What's it like to come face to face with a Great White Shark?

 

What's it like to come face to face with a Great White Shark? That is a question I get asked time and time again. With the news media portraying sharks as blood thirsty, mindless killers, just looking to eat us, most people think I have a death wish, diving with sharks. So I thought I should share what it is really like to come face to face with one of the most feared creatures on earth.

Here is a little video that shows how most people think an encounter with a shark will be like.

The reality it is more like the sharks swim by slowly, looking you straight into the eyes and showing absolutely no signs that they want to eat you.

When I first started diving with white sharks, what struck me is the fact that it is not scary at all. I'm by no means the only one that feels that way. In 15 seasons of taking divers to meet these awesome creatures, the most common reaction when coming face to face with a great white shark is just awe. Even divers who saw "Jaws" and joined us expecting a huge adrenaline rush, mostly are just blown away by the experience and don't find it the least bit scary. The scariest part of the expedition is the anticipation of that first meeting.

I remember that after about 3 trips to Guadalupe Island I started thinking "I've seen it" and didn't expect to do this for much longer. Well, at the time I didn't expect to be in the cage and have "Shredder" swim by to check me out. When he looked me straight into the eye, something happened. I realized that this huge shark is focused on me, that he was individually checking everyone out.

Shredder

Thinking back, that is when I fell in love with those sharks. Now as I always say to our divers. I love those sharks, but it is not a mutual feeling. That is perfectly OK. I love them for what they are, awesome predators, not mindless killers, but certainly no harmless pets either.

I don't feel the need to tell everyone that these sharks love me and that I can go hold onto their fins, because they accept me as one of their own. Come to think of it, I'm glad that they don't treat me as one of their own. Even though I'm not a small person, in terms of white shark size, I would be a very, very small shark. White sharks definitely are into having their personal space and don't react kindly to a smaller individual invading that space. I've seen what they do to a smaller shark that is doing this.

I've been diving with sharks for over 15 years and I'm excited every time I'm about to get into the water with them. I find them fascinating and discovered that they are generally very cautious and even shy, not the mindless killers the media makes them out to be at all. Last season I saw 3 white sharks that got scared by a towel that fell overboard and drifted down. 2 of them checked it out and got the heck out of there. One of them kept circling it, approaching it and jerking away, when the towel moved a little. He kept doing that until both he and the towel went out of sight.

I hope that I have given you an idea of what it feels like to come face to face with a great white shark. If you really want to know, there is no substitute for experiencing it for yourself and I hope you'll get that chance. It is an experience you'll never forget. When you do go out, remember that while we don't have to fear these sharks, we definitely have to respect them.

We at Shark Diver promote "Safe and Sane Shark Diving" that respects the sharks and the environment. We hope to see you on one of our expeditions to Guadalupe Island.

Let's go shark diving!

Cheers,
Martin Graf
CEO Shark Diver

About Shark Diver. As a global leader in commercial shark diving and conservation initiatives Shark Diver has spent the past decade engaged for sharks around the world. Our blog highlights all aspects of both of these dynamic and shifting worlds. You can reach us directly at staff@sharkdiver.com.

Best Shark Dive in the world?

Valerie Taylor called Beqa Adventure Divers'  "Shark Dive",  "The best shark dive in the world!". That is high praise from one of the most respected shark divers in the industry and given the fact that we at Shark Diver pride ourselves in offering our divers the best shark diving experience possible, I just had to go and check it out for myself.

After a 10.5 hr. flight on Air Pacific, I arrived in Nadi, Fiji at 5am, where a Taxi that the dive shop arranged, was waiting to take me to Pacific Harbour, a 2.5 hr. drive away. So right away I was impressed with their service and couldn't wait to find out, how their dives would stack up to my high expectations.

The pearl resort

But before I would get to dive, I had to check into the Pearl South Pacific Resort, to get some much needed rest. After a good night sleep and a nice breakfast from an awesome breakfast buffet at the resort, I was ready to go dive.

Bull shark stopping in front of me

The free shuttle from the dive shop picked me up at the front desk and drove me over to Beqa Adventure Divers, where I boarded the "MV Predator", a modern, very comfortable and fast hydrofoil dive boat, that took us out to the dive site in about 15 minutes. The water conditions were a little rough and I was worried that some passengers would get seasick, but the boat handled the choppy seas amazingly well and we barely felt the motion of the ocean and nobody got sick.

