Today we witnessed whitetip sharks mating and it was the first time I got to see the entire show. Although I knew that sharks liked it rough, I could not imagine the brutality of their mating until seeing it with my own eyes. Several males were following and harassing a female, until one of them took a bite and grabbed her gill – it looked like he was going to chop off her head; he had bitten all the way through. Once he got hold of her, everything went crazy. All the males went into madness trying to dominate the female. She eventually surrendered under the dozens of bites she was suffering. The action was so messy that Galapagos sharks joined the frenzy and I thought they would take the opportunity to grab a snack.
Finally, the male managed to flip the female over and started drifting a little deeper along the rock until eventually, they were out of sight and away from the other males.
A little earlier in the dive, we saw two silky sharks trying to get lucky with a female silky shark. She was completely covered in bite marks and she looked really upset, bending her fins downward and bumping into the two males and biting back at them. she was not going to be an easy catch.
All the bigeye jacks were in pairs as well ready to spawn. They leave the main school as a couple and one of them changes its skin to a darker color as part of the mating process. The triggerfish were also regrouping for spawning. Lots of love around Roca Partida today!
- Divemaster Yann onboard the Nautilus Belle Amie
