White Shark Cage Diving in Mexico

Martin Graf - Liquid Predation 2011

We are rapidly running out of spaces to offer for our 2012 white shark season at Isla Guadalupe this year.

That's the bad news.

The good news is we added a new date in the prime season, August 12-16.


The additional good news is the M/V Horizon, the original shark diving vessel for Isla Guadalupe, is back from a major overhaul this spring with brand new engines.

We're greener, we're faster, and we're quieter then ever before and now we'll be seeing our toothy friends one week earlier than planned.

When life is good, it's really good, see you on the docks in August!

The Official Shark Divers :: Guadalupe Island 2011

August 2011, Isla Guadalupe

The 2011 white shark season at Isla Guadalupe is winding down with just a few more weeks of incredible shark encounters and thrilled divers from around the world.

Once more Isla Guadalupe has delivered the finest combination of animals and education.

Here's a small sampling of the faces and trip reports from the 2011 white shark season. There's more to come and we haven't yet called an end to the fun.

"Day  two had gotten off to a great start, but it got even better, when a few hours later, we had a juvenile get a little frisky with our cage. Seeing a great white that close to the cage, mouth open, ready to have a go, was priceless!  I could not have asked for more!"

- Michelle M

September 2011, Isla Guadalupe

"Shredder is definitely the comedian of the shark world!  Occasionally he would give a smaller shark the chance to say hello but chased them off the minute he felt he was missing the attention of his adoring public.  For eight hours he was cruising around the boat and cages and once the cages had been lifted for the night, he breached next to the boat almost as if to say, ‘hey guys, what are you doing, I’m still here!’  Apparently this was the best ‘sharking’ day of the season so far as 13 different sharks were identified."

- Bev D


"Most importantly, every member of the crew seemed to be there because they love the sharks and love what they do.  They made sure we had almost as much fun out of the cages as in them."


- Sarah F

As we wind down 2011 and look forward to 2012 we have to give a big kudo to our divers and the entire crew of the M/V Horizon.

October 2011, Isla Guadalupe

For the past decade the Horizon and crew have been the longest running dive operation at Isla Guadalupe.

The first vessel to ever do shark cage diving at this remarkable dive site and we are proud to be working with them still - after all these years.

And to our new minted Shark Divers and to all those who have come before them. It is your good cheer, lust for adventure, and love of sharks that has allowed Shark Diver to be the company that it is today.

We honor all those with a dream and say, "If you dream, dream big".

To those who fly halfway around the world, to those who have saved every penny for the past two years in a jar, and to those whose experience with the white sharks of Guadalupe have lead them to  help save sharks around the planet.

You are Shark Diver, and we are proud of you all!

Research "Out of the Box"

The fine folks over at Mexico's CICIMAR have come up with a completely novel way of sampling a Sperm Whales breath, it's called "out of the box research". It should also be noted:

1. CICIMAR's team members are also tagging and tracking white sharks at Isla Guadalupe

2. A whales breath can and will drop a Rhino from 60 feet-so this is a novel approach

Gases and mucus blown out are collected in sterile Petri dishes attached to the 3.5 feet-long helicopter which are then examined to discover the health of the animal whether it is carrying any disease.

Isla Guadalupe - Eco Tour "Bizzaro Land"

With the with the MX Navy at Isla Guadalupe now physically enforcing a ban on chumming at the islands North Bay, we're going take a moment to look at this situation in context.

One word comes to mind "unprecedented".

In the 25 year history of commercial shark diving worldwide no navy has ever effectively attempted to shut down sustainable shark diving operations.

Not in Australia, not in South Africa, not in the USA.

Simply put this is a first. The question that comes to mind is why?

Why would the MX Navy, PROFEPA, SEMERNAT and CONANP want to see chumming stopped, or do nothing to help, work with, or effectively direct a nascent $3.1 million dollar, multi vessel, cross border, eco tourism business within Mexico?

You might say "this is not their job", and you would be right. But these agencies all know that this Bio-Sphere is in desperate need of funding and infrastructure. They are also aware this site has a built in and thriving eco tour machine-based on sustainable shark diving.

Unprecedented yes, with worldwide implications as well. As we have been reporting there's a growing shift within the NGO community from World Wildlife Fund to Ocean Conservancy towards sustainable shark diving as a bridge solution to sustainable shark management. No where has this been demonstrated better than Guadalupe.

Isla Guadalupe, with it's extreme isolation from any human population, stable and seasonal white shark migrations, and ease of site shark research is a perfect test bed area to enable shark diving programs within Mexico. This site could, with some attention, proper management and funding become one of Mexico's undersea jewels.

One might argue this has happened already already.

Mexico, unfortunately, has a terrifically poor record of resource management as seen by a recent illegal 2.5 ton shark fin take at another Bio Sphere the Revillagigedos Archipelago. Anywhere you look Mexico's track record on the oceans shows a failure to support existing laws that quickly enable short term resource takes over the long term sustainable gain.

For Mexico to pull Navy vessels into Isla Guadalupe to essentially "guard" eco tour operators suggests that much larger forces are now involved at this site.

What their intentions are is anyone's guess at this time.

Shark Tagging Continues at Isla Guadalupe 2008

We got word this week that the final year of a 4 year tagging and tracking effort at Isla Guadalupe will proceed. The team lead by Mexican shark researcher Mauricio Hoyos expects to publish their findings in 2009.

Of course we here at Underwater Thrills have a "good idea" about what the data will show, and we can tell you it answers many of the questions posed at this unique site over the past 7 years:

Isla Guadalupe Shark Science

Mauricio Hoyos, CICIMAR's white shark researcher at Isla Guadalupe, has one of the world's toughest jobs.

As the very first Mexican lead white shark tagging project at the island, his work will be the foundation of other projects to come. Already new, much broader, projects have been suggested with a strong chance of one starting in the fall of 2008.

This will be Maurico's final season at the island before he publishes his paper on the local movement patterns of gws.

From his groundbreaking work we discovered that gws feed almost exclusively on the endemic Guadalupe Fur Seal during the early morning and sunset hours.

It's not easy camping on this ancient volcanic island month after month, but with determination and a whole lot of help from some friends, he has become a local legend out there: