Within a minute of being in the water we saw a dark goliath in the distance slowly undulating along the seafloor. With its impressive size, long tapered fins and wide head the silhouette looked more like a whale shark, but as it neared the beautiful silver stripes gave the tiger away. Soon we were freediving face to face with a 14-foot tiger shark and gazing into its big black eyes. It may have been one of the most calm and peaceful sharks we have ever experienced. This beautiful and powerful animal momentarily inspected us and then ignored us for the rest of the morning as we freedived alongside her; we were definitely not on her menu.