Sunday, December 18, 2016

Pure adrenaline : divers facing great white sharks

In West Oz – Lucky Bay, more precisely, 60 clicks from Esperance – a filmer named Ash Gibb went diving to acquire footage for a shark conservation documentary he's planning to make.
It was during this dive – the first time shooting for the doco – that he was aggressively rammed in the back, before turning to see a great white shark circling him.
Let's hand over to Ash:
"I dove down. I was in about five metres of water getting a great shot of this fish and I felt this massive thump from behind. Very quickly I saw the great white shoot into the picture.
"At first I was quite excited. I thought, great, this is what I came for. The biggest thing for me was just focusing on my breathing. I didn't want to show that I was scared. I reminded myself of my belief about sharks, which is the fact that they don't eat humans on purpose. We're not their food.
"I think that's sort of what got me through a lot of nerves, because it was very intense. Even though I wanted to go and do that, it was a very testing situation.
"I went there to show people that they are beautiful creatures, so there was no chance of me fleeing that situation.
"I was there to film. I got the opportunity. The chances of that actually happening are one in a million, so I took that opportunity and did my best to keep my hand steady, and capture it on film.
"I want to continue on filming. I'd love to see another great white. The bigger the better.
"I have over 300 skydives and the Adrenalin does not compare.”

(courtesy of Stabmag)

On a recent great white shark cage diving trip we experienced a very rare event, a shark breaching the side of the cage.
What might appear to be an aggressive great white shark trying to attack the cage, this is not the case.
These awesome sharks are biting at large chunks of tuna tied to a rope.
When a great white shark lunges and bites something, it is temporarily blinded.
They also cannot swim backwards.
So this shark lunged at the bait, accidentally hit the side of the cage, was most likely confused and not able to swim backwards, it thrust forward and broke the metal rail of the cage.
There was a single diver inside the cage.
He ended up outside the bottom of the cage, looking down on two great white sharks.
The diver is a very experienced dive instructor, remained calm, and when the shark thrashed back outside the cage, the diver calmly swam back up and climbed out completely uninjured.
The boat crew did an outstanding job, lifting the top of the cage, analyzing the frenzied situation, and the shark was out after a few long seconds.
Everyone on the boat returned to the cages the next day, realizing this was a very rare event.
The boat owner, captain, and crew are to be commended for making what could've been a tragic event into a happy ending.
I'm sure God and luck had a bit to do with it too!

 New footage captures huge great white shark in Mexico
The massive predator, nicknamed Deep Blue, was spotted in the waters near Mexico's Guadalupe Island.
The shark, who is estimated to be around 50 years old, is believed to be one of the largest great white sharks ever seen.
She was featured last year in a Discovery network documentary after local researcher Mauricio Hoyos Padilla managed to tag her. (see Discovery article)
But Hoyos has posted new footage of Deep Blue that shows her come nail-bitingly close to a cage diver.
Hoyos posted the video on Facebook
on Monday, August 10, 2015, under the title, “I give you the biggest white shark ever seen in front of the cages in Guadalupe Island… DEEP BLUE!!!”
The unbelievable footage shows the mammoth shark swimming around the cage, seemingly ignoring the divers in a roof-less steel cage.
One brave diver decides to swim out of the cage and reaches out to touch the shark.
Divers from across the world travel to Guadalupe, which is located 165 miles west of Baja California, to see its famous great whites.

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