While watching a juvenile Humpback calf about 200 yards away, I decided to get in the

water and see if perhaps the mother or escort were swimming under or near me. I tethered

the surf ski to my fin and started swimming around on the surface, looking all around and

below for a possible view of a whale. After a few minutes, I saw a dark shape appear from

the depths and initially assumed that possibly the calf had swam over to me. The animal

wasn't swimming like a whale and as it headed up, straight at me, it became very clear that

I wasn't watching a whale. I held perfectly still, holding the camera straight out and thinking that

it might be my only line of defense. I even took a picture when it was about 15 feet away.

As the shark got closer, it started to veer of but then came straight back on a direct coarse,

right at me. It's mouth was open and I could make out its teeth. It finally slowed about 4 feet

away and we just stared at each other for what seemed like a very long time. I judged that my

camera and hands could easily fit into its mouth. Finally, the shark turned away and started

swimming away from me. At that point, I took a couple more pictures, grabbed the tether

while still watching the shark, pulled the surf ski up to me, and got out of the water real fast!

With out any reference point, I can't be sure how big this tiger shark was but I would guess somewhere

between 8 and 10 feet long. Having never determined a proper manual setting for infinity on the

Tetra housing with wide angle port, I missed many shots as the auto focus could not lock on.

In the case of this tiger encounter, the best shot, in terms of composition and position of the shark

is out of focus. At least the camera found something (plankton or jelly?) to focus on so a picture was

taken. The image is below: