Does A Great White Shark – ahem – Poop in the Water??

By on September 30th, 2007 in Archive, Captain Mike, Guadalupe

Today we had visual confirmation that at least one of the great white sharks of Guadalupe Island does indeed – ahem – poop in the water. And boy when they do, is there ever a lot of poop!! It was my turn to play at shark wrangling when I spotted a big female swimming under the boat. Something looked odd – as if she was trailing something. Some of our guests were watching from the hot-tub deck and shouted out “2 sharks,” “no, 3 sharks,” “no, 5 sharks,” “man, there are 6 sharks there.” By that point in time, I had figured out what was going on and shouted back “heck no, that is one very big shark taking a personal moment in front of you!!!” Digital and video evidence confirmed my contention. The amount of discharged material was quite astonishing but I suppose, not unreasonable for a 2500 pound animal that is 17 feet long.

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Shredder – Our Favourite Tattered and Beat-Up Great White Shark

By on September 27th, 2007 in Archive, Captain Mike, Guadalupe

White shark sightings and behaviour today were very good although I would describe it as the slowest day of this trip. We had a steady stream of sharks swimming past the cages. Sightings included “Snow White,” “Shredder,” “Rocket,” 1 medium female that we couldn’t identify (even with the help of Mauricio, our favourite Mexican shark scientist), and one very big and very clean and beautiful momma female that we think might be “Sarah.” Unlike last year, we haven’t seen much of “Bruce” –  he has been by a couple of times but has not been making daily visits the way he did last season.

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One Big Momma Scary Great White Shark

By on September 26th, 2007 in Archive, Captain Mike, Guadalupe

One very interesting animal today was a very large beautiful female. It is unusual to see such a “clean”  shark – no scars, no bite marks, no disfigurations, no tags – and even more unusual to see a very large female this early in the Guadalupe season. Chatting with our guests later during cocktail hour, I was surprised to find that they all got the same spooky feeling from this shark that I did. She was one scary shark and it felt very uncomfortable when she started doing extremely close passes in front of the cage. It is very unusual to run across a white shark that is scary but there is no other way to describe this big female. Her habit of rocketing up out of the deep to take the tuna bait was exceptionally disconcerting.

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Easy Transit and Super White Shark Action

By on September 24th, 2007 in Archive, Captain Mike, Guadalupe

Great white shark sightings and behaviour were EXCELLENT today with more animals than I have ever seen before. Positive identifications included poor tattered old Shredder (he is one beat up looking shark!), Skid, New Rock, Criss Cross as well as some other animals that we couldn’t positively ID. At one point four sharks were circling 40 feet deep below the boat! All the sharks that we saw were males today. The award for most interesting behaviour would have to go to one very inquisitive 9 foot juvenile. This guy would come very close to the cages and was not at all hesitant about mixing it up with much bigger animals.

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My Son Charlie Sees his First Great White Shark Underwater

By on September 22nd, 2007 in Archive, Captain Mike, Guadalupe

AND THEN WE SAW OUR FIRST SHARK! Yeah!!! I was so happy for Charlie. I pointed it out to him and he stayed amazingly cool and just intently watched it swim past. He then spotted the next shark 10 minutes later and calmly walked over to the other side of the cage to watch it swim away. And then the next one and next one. I think we had 10 shark sightings with Charlie spotting 9 of them.

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Exceptionally Proud of my Daughter, the White Shark Diver

By on September 21st, 2007 in Archive, Captain Mike, Guadalupe

My heart swelled with pride as I watched my 7-year-old daughter comfortably standing on the bottom of the cage in her wetsuit, booties, hood, mask and regulator intently watching the sharks. Mary Anne actually had a bit of trouble getting Emmy to pull her head back in the cage as a white shark swam by 4 feet away!! And even more trouble getting Emily out of the water… turns out that my daughter appears to be a mermaid and was extremely reluctant to climb out of the cage! I couldn’t be prouder.

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Kids in Great White Shark Cages Part II

By on September 20th, 2007 in Archive, Captain Mike, Guadalupe

We were all very concerned that the kids not feel any pressure to get in the water and worked out a process in which the kids would practice with scuba regulators in the hot tub, then get familiarized with the cages and finally – gently – allow them the option of getting into the water. That all went out the window when the kids started jumping into the cages right after breakfast!! I couldn’t believe how fearless they were. On 6-year-old Max’s second dive, his Dad said “Go down Max,” at which his son immediately dropped to the bottom of the cage and stared intently out through the bars.

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