Diving with Sharks?

This last weekend I got to go babysit my grandchildren in Utah while my son and daughter-in-law went for their scuba diving certification.  Well, I had a wonderful time with the grand kids but it was so interesting visiting the site where they go scuba diving.

First, the site didn't look anything like a place where anyone would go scuba diving.  I mean, what comes to my mind when someone says they are going scuba diving is a lake or ocean - right?  Not in this case.  This spot was in the middle of the desert area and the diving area was little more than three ponds.  There is absolutely no way I could describe it as more than that.  It was quite interesting though.  The first pond was enclosed by some plastic cover only about 4 feet tall.  I guess if you are under water, you don't need to have much height on top of the water.  It just looked strange.

The second and third ponds were connected by a tunnel.  One had a covering over it and was the main hub for preparing gear and such.  It was attached to a building which I can only assume was an office.  The outside pond was the biggest yet it was not all that big.  The interesting thing about these ponds was that they were all salt water spring fed.  Because of that, they had some interesting fish in them...a shark, some stingrays, and several other kinds of fish.

The divers begin their training in a swimming pool then move to the plastic covered pond and finally get to swim with the sharks.  I got to take the kids on the final day of their parent's dive. 

We watched them feed the shark and stingray right from the side of the pond.  Some actually reached out and petted the shark.  They fed the shark and other fish before anyone went in swimming.  The hope was that the fish would be content and stay at the bottom of the pond while the divers did their diving.  Sounds really scary to me but I wasn't in the water thank goodness.

The pictures are of the stingray being fed fish and the shark right near the edge close enough to touch.

What a fun experience I had this last weekend (other than the fact that I also ended up with the flu).  I got to enjoy my wonderful grandchildren and visit this fun scuba diving place.  Very interesting!