Titanic White Shark Caught in the Sea of Cortez

Peter Thomas Outdoors is reporting one of the largest white sharks ever caught in Mexican waters this week, an animal estimated to be close to 20 feet long.

If true, this animal might represent what many have long suspected in the Sea of Cortez, a smaller distinct white shark population in these waters that may well be on it's way to complete extinction.

Or...this is just another dead shark in a population of known sharks that are pupping in this region (ya happy now DS?).

Time will tell or maybe it won't, as the numbers of big whites caught in nets seems to be on the increase.

From Peter Thomas Outdoors:


"We were amazed and immediately realized that we had a huge, dead, great white shark, and then we thought what are we going to do?," Guadalupe said in an interview with Tracy Ehrenberg of Pisces Sportfishing, which is located in the resort city of Cabo San Lucas.

The shark was nearly as long as their 22-foot panga, or skiff. They had to tow the behemoth to the beach, where about 50 people helped drag it onto dry sand.

"Guadalupe and Baltazar swore they had never seen a fish this big before in their lives," the Pisces blog stated. "Even though on March 13 of this year, some of their fellow fishermen had also caught a great white, which had weighed 990 pounds."

The irony that one of the fishermen that caught this shark was named Guadalupe has not escaped us.

Big Whites Down South - New Video

If you want to know where to find white sharks always ask the local fishermen, in this case a sizable animal makes an appearance in the Southern hemisphere last week:

Bruised and Beaten at Isla Guadalupe 2010

The 2010 white shark diving season at Isla Guadalupe has been one of the most productive on record with most of our trips seeing high double digit numbers for identified sharks at our cages.

During each season we see a wide variety of white sharks in various health conditions. In 2004 a shark we called Dead Man Walking appeared at our cages for the first and only time.

His condition was horrible, covered in parasites, emaciated, and sadly, not long for this world. He never came back.

This is the nature of commercial shark diving, we are here to witness these animals. The 2010 shark population has been robust and, for the most part, healthy. Except this guy - image by Amanda S.

Two weeks ago this unidentified critter arrived at our cages looking pretty tattered. Massive old and fresh bite scars are all over the animal and dorsal fin that was chopped and flopped were the hallmarks of this white shark.

Newly minted Shark Diver, Amanda S, got some good ident images we will be sending on. Not all is lost though, as we discovered with Lucy. Her tail is absolutely shredded and when she arrived at our cages a few years ago with the fresh bite that had removed 20% of her tail we wondered if she could make the long migration to and from the island.

She has, three times now, and successfully predated on a seal as well. What we think we know about the robust nature of these amazing animals, we do not, as critters like Lucy, and this new shark (still looking for a name) show us how nature survives even in the worst of conditions.

Gulf of the Farallones - Hooking Sharks Round Two?

Research teams are back at it with a new draft proposal to bait, hook, and tag more sharks at the Gulf of the Farallones Marine Sanctuary.

The draft proposal is here.

Public comment can be emailed to sanctuary staff member Carliane.Johnson@noaa.gov until October 12, 2010.

Last years effort was well documented when a breeding aged white shark was foul hooked, and the hook had to be cut free with a pair of industrial bolt cutters.

The hook was embedded so deeply that cutters had to be pushed through the sharks gills.

Only a small percent of the hook was recovered and the rest was left inside the animal.

Apparently, and much to the research teams relief, the animal lived. It still has a man made hook embedded deep in its throat prompting Maria Brown, Farallones Sanctuary Manager, to give the following assessment of this kind of research:

"I equated it to, it felt like what it's like when I go to the dentist; when you go in, you get a cavity filled, it's something that maybe you don't want to go do, but you do it, it's quick, it's over, it's done."

Please read that statement again. It was for the record to ABC News in regards to a throat hooked protected species in a National Marine Sanctuary. The 2009 permit was issued for a research/television show called Shark Men.

A team of expert anglers, a renowned shark scientist and a Hollywood heartthrob join forces to unmask the mysteries of the world's largest predatory fish. Their bold expedition includes a unique vessel with an unprecedented way to lift Great Whites out of the water for examination.

