Shark Dive Report

[Nay]

This past Sunday I accomplished a life long goal, and within the timeframe I said I would. I did a shark dive. It was amazing. My husband had no interest in spending a day on a boat bobbing over 1200 ft of water waiting for top predators to show up so he convinced two friends to go with me (birthday present). The boat The Aquatica does specific shark dives off of Catalina in the channel. We were about seven miles on this side of Avalon. The Channel gets 3500 ft deep and where we were at was over an underwater mountain that came up to 1200 ft below the surface. You know, at that deep it doesn't make a difference, in the water you can't see anything but blue. After chumming for an hour the first shark showed up, a 3-4 ft mako. These sharks aren't the goal of the dive, blue sharks were, but you can't call one and not invite the other. Blues are scavengers so they go after dead and injured animals. Shortfin makos are smaller cousins of whites, a lot less dangerous but still very aggressive and not to be messed with. The boat has a cage on the side that's 4'x8'x20'. It's a snorkel cage so we jumped in and snorkeled around and it was SO exciting when the first sharks swim under you. The real draw of this dive op, other than it was cheaper and it was so close to home (not San Diego), is that they take "advanced divers" of which I apparently qualify (AWO cert or 20 logged CA dives), into open water with a safety diver. What they did was have four safety divers who would take divers in one on one for fifteen minutes and rotate them out. After two rotations, I was about the jump in when they said that the sharks had bugged out so they're not going to take anyone in right now. It was beginning to look like an expensive snorkeling trip. We had lunch and about a half hour later the sharks were back. I was the second diver in the water and for a few minutes nothing was happening, but then a blue swam by for a bit and then another safety diver swam over to point out something in the sun glare (he was 10' from us so he wasn't really abandoning his guy) and I couldn't see anything for a bit and then I realize it's a mako, and it's huge. Four or five feet. Normally they would pull divers out for such a large mako but it was keeping it's distance. It was being really aggressive toward another blue and it was the only time where I was really thinking that maybe I shouldn't be in the water right now. I was just amazing. I burned thru 1000psi in those fifteen minutes at 20'.
After the dive I jumped into the cage and spent quite a bit more time with the sharks. Then, just as a got out of my wetsuit and dried off an eight foot shark showed up. It's the shark in the pics on the rope toward the end, it was gorgeous! Each shark dive, they also tag a shark for research stuff.

Unforgettable day and I got lucky and got some good pics. I went thru last night and pulled out the really crappy ones but I was pretty liberal with what I left. For the photographers, I was using a Reeflife 2.1mp with natural light and all default/automatic settings. I had hoped for one good shot and seem to have gotten lucky with more than that. Because of the glare on the LCD screen from the sun, most of the pictures were "I think I see something in the screen, click!"

I can't wait for my next shark dive!

Renee

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[ShakaZulu]

I've seen what a GW did to the outboard of a fishing boat, there is no way I'll get in the water with that chicken wire cage...........nice pics.

 

[Ann Marie]

I've seen what a GW did to the outboard of a fishing boat, there is no way I'll get in the water with that chicken wire cage...........nice pics.

Ahhhh come on Shaka! Where is your sense of adventure! I'd do it! I love picture 69, it looks very cool!

 

[headhunter]

Thanks for sharing those pics. Very cool!

Christian

 

[whalerkyle]

That spot is probably Avalon Bank. Fantastic spot for Mako sighting/fishing/spearing.
Awsome pics, thanks!

Kyle

 

[Nay]

It is Avalon Bank.
And although I wouldn't say that there's no way there are GW's in the water, the Aquatica has been diving this spot for 10 years and hasn't seen one.
What's also cool, they know that they aren't training sharks to come back to the same area for food. They have never seen one of their tagged sharks again and the only one of their tagged sharks that have been seen and reported to them was in Japan.
But yeah, if there were whites in the water, no way would I get in that cage.

 

[Drewpy]

Thanks for the report-VERY COOL! I will be down that way for Turkey Day in OC -might just look into it!
Thanks Nay!

 

[scubapro5]

But yeah, if there were whites in the water, no way would I get in that cage.

Sounds like a fun trip! Was Manny on the boat?

Don't be fooled in thinking there are no Great Whites around because they are around and have been reported all up and down the coast but its just rare to see them diving.

You probley have a better chance of getting hit by lightning than getting attacked by sharks.

 

[socaldiver]

Nice pics.

I did the same type of dive trip with Manny on the Aquatica 2 years ago, actually had thoughts of doing the same trip as you but scheduling conflicts interferred.

I chuckled a some of your pics because they are similar to some of mine.

 

[docmartin]

...and then I realize it's a mako, and it's huge. Four or five feet...

great pix. looks like an exciting trip. however, that a 4-5 foot mako qualifies as huge these days is just a sad state of affairs in our overfished oceans.