After a detailed and informative briefing, we suited up to do our first shark dive. Even though I've been diving with anything from Great White-, Hammerhead-, Tiger- to Leopard-sharks for the last 15 years, I felt like a kid in a candy store and was all excited to finally meet the Bull sharks of Beqa.

Bull Shark coming close.

We descended to 100ft. where the Bull sharks were waiting for us. Did I say Bull sharks? ..... I meant to say a ton of Bull sharks. There were way too many sharks to count. My best guess would be that we saw at least 70 sharks. I took a picture that shows 34 sharks in one frame, and it is not showing all the sharks that were beside and behind me. I was grinning from ear to ear. When a big, 10-12 ft female came right up to me and pretty much stopped right in front of my lens, I was thinking that Valerie Taylor may not have been exaggerating. This dive was awesome!

The best safety stop in the world!

We ascended to a shallower depth, where the divemaster was feeding the reef sharks, before we ascended to about 15 ft for our safety stop. Now for all of you who think a safety stop is boring, you haven't been doing the "Shark Dive" with Beqa Adventure Divers. This safety stop featured a divemaster feeding the White- and Black-Tip reef sharks, with Grey reef sharks circling behind us. We had dozens of sharks swimming around us, trying to get to the tasty morsels being handed out by the divemaster. This is easily the "Best safety stop in the world!"

I surfaced and just couldn't wipe that smile off my face. This was unbelievable! It wasn't over yet, there was still the second dive. After a nice surface interval, where "Papa" the divemaster told us a bit about Fijian history, we descended to 60 feet for our second dive.

Divemaster feeding Bull shark

This dive featured the divemaster hand feeding the Bull sharks right in front of the divers. The set-up is awesome. The divers lay on their stomachs, behind a ridge in the reef and the divemaster is right in front of them, just a little below, feeding the sharks. The sharks come up to the DM, get a tuna head and then swim up and right in front of the divers, making for great pictures and an incredible, safe and close encounter with those magnificent Bull sharks. After the hand feeding, the DM drops tuna heads down to the sharks and they show off their feeding behavior to the lucky divers, watching them.

What an experience! I have to say that I'm definitely partial to "my" Great White Sharks at Isla Guadalupe and get more excited every year to go back and visit them, but this dive is definitely not to be missed. Shark Diver is proud to announce that we will start offering trips to Beqa next year.

I hope you all will come and join us!

Cheers,

Martin Graf
CEO
Shark Diver

About Shark Diver. As a global leader in commercial shark diving and conservation initiatives Shark Diver has spent the past decade engaged for sharks around the world. Our blog highlights all aspects of both of these dynamic and shifting worlds. You can reach us directly at sharkcrew@gmail.com.

Isla Guadalupe's Best Shark Week Ever?

Jaques, one of the regulars at Isla Guadalupe

Are you excited about the upcoming Shark Week? ....well, so am I.

The wait is finally over. We leave tonight to Isla Guadalupe for our very own "Shark Week", hopefully the best ever!

I've been going down to Guadalupe for the last 10 years, and I'm super excited to go see my old friends again.

Many of you know about Shredder, Bruce, Bite Face, Jaques, Lucy, Chuggy and the list goes on.

As a matter of fact, we now have 124 individual sharks identified. How many will we add this year? Who's going to be back? I can't wait to find out. It never gets old.

If anything, after 10 years I'm even more excited to hear the familiar "White Shaaaaaaaark!" yell from our crew for the first shark of the day, kind of a boat tradition for us.

I know I'm not the only one that feels that way as I'm looking forward to a few of you coming back, some for the 3rd 4th and 5th time this year.

I will keep you posted with regular trip reports and updates from the Island.

Let's go shark diving!

Cheers,

Martin Graf
Dive Operations Manager
Shark Diver/Horizon
Isla Guadalupe, Mexico

About Shark Diver. As a global leader in commercial shark diving and conservation initiatives Shark Diver has spent the past decade engaged for sharks around the world. Our blog highlights all aspects of both of these dynamic and shifting worlds. You can reach us directly at sharkcrew@gmail.com.

Can Magnets Really Save Sharks?

There is an interesting article on BBC news about rare earth magnets repelling sharks and preventing attacks.