The ensuing foul hooked shark media calamity was a black eye for both the Farallones, the entire NOAA sanctuary system, and invasive shark tagging programs. Our views on the matter were for the record and we were one of the few commercial shark diving operators to take a public stance against this kind of research. For reasons that remain obvious to this day.

No one can guarantee a hooked white shark will not suffer grievous damage with this kind of work.

In the end this brand of invasive research/television programming will have to be decided by interested parties, use groups, other researchers, and the general public.

Should be an interesting few months.

2010 Shark Diving Report - Cage Diving at Guadalupe

For our divers 2010 has been the Trip of a Lifetime so far. Celebrated with email blasts to friends and Facebook posts to the world.

These lucky divers have met the most charismatic, studied, and filmed white sharks on the planet.

For newly minted Shark Diver Craig Reynolds, nothing but his own Great White Blog to recount his adventures this year would do:

Day 1 – CRAZY PEOPLE – When you tell people you’re going on a shark dive, you can almost guarantee that you’ll get a fairly similar reaction from most people.

“You’re crazy,” they’ll say. Well, yeah. I work in advertising, don’t I? Why do you think they have a show called Mad Men??

I mean, when you tell people you’re willing to parachute out of a perfectly good plane, they still look at you somewhat admirably, cushioning their judgment by saying something like, “oh, I could never do that.” But cage diving falls into a different category. When it comes to sharks, people have been conditioned to fear them for a long time.

I think we can all thank Stephen Spielberg for that.

Complete Series Posts.

Monterey Bay White Shark Research - Nine Years

The premier white shark husbandry and tagging project for juvenile animals is celebrating nine years of cutting edge work in Monterey.

This week Sea Notes posted a summary worth reading:

This summer is the ninth year of our White Shark Project. Through this work we have been able to display five juvenile great whites in our Outer Bay exhibit and have tagged and tracked these sharks, and nearly 40 others in the field, to learn more about the movements of these young animals along the coast.

This year, with the Outer Bay exhibit about to undergo a transformation, we won’t try to bring a shark to Monterey; but the field work continues.

From our previous research results we’ve seen that some young white sharks tagged in the southern California region move to, or return to, warmer winter waters off Baja California. We’d like to know if they return to California and regularly make this south-north migration, but the size of the young sharks limits the tag we can use, and thus how much information we can gather.

Complete Post.

White Shark Tagging Video Chatham

Chatham - While the shark sightings keep rolling in, it's not clear exactly how many great white sharks are out there, officials have said, because sharks could be sighted more than once. Williams said the Division of Marine Fisheries doesn't count the number of sightings because "that's just not valuable data."

Complete story.

It’s Shark Season – Catch a Shark with the Nat Geo Channel

The great white shark is the largest predatory fish on earth: reaching more than 20 feet long and weighing as much as 6,000 lbs, with serrated teeth and keen senses that can detect blood in water from three miles away. But now, this fearsome beast has met its match: the crew of the Ocean, a team of world-class anglers and a renowned shark scientist on the “wildest fishing trip of all time.”

Starting Sunday, June 6, 2010, with a special series premiere at 9 p.m. ET/PT followed by a new premiere at it’s regular time 10 p.m. ET/PT,the National Geographic Channel launches its new summer series, Expedition Great White.

Expedition Great White chronicles the savvy, salty and sweat-covered crew as they lift SUV-sized sharks out of the water 160 miles off the coast of Baja Calirfornia with a specially modified hydraulic cradle, then mount a long-lasting tracking tag, take measurements and DNA samples while pumping water into the shark’s mouth to keep it alive, and release it unharmed … in less than 20 minutes.

The goal -- to study the great white in the wild and unravel the mysteries of the great white’s life cycle ? where they are born, how they mate, where they migrate and where they congregate ? to help conserve and protect these endangered animals.

White Shark Killed in Nets - Ensenada, Mexico

Peter Thomas has full coverage of the white shark recently released from Monterey Bay AQ only to be caught and killed off the coast of Ensenada, Mexico.

A blow to tagged shark research and a follow up to our own investigations of the Ensenada fish market where, over the past 5 years, we have been documenting the take of juvenile whites sold as swordfish here for 60-100 pesos a kilo.

Peter Thomas Blog:

A young great white shark that was released after 69 days of captivity at Monterey Bay Aquarium has died in a commercial fisherman's net off Ensenada, Mexico.

