Lifestyle / great white shark 10 Places to Swim With Sharks The world's top spots to get up close and personal with Jaws By Polly Davis Doig, Newser Staff Posted Aug 1, 2010 5:50 PM CDT Copied In this May, 30, 2010 photo, a whale shark swims in the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore) If you've been jonesing for Shark Week, kicking off tonight, Discovery's in-house shark expert Andy DeHart recommends 10 places where you can go to swim with the big fishes, courtesy of ABC: Cocos Island, Costa Rica: "Hundreds of scalloped hammerheads school above the scenic sea mounts" of this jungle rising out of the ocean, says DeHart. The trick? It's a 36-hour boat ride from the mainland. Isla de Mujeres, Mexico: A little closer to home, you can run into up to 50 whale sharks at a hit. Tip: "Snorkeling is the method for encounters with these huge plankton-feeding sharks," DeHart says. Guadalupe Island, Mexico: Clear blue water makes this "hands-down the best place to photograph and film enormous great white sharks," DeHart says. It's another long boat ride, though, at 150 miles off Mexico. Palau Shark Sanctuary, Palau: The island nation sports the world's first shark sanctuary, roughly the size of France. "Palau is realizing that sharks are worth more in tourism dollars than as a commercial fishery," DeHart says. For the rest of the list, from Africa to Australia, click here. (More great white shark stories.) Report an error