I am writing two of my "Dive Dry with Dr. Bill" newspaper columns on the trip. They will appear on my web site next week and the week after. That will give a "brief" summary of the experience.
Must admit I'm not aware of the best books out there on sharks, AmyJ, since I work primarily with giant kelp and invertebrates.
As for Ken's questions, here goes a quick response:
I have dived with many sharks before, but the only time I was "with" a shark as big as the 18' great white at Guadalupe was a 22' tiger shark while kayaking the midriff islands of the Sea of Cortez in the early 70's. That experience was far more frightening than cage diving, believe me. In 35 years of on-again-off-again diving here on Catalina, I'd only seen great whites from my boat and never in the water.
I expected to see cold and frightening creatures, but I was very surprised by my reaction to them. Instead of the "emotionless" black eyes zeroing in on prey, I saw a certain "sadness" in them (not to anthropomorphize too much). I was very surprised by this.
They were absolutely beautiful and graceful animals. I was most intrigued by them and would like to do more diving in other areas of the world (can you say South Africa and Australia for starters? I knew you could).
They were definitely curious and cautious. Rather than immediately striking the yellowtail and albacore baits we hung for them, they would make "cautious" swim-bys to inspect them. After a few passes they would (in most cases) gingerly remove the bait from the float it was tied to. I only saw two incidents where the shark attacked the bait with ferocity- one was a rapid ascent from depth in murky water and the other involved a lot of tearing and body movement to remove the bait.
I felt absolutely no fear while in the cage, just awe. The cage was incredibly "flimsy" by some standards- thin tubular aluminium vs the more substantial cages I've seen elsewhere. In fact last year one shark swam right through one of the cages (with a lot of force of course). However none of the divers I was with felt any concern for their safety even with the sharks passing within a foot or two of the cage.
The only unnerving part was my first entry into the cage. Despite living in soCal for 35 years, I've never been a surfer due to poor balance. To enter the cage I had to step from our boat's swim step to the top of the cage (while maintaining balance with little to hold on to), then walk to the entry hole and slide down into it. After the first entry and exit it became more routine.
One problem was that these were narrow (4' wide) cages. Being very positively bouyant entering the cage meant having to push myself down to the cage floor where the 20# DUI weight harnesses lay and putting the harness on while trying to remain balanced. Too often legs or arms poked out of the cage in the first attempt or two at this.
I would have no reservations in doing such a dive again... in fact, I will seek out such opportunities so I can get more footage. The one thing I would do differently next time is to get as much cage time as possible. The footage underwater was much more interesting than that topside!
Dr. Bill
haha