Scientists had tagged the female shark and were following its movements after its release last November. They became concerned recently when a tag attached to the shark's dorsal fin revealed movements over land.

Oscar Sosa-Nishizaki, a Mexican researcher, traced the movements to the home of a fisherman who acknowledged catching the shark in his gill-net.

Complete Story.

California Shark Research - Nuclear Options

Question: How do you age validate sharks?

Unlike trees or even mammals sharks are cartilaginous, they do not have bones or tree rings to look over after they die.

Bones and tree rings can give you the age of your target research specimen pretty quickly. With most shark species that's a much harder proposition.

Enter some smart folks at the Pacific Shark Research Center in California who are doing age validation of sharks and rays using radiocarbon isotopes.

As it turns out above ground testing of nukes in the 50's and 60's dropped these isotopes (¹⁴C) all over the planet and for a time every living thing on the planet had higher levels in their bodies. By tracking these higher levels in cartilage researchers can get a pretty accurate look at the age of long lived sharks like the white shark.

For more information go here.

Dear Isla Guadalupe Operators - What part of this is wrong?

O.K folks it's time for "The Chat -Version Two."

As you may recall we have been blogging about the absolutely moronic series of piss poor media hits members of our own industry have been streaming to the planet via You Tube, Facebook, mainstream media and more. It has been a bad year for operators who have been handing the anti-shark diving lobby the story that we, as an entire industry, are little more than idiotic thrill seekers bent on getting folks killed.

Since the beginning of 2009, full cage breaches, tiger shark media disasters, and image gaffs have been blasted to every major media outlet on the planet.

Is anyone out there listening? Does anyone care?

Clearly not.

Shark Week 2009 displayed the worst in a series to date to an estimated 30 million viewers. A stunning media achievement, alas setting the sharks we know at this very site back to the stone age in terms of the public perception of them.

Well done industry guys!

So it is with little surprise to this blog that we discover yet another remarkably stupid video placed on You Tube under the guise of "conservation". We're pretty sure the folks who actually shot this video are meant well, and they are completely unaware of the ongoing fluid and tenuous situation with Mexican lawmakers who are asking for this site to be shut down.

UPDATE: This video was not enabled by any operator at Isla Guadalupe it was shot on a private vessel shooting with National Geographic, adding an interesting twist to the shark media landscape at this pristine shark site.

Here's why this video fails on all levels except for the gratuitous "lookee here" factor:

1. Mexican park authorities do not sanction out of cage diving at this site.

2. Mexico's anti shark diving lobby (Green Party) who are looking for reasons for closure, and who, as recently as 2007/8, called for a complete ban on shark cage diving.

3. Anti-shark diving lobby, who once again have been handed a media win and who will use this video to further their efforts at maligning our industry.

4. Apart from a small group of shark diving insiders, this video places patently false expectations on white shark encounters.

There's a number of alternate reasons why this video should be pulled, but it becomes exhausting to go over them - yet again. Suffice to say none of the operators we have spoken with think this is anything but a poorly done shark stunt that will harm all the operators at this site.

Shark conservation is not shark stunt work. Let's get that straight.

Note: The person behind this stunt is also well known for his deep involvement in production Shark Porn. Shows that ultimately serve to demonize sharks to the general public.

Here is his CV.

Guadalupe Island -Trip Report 2009

Editors note: Megan Murray almost became a Shark Diver in 2008. Unfortunately she had to cancel her trip with us at the last moment.

The upside is she joined us this year, and as they say, "the second times is the charm":

Where Things Start

The other day I was sharing the details of my trip to Isla Guadalupe with a friend. I started with the story of meeting everyone on the H&M Landing on the morning of August 17^th. I began to see folks with suitcases and no fishing poles and started to figure these may be fellow travelers bound for the Horizon. I think it was Jeff who called out the first time. “Who’s here to shark dive!?” Ice broken.

