Not much has changed since I left, or since 1986, when Bill invented diving and tourism here, for that matter… this is how the guys kick the energy level up a few notches out at Vertigo. This is a Texas style shark feeding, that happens anytime anyone wants, out on the Philippine Sea reef.

The way Bill designed this dive is with two boats/captains, 3 dive guides, himself, his two Yap size dive groups of 6, and now a blogger riding the bow – it’s an underwater spectacle that happens, [insert redneck Texas accent here] “as close as you feel comfortable”.

You can get intimate shark encounters three different ways here. This is level 3. It starts out with 40 gallons of shark food, made right here at the resort, just like the beer.

Yellow fina tuna, wahoo, barracuda, marlin… it’s all in there frozen around bent rebar. The very second this stuff hits the water, it’s like a firecracker went off.

Next up, the food is suspended between a mooring line and a surface bouy, you have to pull the line with a half a dozen reef sharks yanking on the chumcicle.

After that, you can pull up a corral head, hang out in the blue or move right into the ball of sharks and get whatever it was you came here for.

There’s a reason why there’s two buckets, this is a full tank of Nitrox dive with an intermission and grand finale. There’s front row and bar style seating for those who want to keep their distance… and if you wanted to, you could get within macro range of the bait and feel it.

Bill knows how to ring the dinner bell in Yap cutting his guests in on Micronesia’s best shark dive… and pulls this line in crystal clear blue water.  This is how you pull a third tank and experience a nice slice of nature.

You are circled by sharks as big as you if you’re off of the reef. In the background are upside down sharks shredding on the bait. In just one eyeful you see every kind of shark behavior from investigation laps to jaws out latched on and hearing them tearing the bait apart. If you want, you can have sharks right up in your mask…

This is something that I highly recommend, not just because I get to go and take pictures of you… but where else can you do this after two morning dives, lunch, a massage and still make it back in time for happy hour?

After the bait is gone you can swoop in and pick yourself up a few souvenir Yap shark teeth. That looks like a scene out of Bering Sea Gold or something.

This is the full deal Texan size shark dive, like I said earlier “level 3”. There’s more than one way to experience Yap’s abundant population of reef sharks. Level 2 is a bait box with a couple of fish heads and tails that is stuffed into the reef where the sharks can’t get at it, but they can’t leave it alone either… so you have sharks right up in your dome as long as you want.

The other way to have natural shark encounters is just to dive here, aside from the Manta Cleaning station in M’il Channel, there’s sharks at every dive site. That’s today’s Yap shark status report… next up, #1 underwater video awarded to Oceans Below, shot entirely in Yap.