What's the latest with Shark Tours in your area?

[Shaka Doug]

Aloha from Maui....I hope you're all well and getting wet a lot. I don't spend much time in this area of SCUBABOARD or N. California for that matter but I was wondering if you all had any discussions about the Great White Shark Tours that sometimes take place off your shores. I have a friend in the business but I really don't know much about how it works up there. It's seasonal for one thing, right?

Shark tours have been coming up as a discussion here on Maui. We are getting a lot of opposition to any kind of shark tours, be it from boat or shore. I was wondering if it's been going smooth up in your area. Our legislators are attempting to squash any possibilty of doing it in our county (Maui, Molokai and Lanai). I'm pretty sure I don't agree with the way they are approaching it.

Thanks,

Doug

[pacificgal]

Doug, I've never heard of any but I will do a little research for you since no one else piped up. Not sure about other divers here, but I tend to try to avoid diving with the Great Whites.
I'll be in Maui in April and plan on looking you up when I'm there anyway :)

[pacificgal]

Great White Shark Cage Diving :: Dive the Farallon Islands (http://www.greatwhiteadventures.com/farallon_details.html)
This website says that the calving of the Sharks happen in the fall, and to be quite honest I haven't read any news reports about how the public feels about it at all. The price is pretty steep, $775 for a cage dive, $375 to be on the boat watching topside, tours Sept-November.
DAN insurance is highly recommended for divers, lol.

[dannobee]

Although I haven't been diving with them, I did a little research and talked to a couple of people who did a few years ago.

Sighting the sharks is now hit or miss. Restrictions have been placed on the operators, so no chumming and no towing decoys.

From what I've heard, seeing a shark is more often miss than hit. And it is pricey.

[blewgrass]

There is White Shark research currently underway at Bodega Marine Lab (UC Davis) off the North Coast, and a widespread campaign to tag sharks has been ongoing for the last several years.

Welcome to the Bodega Marine Laboratory (http://www-bml.ucdavis.edu/)

As far as the eco tourist (or non eco as the case may be) business goes, Guadalupe Island is the more popular site these days. Shark sightings are more frequent than the Farallones, and the visibility and ocean conditions are generally better than the nastiness of the Farallones.

Guadalupe Island White Sharks-Info (http://www.sdsharkdiving.com/Trips/Guadalupe/guadalupe_info.htm)