After two years of telling people about my trip plan and getting “oh my god! Are you nuts!” in response, it was awesome to be surrounded by folks who were up for it. Not just up for it but stoked to get out there and see some White Sharks up close. Maybe it’s my own stereotyping of what sharking is all about, but I didn’t expect to see a lot of other women on the trip. I had this story that I’d be surrounded by tough guys. All certified, all knowing, and that I’d be the odd woman out. Not so friends. I shared the experience with four other women, and half of our group wasn’t certified. We were from everywhere, with all kinds of stories about why we were there. Meeting everyone was a big part of the trip for me that I had barely considered in my excitement to see some sharks. The people were just fantastic and I’m thrilled to say I’m still connected with them.

After the story intro, my friend said “It’s like Fantasy Island!” Hmm… something like that. It’s just that Martin isn’t as snappy a dresser as Mr. Rourke. (Almost buddy! I swear!)

The crew was just fantastic. We were well fed, well cared for and even entertained. And I don’t necessarily mean Jeff’s tendency to break into song or show you his moves. Mark’s cooking was awesome. I began to think he might be fattening us up for something… hmmm. It’s a pretty fantastic thing to have a bunch of great guys heeding your every need while hanging near a remote island in the Pacific. C’mon ladies. How often does this happen for you?

The Crossing

When you get your prep packet and it says to plan for seasickness, plan for seasickness. I was cocky with my patches, Dramamine, and ginger. Yeah whatever, modern and ancient methods of seasickness mitigation, the Pacific will win! Being my very first open water crossing of this magnitude, I was pretty much doomed. In all reality, the drugs did a good job. It’s just important to have a plan for the crossing

(Beyond geeking out that I was indeed on my way, I didn’t). Give yourself things to do.

So what’s to do for 22 hours? How about meet your fellow divers, get your ‘this is what the boat looks like’ pictures, watch one of the many onboard DVDs, or read? There’s a plethora of shark and diving reading material on board for the trip. Including a fantastic photo book of identified IG sharks and the differences in their markings. Let me begin the lobby for publishing of this book please! Maybe an IG Shark of the Month calendar… oh yeesh, that’s a whole different kind of shark porn. Proceeds go to the conservation effort maybe? Let some of your better photographer guests contribute to the cause by offering up a great pic for the sharks? Just cloud busting here guys.

Back to the crossing… Overall, wear lots of sunscreen regardless of the weather, and don’t just stare at the world rocking up and down. Not unless you want to be rocked to sleep like a sick baby, or feel a constant state of almost queasy. Oh the things you’ll learn. The best part of the crossing is waking up to a boat that isn’t rocking with gusto, and realizing, wait. I’m here.

Isla Guadalupe

When I woke up on the first dive day I crawled out of my bunk and climbed the spiral staircase to the main lounge where I could smell breakfast and see the morning sun. At the top of the stairs I could see out of the window to the beautifully striated rocks and glittering deep azure water of the island. It was all of the pictures and video I’d ever seen come to life. It was stunning and surreal. We could see clouds boiling over the tops of the island. The tone of the morning was awe. We all quietly said our good mornings and grabbed something to eat. We could hear the winch that lifted the cages into place while we munched our breakfast. I could see what I felt on everyone’s faces.

Excitement, awe, anticipation… we had it all.Let’s get right to it. The first day was surreal.Rise & shine, get your info, squeeze into a wetsuit and you are in. “OK, who’s next!?” I think Martin’s unquestioning confidence about what was about to happen made it really easy to simply get in a cage without thinking about any negative outcome. We’d covered all of the safety dos and don’ts. We had our breathing and our masks under control. Now it’s just you, some new friends, a cage, your attentive crew, a whole lot’ a water, scad, mackerel, and those fish you came to see. Now wait.Your mind turns to other things… Test some camera settings.Get your breathing in check so you can stay down without working at it. Try not to get spun up in your air line.

It all melts away the second you get your first shadow of big movement. Like smoke in a familiar shape, just distant enough that you question whether you’ve seen anything at all. You know they are here. It was at this stage I noticed my cage buddies and I were all facing different directions and on patrol. We just slid into it. This is where it gets really good.

The mackerel parted and we saw the first Great White gliding in the distance. I stopped breathing and wondered if he’d noticed. It was a primal moment. I felt, just for a second, like a Gazelle at a watering hole. I gripped the cage firmly and remembered all of the systems that were in place to protect me. The fear fell away. There before me was this most beautiful animal, more flying than swimming. I’d been prepping to take this all in for two years and here it was. That moment alone was worth the price of admission. The White Sharks at IG are exactly as advertised; big beautiful, and bountiful.

