My best day ever diving with a great white shark

Some better news from the always forward thinking crew on the NEX. This is their trip report from last weeks turmoil on site. From the sounds of things it's not half bad out there w/o chum especially when you factor in a Lexan cage floor:

Location: Shark Bay, Guadalupe Island, Baja California, Mexico

Dive day 2 of this trip and it was a doozie. The Mexican navy frigate is still anchored on site in Shark Bay and we are getting to know the crew. They are good guys and very interested in the experience of diving with great white sharks. Heck, I think the great whites are even swimming around the back of their boat. The Captain of the frigate extended a very kind invitation to myself and the television crew that I am hosting onboard to go for a 2 hour steam with them to the south end of Guadalupe and then ashore for a tour of the island with the local NGO. I would have LOVED to have gone but it would have been irresponsible of me as Captain of the Nautilus Explorer to be off the ship, onshore 20 miles away, with a full load of guests and crew left behind.

DANG as I’ve never gone for a ride on a navy frigate before and the remote volcanic oceanic island of Guadalupe is always a fascinating place to go ashore. I consoled myself by taking our new submersible cage down for my first dive in it. It is very cool. The lexan deck is fabulous. When you climb down the ladder into the cage and look down, it is completely clear. There doesn’t appear to be anything between you and the bottom 250 feet below. I am definitely thinking about converting our other 4 cages to lexan decks as well!! And as I discovered during my dive, it is pretty amazing when a 15 foot great white shark swims by 1 foot underneath the cage and you have a clear and unobstructed view of him from VERY close up. Submerging the cage is a blast.

I made sure that my divers were ready and signalled ok to the deck crew. And then it was blow the ballast tanks with a big whhooossh and we were on our way down to 40 feet. What an amazing perspective - we could see the 4 other cages above us and the anchor line was clearly visible 125 feet in front of us. Best of all, a nice big 15 foot male great white shark showed up 2 minutes into our dive and started circling us. And circling us. I found it to be a very different experience from watching the sharks from the surface cages as it is obviously far more 3 dimensionable (is that a word??).

The pattern the white shark was following became clear and predictable after a while - he would circle tightly around us for 3 or 4 revolutions and then disappear off the front of the Nautilus. And then reappear in a tight vertical climb towards the boom and transom cages and do a close pass in front of those cages and then gliiiiiiiide down towards us, circle us another 3 or 4 times and then head off to the bow of the Nautilus again. Always more or less the same pattern with just small variations. Fascinating. And boy did this guy swim close to us - we could literally watch the pupil of his eye swivel back and forth as he swam past the cage (when you see a great white shark close up, you realize that their eye is not the black “hole” that it appears at a distance - there is very clearly a brown pupil surrounded by a lighter coloured background).. All too soon, our 40 minutes were up and it was time to put some air in the buoyancy tanks and be hauled up to the surface. What a great splash and my good fortune that Sten and Buzz decided to let me do a second back-to-back dive.

We’re happy to take 2 divers and divemaster in the submersible cage and I decided to ask the navy lieutenant who was onboard the Nautilus if he would like to go for a dive with me. It took him all of 30 seconds to chuck his khaki uniform and jump into the cage in his shorts!!! We blew the ballast tanks and went back down to 40 feet to find that the same shark was still hanging around. Our friend from the Mexican navy had a huge smile on his face and kept on reaching out to try and touch the white shark as it swam past. Today was a very good day and all of our guests are very, very happy.

Captain Mike

Sharks and Kids-Changing the playing field

In 2007 the Nautilus Explorer hosted several wide eyed children at Isla Guadalupe, Mexico. If the world is to see sharks remain in our oceans it is this next generation who will carry the torch for these amazing animals. Kudos to Mike and Roberto.

Here's the video:

Guadalupe Conservation Fund-New Home

Back in 2006 Shark Diver created the Isla Guadalupe Conservation Fund website.

The goal was to direct funds from concerned divers and members of the general public into ongoing shark tagging and research studies being conducted by the team from CICIMAR.

We're happy to announce that this goal has been met, and that the CICIMAR team-lead by grad student Mauricio Hoyos has completed their work at the island and will be publishing their data soon. What the team discovered at this pristine site has answered three of the main questions that have puzzled us since we began operations here 6 years ago.

While we would love to tell you what they discovered, we'll let them tell you in their own words. Suffice to say, knowing what the sharks are doing at Isla Guadalupe on a day-to-day basis has made the entire 4 year effort worth it.

Additionally the IGC Fund now has a new home.

The Isla Guadalupe Conservation Fund is now managed as an advised fund at the International Community Foundation, a registered 501c3 not-for profit-organization which is dedicated to expanding charitable giving internationally with an emphasis in environment and conservation grant making in Northwest Mexico.

The ICF has raised over $30,000 with the extreme help and support of Mike Lever owner and operator of the Nautilus Explorer. Mike remains committed to all aspects of marine conservation and when he gets a chance he'll always step in and protect the critters he makes a living from.

Nautilus Explorer Revillagigedos:Simply Perfect

It's February, 2008. For divers who absolutely need to see sharks this time of year the big question is where to go in February?

Fortunately for you, Shark Diver, there's a small island chain in Mexico (where else) called the Revillagigedos-(just try saying this name correctly, we dare you) that is stuffed with more Shark, Ray, and Manta encounters than you can shake a regulator at. The crew of the long range expedition dive vessel Nautilus Explorer can take you there.

This is what diving should be: