Great White Shark encounter off Catalina island

[Ben_ca]

Now that you mentioned it I see that line. So sad.

 

[drbill]

Kudos to Karim and the LAUE team for taking on this task. I dove the Infidel back in early 2009 after she went down and the wreck had its nets draped all over the boat, creating a serious entanglement hazard. Many of the early dive teams that tried to clear the netting dove air and were so narced they got little done. Although I've dived many times to 200 fsw on air, my dives on the Infidel (at 150 fsw) left me more narced than I have ever been before or since. I was just there to film the wreck and critters in the net rather remove net.

This is a wonderful project whereby tech trained divers who can work at these depths without serious narcosis effects (and therefore get far more work done on each dive) are doing fantastic things for the marine critters at the same time. Kudos, kudos, kudos.

You can read about my 2009 dives in the following "Dive Dry with Dr. Bill" newspaper column about the Infidel and see some of the netting as it was before major removal began.

 

[Karim Hamza]

The nets on the Infidel are from the boat itself (about 10,000 pounds). Then a few years after the sinking, another net was caught on the wreck and was abandoned as well (another 10,000 lbs). Those are dry weight, a rough estimate would be twice that amount when wet.

---------- Post added August 28th, 2014 at 07:21 AM ----------

Has the shark a hook in her mouth? It seems a long line trailing off her opposite side. At first I thought she was just swimming along your line but later that appeared not to be the case.

The rope was 1 1/2 inch thick and was hooked inside her mouth. We attempted to remove it but she was not cooperating and swam away : (

 

[IrnBear]

Holy Smokes…. That is a lot of freaking net.

Making a point of removing all that netting is awesome. Thank you for that.

I wish in my younger days I would have pursued something like you guys are doing with your diving.

Great Work.

IrnBear

 

[chillyinCanada]

Karim, maybe that's why she was hanging with you. in hopes you could free her as was done for the dolphin at the manta site in Hawaii. You say you did try . . .how narced were you people?

Thanks for all you do and while I am most empathetic of your desire to free her, that effort is really going a bit too far. No one would ask that of you. Heehee. The poor gal.

 

[Buoy_A]

Karim, maybe that's why she was hanging with you. in hopes you could free her as was done for the dolphin at the manta site in Hawaii.

I was thinking the exact same thing when I saw this video. I mean, how often do great whites happen upon divers and "hang out" with them like that? It sounds silly to say it, but I have to admit I was thinking it...

 

[deeper thoughts]

Thnx for sharing

 

[fnfalman]

I was thinking the exact same thing when I saw this video. I mean, how often do great whites happen upon divers and "hang out" with them like that? It sounds silly to say it, but I have to admit I was thinking it...

I hate to say it, but maybe she was just curious. Let's face it, she's a shark, not a dolphin. Dolphins and whales are intelligent mammals and sharks are...sharks.

 

[kelemvor]

I presume you developed a suitable procedure for cleaning your suits afterward?

 

[Karim Hamza]

I presume you developed a suitable procedure for cleaning your suits afterward?

Yes, a lot of simple green ; p