We didn’t wait long for that first moment. In the first day we’d meet three sharks. I was blown away. We did one hour rotations until the sun got too low in the sky to safely see what was going on. It was hours and it felt like no time at all. We were pumped. The experience of first time proximity to these animals is overwhelming. It’s hard to explain it without getting verbose and gushy (at least for this writer). It is silent except for the sound of your own bubbles and breathing. This vast, and I do mean vast, animal is moving slowly toward you like liquid in liquid, incredibly conservative in its movement. There’s no need to rush. He’s the snake-charmer and you are the snake. Then a slight duck down and he’s gliding right beneath the cage. You get a good slow look at all of the details. The grey topside of their bodies look like they’d be soft as velvet underwater. More of that snake-charmer stuff… we know those denticles can draw blood. One of my favorite moments was the first time I was checked out. I, or someone in the cage, had moved enough to be noticed. A shark gliding past the front of the cage shifted his head and had a visual lock on us in a nanosecond, not unlike a dog. Snap… I’m looking at you. We could see his eye moving up and down the cage sizing each of us up. Probably more ‘why are the stupid bald monkeys in the cage again?’ than ‘you look like dinner’. I realized that their eyes are far from solid black orbs. There’s a greenish, clearish color to them, and you can see a distinct iris (I think) in there. It almost gives them expression. I wasn’t prepared for that. My favorite expression was Bruce’s. Martin commented that Bruce has a kind of grin when you see him head on, and I agree. He’s got almost cute white marshmallow jowls that accentuate the look.

I remember a time when I was so irrationally frightened of sharks. Honestly people, we’re talking frightened in pools. That time is long gone. These animals have personality, and cunning, and beauty, and ferocity and they don’t want you, they are doggedly curious. Curious enough to be really dangerous if you don’t know their territory, and don’t understand their habits. Bruce on the other hand is down-right cute. For a Great White Shark that is. Bruce takes the cute approach to snake charming.

It’s like the Shark Week I wish Discovery would broadcast. One of the coolest parts of the trip was meeting Mauricio Hoyos, a researcher who makes his home on the island for four months of the year. You can see his research complex (read: shack) on Google Earth. Once you’ve seen it you will understand what a commitment this guy has made to the IG ecosystem. Mauricio joined us for dinner one night and offered us a fantastic presentation about the IG sharks. This was a really important part of the trip for me. To see the work being done, the passion around it, and to learn throughout the process was priceless for me. This is what ecotourism should be.

Remember what I said about sunscreen?

Due to a large bit of stupidity, and substantially rockin’ sunburn, I didn’t get to take advantage of every rotation on the final two days, but insisted on getting in and saying hi at least once each day. I was never disappointed. There were sharks every time. It struck me that each day they seemed to get a little more comfortable, a little more curious, and a whole lot closer. It was nonstop. Even when I wasn’t in the water, instead perched at my steak-out in the shade, I got awesome shots of dorsal fins in the water, video of minor breaches, and great color commentary from my boat mates. “Two White Sharks! Ah ah ah!”… The Count still makes me laugh. The water at IG is so amazingly clear you can see tens of feet down just standing topside. Some of our sharks were in the habit of wide, boat-sized circles where they’d approach the cages by running down the port rail. I could walk down the side of the boat watching them slice through the water. Just beautiful. This trip sealed the deal. I’m totally mesmerized by these creatures. Here’s what you gotta do.

I’m praying my planets align so I can go back to IG next year. Not only will I get to see the beauty of IG, and the great folks from Shark Diver, but I’ve now got buddies who’s “OMG” response means they want to come too. If you are a fan of this blog I me implore you to take this trip. Meet these creatures face to face and learn as much as you can. If you can’t make the trip, support the conservation efforts in any way you can. Be an advocate. Support pro shark laws and research efforts. Talk to your friends about the reality of sharks and their plight. Spread the word about protecting these awesome creatures and don’t believe the shark porn disguised as educational media. It’s more dangerous and damaging than any shark I’ve met.

I can’t wait to climb the spiral stairs and see that island again.

Megan Murray