Cat Island

A shark day here is single-purpose. Small boats run out past the drop-off at the island's southern end, stop where there is nothing below but open water, and then simply stay put. Bait is kept in a crate at the boat so the animals have a reason to circle it, there is no cage and no bottom to sit on, and the group works as one unit under the hull. Profiles are shallow, so bottom time is generous and several entries fit into a day; the gaps are spent sitting in open ocean, which is restful or tedious depending on your stomach.

There is no reef diving in the usual sense on those days. The only references are the boat, the line and the other divers, and the briefing is strict about exactly that: tight group, gear tucked in, look behind you, hands to yourself. Oceanic whitetips are unhurried and will come in close, which is what makes them photogenic and what makes the discipline matter — divers are generally shown how to redirect one with a camera housing rather than a hand. Tartar Bank is the other dive on offer, a seamount at the end of a longer crossing, run only on flat days and carrying current.

Around that core the south coast supplies conventional diving — walls falling away from shallow reef, patch coral and easy drifts — which is what fills the days the offshore boat cannot run. The island itself is quiet and thinly populated, short on the infrastructure divers take for granted elsewhere, so trips are usually sold as a package of diving, rooms and transfers on a fixed schedule. It suits confident divers with sound buoyancy and photographers chasing one specific animal, rather than anyone wanting a varied reef holiday.