Shark Week

Ever since I was a kid I can remember watching Discovery Channel’s Shark Week – which typically occurs during the last week of July (this year July 27- Aug. 2…aka NOW!).  Way back when (probably 10-15 years now), the content from year to year didn’t change a whole lot.  But over the past few years they’ve done a great job at pumping in all new content each year for the prime time stuff and then supplementing the other times with reruns.  The addition of the Mythbusters crew has been awesome as well.

Perhaps it’s due to watching Shark Week as a kid that I’ve found myself having a unique attraction to sharks.  Ever since becoming Scuba certified about 5-6 years ago I’ve been thrilled at the chance to see sharks underwater.  Although I love seeing them while scuba diving – I definitely fear them while on the surface floating around (such as open water swimming).

In order to celebrate Shark Week – I present my favorite 7 photos of sharks that I’ve taken over the past half a decade or so during my travels.  Why 7?  Ummm..one for every day of Shark week

My Top 7 Shark Photos:

1) If you go to Cape Town South Africa , you must go out and cage dive with the Great White Sharks.  Even if you don’t actually go in the water – you should go on the boat trip and watch from the deck.  I was incredibly lucky when I went in that I had 3-4 large 15’ Great Whites circling the boat for hours.  The below photo is when I was down in the cage.  At one point one of them breached the surface and landed on/next to the cage.  It was as if a bus hit us.  Amazing power.  Also interestingly, it’s front horizontal fin slipped into the edge of the cage a bit.  VERY sandpapery, not soft and slippery at all.

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2) Note the length of this great white.  Just simply huge.  I took this from the boat.  But he was the same one I also took from the water above.

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3) Palau.  Just this past December while my brother and I were on our trip to Palau.  There’s actually two sharks in this photo, one in the center and one slightly lower.  Apparently the day before there were some huge Tiger Sharks in the same channel that were seen from the air.  Yikes!  (Tiger Sharks are not exactly human friendly)

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4) Tahiti (below)  This was actually my first encounter with sharks.  We went on a dive and were surrounded by them circling us.  Perhaps 30-40 of them, all about 3-6 feet in length.  It was great while under the water, but when they followed you back to the surface it made for a tense jump up onto the boat.

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5) The amount of power when they would breach the surface was incredible.  There is no way I’d want to be in the line of fire when they go shooting up to the surface towards their prey (taken back in South Africa in Shark Alley)

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6) Maldives.  This was taken quite a bit further down than most – almost 110FT.  Hence why it’s a bit darker.  Plus, I don’t exactly have the best underwater camera gear.

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7) Last but not least – ending up back in South Africa.  Thankfully, the Great White decided that the chunk of meat floating on the surface made a better meal than me (I’m just a few feet away, also floating like a chunk of meat).

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I really want to get back to Cape Town and spend more time checking out the Great Whites – they are without a doubt the most amazing animal I’ve ever seen.  One of these days I’d LOVE to do a live aboard trip out to the Guadalupe Islands.   It’s a days journey from San Diego and then you get 3-4 days out with the sharks and other marine life.  There’s also the Farallon Islands from San Fran.    WAY cool.  Just need to find a friend to go with me. 🙂  Bueller?

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18 Comments

  1. Holy crap, I just had some “Jaws” flashbacks. The scariest is when they come out of the water.

    Makes me never want to step foot in the ocean again!

  2. Dude. You. are. insane.

    It’s fear of sharks that’s keeping me from signing up for IMFL 🙂

  3. Wow! Very, very impressive.

  4. If I was SCUBA certified, I’d be game! Nat Geo had a show on last Friday called Shark Island. It was down along the coast of South Africa. A marine biologist was using a “Robo-Seal” to film the Great White’s night-time hunting patterns and to get it documented on film.

    I did a science fair project with nurse sharks and attractions to shiny objects under the water when I was in high school.

    If you ever get to Houston you have to come to the Downtown Aquarium and see the sharks!!! FUN!!!

  5. I’m petrified of sharks.

    Not that I’ve ever seen one IRL.

    Good thing I live in Iowa.

    That probably means I’m safe.

  6. WOW! Those are awesome! Let’s do that together sometime!!!

  7. Wow, those are some impressive pictures! You are definitely brave for getting in the water with sharks. I’d probably be crying like a little baby. And oh yeah, I watched the Mythbusters shark week special last night and it was fantastic!

  8. Great photos. If you ever need a diving buddy, just drop me a line.

  9. Holy cow – those are awesome! If I ever see one in person, I hope it’s when I’m inside one of those cages. That’s a great collection of pics (and experiences) you have going.

  10. tremendous work with the camera…the last pic was fantastic….

    great stuff..great experiences….

    can’t even fathom the power of those suckers,..

    mythbusters…didn’t they do something this time around about the scuba tank in the sharks mouth????

  11. You have had some great travel experiences! South Africa is on my “list”, alas, scuba diving is not.

  12. Man I envy you. I have swam with some reef and nurse sharks, but nothing like that. Going to the Caymans in a couple of weeks. We will see what kind of trouble I can get in. Shoot me and email and let me know what kind of camera you were using.

  13. Nat

    Woah. Those are some amazing pictures! I don’t know if I could do that. Say, question for you, I’m trying to get a handle on my nutrition for the half ironman I am training for. What works for you/what do you typically do during a half iron?

  14. So freaking cool.

    Note to self, get SCUBA certified, go play with sharks.

    We only ever got the little sand sharks at the beach and they were pretty skittish. And you’d really only see them around hurricane season.

  15. I’m there!

    They don’t bother me. I’ve got a healthy respect, but don’t fear them. Probably has to do with the understanding at an early age that once you enter the ocean, you’re no longer the top of the food chain. I’m OK with that.

    The only time a shark made me leave the water was on the NW Cape of Western Australia, when a 14′ Tiger came cruising through the pack of surfers as we waited for the next set. It was time to go in anyway – it just convinced me that it was time to move a bit quicker.

  16. Great series of pix – fabulous adventures!

  17. Have to say we’re impressed, always nice to see a fellow “sharky”!