Tiger Beach

Tiger Beach is not a beach at all but a shallow white-sand bank roughly a square mile in size on the northwestern edge of the Little Bahama Bank, about 20–30 miles (30–45 km) off West End, Grand Bahama. Trips run from the Old Bahama Bay marina at West End as day boats or, more often, multi-day liveaboards, and Florida-based vessels also visit. The sand flats sit at about 5–6 m (the wider reef bottom is near 15 m / 50 ft, rising to 10 m / 30 ft), and the warm, clear Gulf Stream water gives some of the best visibility in the Caribbean—commonly 30–40 m and up to 60 m. This is baited shark diving: a feeder deploys a crate of bait on the sand, divers kneel in two rows with the chum slick running downcurrent between them, and long bottom times are possible at such shallow depth. The headline animal is the tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier)—predominantly large, often pregnant females that show strong seasonal site fidelity, with cooler-water months (roughly October–May) bringing the most reliable encounters. Lemon, Caribbean reef and nurse sharks are present year-round, the occasional bull shark turns up, and great hammerheads appear in winter (mainly at nearby Bimini, December–April). The whole area lies inside the Bahamas Shark Sanctuary, declared across the country's >600,000 km² EEZ in 2011, building on a 1993 commercial-longline ban. Conditions are usually calm but currents can be moderate, and the baited format demands disciplined buoyancy, situational awareness and respect for the animals.

• Tiger Beach is one of the world's most reliable places to dive with large tiger sharks: a feeder deploys baited crates on the white sand and divers kneel in two rows with the chum slick running downcurrent between them, so on an average dive you might see 5–7 tiger sharks alongside ~15 lemon sharks, 20+ Caribbean reef sharks and a few nurse sharks—up to six species of shark in one site.
• The whole area sits inside the Bahamas Shark Sanctuary, declared across the country's exclusive economic zone (>600,000 km²) in 2011 and built on a commercial-longline fishing ban in place since 1993; the sanctuary protects all sharks from fishing, possession and trade in Bahamian waters.
• Research using acoustic telemetry, satellite tagging, blood-hormone analysis and ultrasonography shows the tiger sharks at Tiger Beach are a female-dominated aggregation with seasonal and life-stage variation in reproductive ecology—including pregnant females—making the site a focus for understanding whether the Shark Sanctuary effectively protects tiger-shark reproduction.