We Dove With Great White Sharks

I started this seemingly dangerous thread on Facebook. These are all my photographs. (I am sometimes accused of not shooting my own pics. Which is sometimes true in situations of my own choosing. But these are all mine.) Here is my attempt to summarize my various posts in the context of a single article.

Very recently—on September 28 and 29 of 2018—my beautiful wife, Colleen, and I dove near Isla Guadalupe, 200+ miles SW of Ensenada, Mexico. We were members of a liveaboard party on the Nautilus Explorer. This was a cage-diving experience. The water was cold, so we dressed in onesies—pajamas, really—wrapped in dry suits. We inserted ourselves into aluminum cages (think Richard Dreyfus in Jaws) and breathed from air that was pumped down from the surface. The attraction—the reason for our concerted attention—was a community of great white sharks. As many as 270 individuals in all, of which we believe we may have witnessed 15.

Here’s how the story unfolds, one post at a time:

Well, we did it. We got in the water with the big boys. The bigger of which are girls. More to follow.

Detail of a massive great white shark

Colleen in a drysuit, locked in a cage. It’s a human zoo for sharks.

Colleen in cage with great white shark

I like Mexico. I like Mexicans. I like sharks.

Profile of a crazy awesome great white shark

Another of >270 great white sharks in the waters near Isla Guadalupe, Mexico. Such a beauty.

Beautiful great white shark

If you look closely, that fish turns into the brim of a strange but wonderful sombrero.

The great white somprero

Great white sharks spend more time being elegant than terrifying.

Astral great white shark

As you might imagine, I captured all my great whites as raw files. Here I dialed the Vibrance way down to –90% and bumped the Saturation up to 60%. See the 2nd shark? In all, we think we saw 15.

Great white shark; low Vibrance, high Saturation

Isla Guadalupe is 250 miles SW of Ensenada, Mexico. In September, 2018, this was one of its residents.

Great white shark with sunball

One of my favorites. No sharks, just a deep cage going down. The Nautilus Explorer (our boat) called it a submersible. We called it the Smurfible, or a Smurf cage.

Submersible cage, aka the Smurf

Rarely is there a moment of violence. And yet this teenage great white was passionate about his acquisition of some fresh tuna.  Worked for us, worked for him. And who can blame the lad?

A juvenile great white chomps the tuna

A few friends said this is the one I shoulda posted all along. So here it is.

Great white with mouth wide open

A happy shark is as a happy shark does.

A happy shark is as a happy shark does

It is possible to see more than one.

Two sharks at once

That’s it. Thanks for reading my thing. —Deke

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