I hate my job...NOT!

Big sharks and surgically enhanced young ladies - what more could you want?! Myself and the BBC "Steve Backshall's Deadly 60" crew have just left the Bimini shark research lab where lady luck smiled sweetly upon us and delivered some incredible tiger shark encounters as well as the usual nurse and lemon shark moments. Just as we thought things couldn't get any better a rusted 4WD truck pulled up and 17 Hooters calendar girls stepped down in tiny white hot pants with "Shark Bait" across the buttocks and tight blue tops with "Chum-Body Luvs Me" across the chest! What followed were several surreal hours of excited screams, giggles and inane chat of no benefit to the Deadly 60 program, we were there to film, except that it perked up the topside cameraman considerably.

Although this encounter was slightly amusing and bizarre the previous day's encounter with the Tiger sharks was infinitely more memorable and satisfying. We joined the shark lab research guys out to their offshore long-lines which were set in 600ft of water a few hours earlier. With in just 10 minutes Steve was hauling in our first Tiger shark. A baby at just over 2 meters with wrinkly skin, that it really hadn’t quite grown into yet, was offset with perfect Tiger markings, provided Steve and the crew the perfect first encounter.

ATiger shark takes the bait (Kristine Stump)

Once the shark was tagged and measurements taken Steve released the tail rope and gently swam the shark into the current and then down past me and my camera and into the depths none the worse for its scientific work up. By the time I had gotten back into the support boat Steve was hauling up the second shark of the afternoon and it soon became apparent by the effort that Steve had to put into the hauling that this was going to be a bigger shark. In fact by the time the second Tiger was brought up alongside the research boat there were shouts of "We are going to need a bigger boat!" I didn’t waste any time and jumped back in the water and was soon looking at the business end of a 3m 80cm male tiger shark. No doubt about it an incredible animal. This animal already displayed a dorsal fin tag from a previous capture so the data collected this time round would be compared with data collected before and growth rates calculated. As Steve and the research guys took the measurements I filmed along its entire body from tip of tail to tip of teeth and was just left in awe quite frankly. Steve Jumped in and the tail rope was unwound. I sank below, camera rolling, as Steve took a quick lung full of air and gently swam the big tiger down past me and off into the blue. An incredible end to an incredible day...little did I know what the next 4 days would have in store for me!

Right: Steve Backshall of "Deadly 60" rides a tiger shark as Scubazoo's Simon Enderby films (Kristine Stump)

After a very bumpy overnight 80 mile boat ride we anchored at Tiger Beach sand banks some 30 miles offshore of Grand Bahamas. The shark lab research team began chumming straight away and it wasn't long at all before the first lemon sharks arrived. We gave them a couple of hours to build in numbers, and confidence, as well as letting the sun to climb in the sky before jumping in with Doc Gruber leading the way.

Immediately we found ourselves surrounded by 12 6-9ft lemon sharks...I couldnt help but get heaps of fantastic 2 shots of Steve and the Lemons...it was a real shark fest. Over the next 2 hours I filmed lemon sharks from every angle imaginable before a full tape and low battery forced me from the water. It took only a few minutes to swap in a fresh tape and battery and down I went again...I was in heaven. After 4 hours there just wasn’t any other way left to film a lemon shark and I climbed the ships dive ladder satiated and bearing a vast chubby grin! It was then decided to let the chum slick grow and give the sharks some room with the hope of drawing in either Tigers or Great Hammerheads.

Simon Enderby of Scubazoo and Steve Backshall of "Deadly 60" amidst lemon sharks (Kristine Stump)

As the afternoon wore on I found it extremely difficult to keep myself from the water - patience isn’t my strong point when there’s over 10 large sharks swimming quite happily just a few feet from me. But as the sun sunk low someone suddenly shouted out that there were some bigger shapes putting in an appearance and they certainly didn’t look or behave like the confident lemons. I jumped in first and filmed Steve enter the water and swim directly down to the camera through the orange sunburst of sunset to settle on the sand just in front of me and then point wildly behind me and with a quick pan round I came face to face with a 3.5m great hammerhead which proceeded to literally eyeball the camera just a few inches away before circling us along with a few lemon sharks only to part for a circling Tiger shark!! This all happened in one 1 minute 50 sec continuous shot. MAGIC! The sun quickly disappeared and I switched on the video light to illuminate a very chatty Steve as he described the increased hunting activity amongst the large adult lemons. It was very obvious that the onset of dusk had brought about a clear change in their behaviour, fins became more rigid and pointed down, their speed picked up and they displayed what I can only best describe as active hunting behaviour becoming even more bolder than they were earlier in the day. It takes a lot for me to feel unsettled in the water but I now sensed we were becoming vulnerable and I signaled time to wrap up and ascend. I filmed Steve's last piece to camera and swim to the dive ladder and just as the piece came to an end and I hit standby a 10 ft lemon swam over my right shoulder and began to chew on the video light most likely attracted by its low electronic emittance. After a quick chomp and realisation that it wasn’t anything tasty the lemon let go and swam off into the gloom and I called it quits and climbed out!

The next morning I eagerly looked out over the stern of the boat as the shark lab guys and gals plied the waters with more chum. After an hour or so bigger more cautious shadows approached the baits. Again Steve and I hurriedly kitted up and entered the water and out of the bright morning light a bus slowly and gracefully appeared. Ok not a real bus but a very chunky gorgeous looking 12ft long female tiger shark. For the next 2 hours she swam up to and around us as she chewed the baits and checked out the sandy floor for fish tidbits. At no point did she display any aggression nor did I feel anxious in the slightest. By the end of the morning I had some really memorable nose to nose footage of this big mumma and Steve and she was joined every now and then with other smaller tigers, 5 different individuals in total apparently according to the researchers.

As I finally made my way back to the dive ladder at the end of our final film dive I spied something small and white on the sand and on closer inspection I picked up a discarded lemon shark tooth - a fantastic memento and fantastic end to a fantastic shoot!