Having observed Great White Sharks for the last 10 years at Isla Guadalupe, I have a couple of  questions. A lot of times a shark is initially repelled by something, but after the initial "flee" reaction and the realization that it is not something trying to attack it, the shark is actually attracted to it. I've observed many, specially young sharks, that are initially afraid of the shark cages, but after a while, come back and start investigating.

I'm not saying this is the case here, but it certainly needs to be investigated.

For me, the more interesting part in the article deals with the reduction of shark by-catch by the long line fishermen!

"We realized we could magnetize the fishing hook, and coat it with a rare earth metal," he says. "It looks just like a regular hook. Several countries are now testing his so-called SMART hooks to see if they work. Some tests show a 60 to 70 per cent reduction in the number of sharks caught."

Here's the complete story.

If this research proves correct, I wonder if this would be cost effective. Would the long line fishermen actually buy those hooks? Food for thought.

Cheers,

Martin Graf
Dive Operations Manager
Shark Diver/Horizon
Isla Guadalupe, Mexico 

About Shark Diver. As a global leader in commercial shark diving and conservation initiatives Shark Diver has spent the past decade engaged for sharks around the world. Our blog highlights all aspects of both of these dynamic and shifting worlds. You can reach us directly at sharkcrew@gmail.com.

Guadalupe Island, 10 years of staring down Great White Sharks

 My name is Martin and this is my story

10 years ago, I boarded the "Ocean Odyssey" in San Diego, heading down to Isla Guadalupe to see the Great White Sharks. I was working as a deck hand and had no idea what to expect and couldn't have imagined how that trip was going to change my life.

Once we got to the Island, we started to put our cages into the water. Back then I had to lean over the rail and pretty much hang upside down, my face just a few feet from the water, in order to unclip the cage from the hoist cable.  That was when it happened! An enormous Great White Shark (OK, so it was only about 11ft. long) swam right by me and looked straight into my eyes!

After changing my shorts, (just kidding) I worked on deck all day. We had sharks swimming around the cages and even had a breach.  The following day I got to go into a cage. Within minutes a shark swam right by the cage and again, looked me straight in the eye. I thought I was going on this trip to check out Great White Sharks! I didn't know they were going to check me out! Needless to say I was hooked.

I only got to go to Guadalupe 3 times that first year, but by the end of the 3rd trip I knew I wanted to go back for more. Just before we returned to San Diego, I talked with Patric Douglas from Shark Diver about working the following season as the Dive Operations manager.

Martin Graf, hard at work at Isla Guadalupe!

That was 10 years ago. We have moved the dive operation over to the MV HORIZON and I no longer have to dangle over the rail to launch the cages. That first shark that checked me out that day is still around and has become my favorite. His name is Shredder (you just have to come out on a trip and I'll tell you how he got his name) He's been there every single year since we first saw him.

Shredder the King of Whitesharks!

I've gotten to know Mauricio, the local scientist and over the years have worked with him on tagging and DNA sampling the sharks. With the assistance of our shark divers, I also helped Nicole Nashby to expand a photo ID database to over 120 individual Great White Sharks. It's a really rewarding experience, not just for me, but for a lot of our shark divers, to be able to assist in the research, all while having the time of our lives. We found out that some of the Sharks leave Guadalupe in the summer and go to Hawaii (Who can blame them!) and always come back to Guadalupe in the fall. Every year I'm anxious to see if all "my" sharks have made it back.

I can't wait for August to go back!

About Shark Diver. As a global leader in commercial shark diving and conservation initiatives Shark Diver has spent the past decade engaged for sharks around the world. Our blog highlights all aspects of both of these dynamic and shifting worlds. You can reach us directly at sharkcrew@gmail.com.

Shark Diver Guadalupe 2012 - Shark Diving Expeditions

Shark Diver M/V Horizon 2012

August

17-21, 22-26, 27-31

September

1-5, 6-10, 11-15, 16-20, 21-26

October

8-12, 13-17, 18-22

Our 2011 pricing includes 12+ divers per trip max (compare other boats with 16-24 divers), U.S. shark and vessel crews, all shark diving permits, unlimited beer and wine, soft drinks, wet suits, weight systems, on board accommodations, meals, snacks, transfers from San Diego airport.

Shark Diver offers expedition forward pricing so you do not get hit with surprises down the line.

Solo shark divers are encouraged and never hit with a single supplement fee. Ever.

Book your 2012 Adventure Today

Departs from San Diego
Inclusive pricing
$3100 per person