I’m impressed by how smart the great white sharks are; how they learn and adjust their strategies to catch the bait but also, I’ve seen how different sharks have different personalities.
In particular one can see the juvenile male sharks being kind of erratic and repetitive in terms of their attempts to catch the bait. They choose one direction and always try to go the same way to the bait, and every single time our wrangles pull the bait out of the water before they can catch it.
Older sharks start following a similar behavior, but soon they realize that simple strategy doesn’t work and they start elaborating more complex attack techniques.
For instance, they hide under the boat and the cages and come out trying to surprise the wrangles and sometimes they get the bait! Other times, they go deep and try to swim underneath the bait as a rocket to the surface, jumping in a very impressive way out of the water with the bait in their mouths! Or they learn in which direction the bait is being taken away and sometimes they try to attack to float or the rope itself!
These smart animals set a fantastic show to our guests looking from the top deck. Everyone is cheering the wranglers when they pull out the bait and the sharks show their teeth! It’s a great time everyone has onboard not only diving, but also enjoying the beautiful landscape of Guadalupe Island, drinking a cocktail in the afternoon and watching the action happening on the wrangling platforms.
- Divemaster Juan David onboard Nautilus UnderSea
