Diving with Sharks at Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to scuba dive with sharks?

How about doing it without hopping on a plane, or leaving the comfort of Toronto?

Now you can, thanks to Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada’s Discovery Dive program!

Like many avid scuba divers, diving with sharks was always on the top of my bucket list. For over three years, I watched my Ripley’s Aquarium colleagues dive in Dangerous Lagoon to perform routine maintenance and cleaning, and had always wondered what it felt like to come face-to-face with the ocean’s top predator.

So, when Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada launched the Discovery Dive program in Fall 2016, I dove at the opportunity to find out for myself.

Led by experienced Education and Husbandry/Animal Care staff, this two-hour experience begins with a behind the scenes tour of the Aquarium. If you’ve ever wondered how an Aquarium maintains the tanks, tests water quality, where the food is prepped and even how they move large animals to and fro, this behind the scenes tour will answer all of your questions and more.

After the tour, you’ll don your wetsuit, do a safety briefing and equipment check, and then, it’s dive time!

The 30-minute guided dive takes place in the Dangerous Lagoon, a 2.9 million litre tank that gives you the chance to see the Aquarium’s green sea turtles, green sawfish, stingrays, moray eels and numerous of species of tropical fish. And you can’t forget about the stars of the show, the sharks. The Dangerous Lagoon is home to over a dozen sharks, representing three species – sand tiger, sand bar and nurse. Some even measure up to 13 feet long! Talk about feeling like a small fish.

Some people may call me crazy, but there’s no need to worry about the sharks on this dive (or even in the wild for that matter), they’re just looking to go about their own business. The trained Divers that are guiding you through the water work with these animals every day. They know exactly what behaviours to look for, how to tell the sharks to move along and are very good at communicating with the guests about when to stop, when to keep your eyes open and most importantly, when to relax and enjoy the scenery.

So what exactly did it feel like to come face-to-face with the ocean’s top predator?

Just like I had always imagined, absolutely exhilarating. Being under the water, surrounded by fish, is such a calming experience. That’s right, calming. And despite the busy summer crowds staring at me from the other side of the tank, this underwater adventure was something I will be talking about for a long time.

Learn more about the Discovery Dive requirements, availability, cost and more on our website.

And if diving with the sharks isn’t for you, or you’d just like to keep your head above water, check out the Stingray Experience – your chance to get up close and personal with the cownose and southern stingrays in another feature tank, Ray Bay.

Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada is proud to donate 10% of proceeds from the Discovery Dive program to the Shark Research Institute to support their work in shark conservation. Visit their website to learn more about their work.

Have a question about the Aquarium, or something you would like to see on Deep Sea Diary? Drop us a line in the comments below before August 31, 2017 for the chance to be featured in our monthly Q&A post and win 2 tickets to the Aquarium!