Great White Shark encounter off Catalina island

[Karim Hamza]

During one of our ghost nets clean-up dive off Catalina island, the Los Angeles Underwater Explorers (LAUE) came face to face with a pregnant female great white. The encounter was amazing and lasted about 4 minutes. The shark was circling around the documentation team from 150 ft upward, while the net cutting team came down and met the two divers and shark at 110ft. The daily assignment for the documentation team was to video and take pictures of the new marine life on the wreck of the Infidel. As nets have been removed on a monthly basis for the last 2 years, marine life has started to make this squid fishing boat a new home. There is now a wolf eel living in the wheelhouse, lobster are gathering below the deck, sheep and spider and California crabs, bass, sheepshead, rockfish, cabazon, blacksmith are now common fixture on this site. No more dead sea lions or sea birds entangled in the nets, as we have hit a mile stone a few months ago when we were able to remove the dangling nets from the mast and poole system. Here are the videos of the encounter shot by Cyrille Rio. Enjoy.

[vimeo]104212337[/vimeo]

[vimeo]104276204[/vimeo]

 

[fisheater]

She just wanted to add her thanks for clearing off all those nets.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[muzikbiz22]

I remember my "first time"

 

[IrnBear]

Holy Cow… That is Awesome:buggy:


As for the nets? Are they nets that get caught from fishing boats?


Great work and thanks for sharing this video.

IrnBear

 

[fnfalman]

Incredible!!!

 

[FM1520]

Awesome!

 

[Pinkyfoool]

Irnbear- the boat that went down (the infidel) was a squid fishing boat. All of her nets draped the entire wreck. When we first started the cleanup/net removal project she was completely covered, and now you can actually tell it's a wreck, and it's about 85% clean. Through the years we have found some new net that has gotten snagged. We hit this site about once a month, trying to rid the entire boat of all fishing gear.

The great white was amazing! Cyrille and myself about to ascend and start our deco. Before we made it to the anchor line there she was. Truly an amazing and humbling experience. Thank you guys for all your comments.

 

[fnfalman]

No chumming, no fancy arrangements. Just a casual encounter in the most natural way. What can be better?

 

[weiland]

Wow - how cool is that?! I'll bet that was pretty intense experience!

 

[chillyinCanada]

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.