Tony White!

Back to reality now - this place really defies description - and will be boarding a 2.30am flight back to Blighty in a couple of hours. Be glad to get away from the 47 degree C heat though!