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San Diego, CA, October 09, 2007 --(PR.com)-- Adventure seekers hoping to encounter Great White sharks on a recent adventure vacation with SharkDiver.com got more than they bargained for last week when a 15 foot white shark explosively attacked a seal right in front of astonished divers.
“We were in the middle of cage diving operations on the back deck of the MV Islander when all of a sudden a 6 foot geyser of black foam and red blood erupted 50 yards from our position. I immediately deployed the shark research team from CICIMAR with video cameras and they caught a rarely seen white shark feeding event and repeated attacks on a 7 foot long resident Elephant Seal (Mirounga angustirostris).”
“The attacks lasted about 15 minutes and having witnessed a “full on” predation first hand I have a new appreciation for the whites we encounter here. After four years of personal observations with these animals it’s always good to be reminded of the power of this top ocean predator”, said Australian born Luke Tipple, dive operations manager for Shark Diver and host of upcoming television series Wild Side Encounters.
“In 6 years of operations at this unique dive site, there have only been two recorded surface shark attacks on seals, this one was nothing short of spectacular. Today we decided to release this video to the general public”, added eco-adventurer and Shark Diver CEO Patric Douglas after reviewing the video.
"We have research data showing these sharks actively stalking the smaller Guadalupe Fur Seals (pups and adults) early in the shark season," says Douglas. "By November these pups are quite big and begin to play offshore, which is the equivalent of ringing the dinner bell for larger female whites who need to consume mass quantities of food to fuel up for the winter and for breeding season."
Located 210 miles off the coast of Mexico, Isla Guadalupe has become the worldwide recognized dive destination for an unprecedented number of Great White sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) and provides exceptional opportunities for divers seeking encounters with these misunderstood denizens of the deep.
The Shark Diver crew, lead by dedicated shark specialists in conjunction with U.C Davis and CICIMAR's research teams, documented this rare attack on the surface and from below and will be studying it in depth in the coming months.
There are few places in the world that feature consistent sightings and
interactions with Great White sharks as Isla Guadalupe, Mexico.
About Shark Diver
Recently featured on the 20th Anniversary of Shark Week, SharkDiver.com has been thrilling divers from around the world for the past 6 years with safe and exciting shark encounters. Shark Diver has expanded to offer cage diving trips with Tiger sharks in the Bahamas, Giant Squid encounters, as well as deep-dive submarine trips to see giant deepwater sharks in Roatan.
CEO Patric Douglas is a natural born eco-adventurer who started his career in the U.S. Virgin Islands in hotel tourism, spent several years as a tour guide in Vietnam, Bali, Hong Kong, Australia/New Zealand and Latin America and served as an extreme adventure reporter for CBS in San Francisco, Ca. He went on to found the outdoor adventure club "Absolute Adventures" which continues to thrive in San Francisco to this day.
For the past several years, Douglas has dedicated his life to providing educational and interactive experiences for his clients through shark diving. In addition, Shark Diver, along with its partners recently launched the non profit Isla Guadalupe Conservation Fund and is partially funding efforts to preserve the habitat and safely study the Great White shark species at Isla Guadalupe.
The post really should be titled Great White feeding or Great White attack on seal - caught on tape. "Great White attack - caught on tape" implies (at least to me anyway) attack on a human.
It's kind of like posting "ClevelandDiver attack - caught on tape", in reference to me devouring a pizza. Mind you, it is still a pretty scary sight, and you could get injured if you get to close to my teeth (or grab my pizza) but it is not the same as that incident a few years ago at the bar, which, thankfully, was not caught on tape.
I agree, it is an eye catching title. The big deal at Isla Guadalupe is the science of this site. We KNOW they feed on E-seals, but have only seen in happen twice in 6 years out there. When you're on site for 12-16 weeks at a time that's an extremely low predation rate...so, what ARE they feeding on?
Turns out they are actively feeding on the much smaller Guadalupe Fur seals and that these attacks happen sub-surface so no one sees them. With an estimated population of close to 5 thousand fur seals on site this is one of the main reasons these sharks are here in such great numbers each season.
It many seem like something everyone should know, but that's why we are supporting the team from CICIMAR and UC Davis, to get the real data and understand a bit more about the "why".
Cool. A friend of mine left a couple of days ago for this trip, but with a different operator. When I go, I'll go with this guy because he has such a cute accent.
Occasionally folks here on Catalina see a great white attack a California sea lion at the surface, or we find a disemboweled carcass floating on the surface. Two friends of mine saw a surface attack shortly after swimming in to the beach at Seal Rocks to retrieve something they'd left the day before, then swimming back to their boat.
Interested in the documentation regarding these sharks feeding on the Guadalupe fur seals there. I've heard conflicting reports that they primarily feed on the tuna that come in during the late summer and fall. The ones we saw on a scientific trip there with the Pfleger Institute in Dec 2005 seemed disinterested in feeding. We, on the other hand, consumed mass quantities of great food.
The guys from the Pfleger Institute are marine science Gurus out there, they were the first and only team to track sharks as far as Hawaii and back each year. Respect.
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