Dive Global can help you enjoy the very best in global diving. Contact our experts at Dive Global to
make sure you get the most out of your dive trips, every time. Plan a Trip Today...
|
Shark diving at Isla Guadalupe, Mexico
- Patric Douglas
First sighting of a shark at Isla Guadalupe
You don't have to go all the way to South Africa to see the Great White Shark. Isla de Guadalupe in Mexico is a pristine hold out for pacific Great Whites. The discovery and relative ease in which divers can view these animals in 100ft visibility is changing the common notion that divers can find them primarily in South African or Australian waters.
In late September 2002 I joined Absolute Adventures, a California based white shark Dive Company on a 5-day live aboard dive expedition to Guadalupe Island in Mexico.
Guadalupe is a collection of ancient volcanic cinder cones, dramatic offshore rocks and high mountain ridges etched against blue cloudless skies. This was where I was going to meet a Great White shark; I would be cage diving for the first time ever.
For over 100 years, since whaling times, scattered reports of huge Great White sharks up and down the Pacific coast of North America and Mexico have been known. In the 1970’s a rash of attacks in California waters on surfers by White Sharks caused the public to become aware that something largely unseen but deadly inhabited the same waters. In the early 80’s researchers discovered that the Farallon Islands, Ano Nuevo Island, and Isla Guadalupe off the pacific coast held a fascinating secret. Large and stable populations of adult Great Whites, which returned year after year to the same sites to feed on Northern Elephant Seals and tuna.
 Our group of divers arrived after an uneventful overnight steam from San Diego’s Fisherman’s Landing to a perfect morning at Isla Guadalupe. Some of our divers had come as far as New Mexico, New Jersey, Chicago and France. My favorite team so far were the Kelly Brothers, two military doctors who were looking for a quick vacation between deployments. After a hearty breakfast, shark operations had begun off the stern, cages were in the water and our dive master was taking money and bets as to when the first shark would show up. I put down $20.00 on 11.30, about two hours from now. To my surprise and shock not three minutes later the call went out “shark!” Everyone rushed over the side to see a 14 foot male great white cruise past the boat and eyeball us with great interest, the experience was made even more exciting by the clarity of the water, 100 foot vis is the status quo at Guadalupe making for spectacular viewing. Pandemonium reigned for the next ten minutes as divers clambered for gear, film and video was inserted into cameras and Team One, the first eight lucky divers, were dropped into viewing cages.
I was on the stern in time to see the second 12-foot white shark appear not ten minutes after the last diver from Team One had arrived in the cage. You could tell the divers were excited as bubbles from low-pressure air hoses erupted to the surface like an underwater hurricane. Great whites continued to show up one after the other, until we had 6-7 at our cages in the 12-16 foot size range. The crew had two Albacore tuna hang baits in the water near the cages. Great whites would cruise past and suddenly charge these baits crushing them with ease in their powerful jaws for a quick bloody snack. Another storm of bubbles from the divers below, another crunching attack on the hang baits, it was almost my turn...
Getting in the water with the world's top ocean predator is a real mental two-step. While the “simian” or naked ape in you begins to send all sorts of chemical signals that you have no control over to your brain. Signals like, “don’t do this”, “go hide in your cabin”, and “wouldn’t dry land feel great underfoot right now”? Your brain is telling you to ignore the naked ape and just go! Your body interprets these signals as elevated blood pressure, sweat on the brow and rapid breathing. I admit I was suffering from all three. Unlike Team One who entered the water immediately we on Team Two had a chance to see the tuna-teeth crunching action topside, hence the mental two step. It was the second team’s turn and I found myself with legs dangling over the opening in the cage about to push off into the blue abyss. Not before the naked ape in me had one more chance to complain after spotting a rather large 15 foot white shark cruise past just on the other side. I went in with a small splash, the brain had won over that day, Hurrah!
The first thing I was struck with upon entering the shark cage was the water clarity. I might have been swimming in Bombay Gin, it was that clear. The clarity also allowed me to see all 6 great whites at the same time, orbiting in a leisurely pattern around the hang baits and cage. These were magnificent animals; they would pass within touching distance, black eyeballs staring not at you but completely through you. I could see minute details like old and fresh scars, unfortunate trailing lines from encounters with fishermen, and lots and lots of teeth.
Great whites continued to crunch baits, turn and cruise past us in a seemingly endless display of raw power and grace. After about thirty minutes of this you begin to understand the seemingly mindless poetic dribble you once heard from Jacques Cousteau as a kid. Your inner voice changes subtly from American to French and says “see zeh magnificent greaht white, its silky flanks glimmering in zeh suhn, mahnkind is here for but a moment of zeh animals lifetime, we are but interlopers in the predators day”. Yup. The day continued on with sharks coming and going, the Kelly Brothers were always the first in and last out, snapping endless rolls of film and video. One diver came on deck with a deep frown holding his video camera tentatively. I enquired as to the frown on such a perfect shark day, he replied, “ I ran out of video tape and all I have left is this tape of my sisters graduation, I am thinking about using it”, what do you say to that one?
Continue to next page »
|