Morehead City Shark Missiles

Chris Walker · Issue 47, Mar/Apr 2009 · pp. 62–65

Products mentioned: Nikon D70S, Tokina 12-24mm lens, Ikelite DS125 strobe

I’m hovering 80 feet below the surface thirty miles off the coast of Morehead City, North Carolina. In all directions I’m surrounded by large sharks. There is no other place I would rather be. There are so many sharks below me that I worry about inadvertently kicking one while looking the other way. High above me the largest sharks circle endlessly like jumbo jets hovering over a busy airport. My camera’s memory card is packed with a ridiculous number of exposures and I can’t stop smiling. I don’t want to look at my computer because I know that my time is almost up. Instead I lower my camera for a brief moment and take it all in. Carefully fining my way through a narrow passageway in the dark interior of an old shipwreck I come face to nose with a large shark. Neither the shark nor I can swim very well in reverse so I sink to the bottom of the hallway and try to be small. Undisturbed by …