White Sharks at the Farallon Islands on Youtube.com, posted by Shark Diving International. They are here. It is Sharking Season. Click on the arrow to see the amazing video from the Farallon Islands.


White Shark Cage Diving Photo Expedition -

Last fall I travelled with out with Shark Diving International on a Photo Safari October 12th, 2006. I have severe asthma and don't even consider diving anymore, but I was hoping for surface sightings. According to shark lore at the Farallon Islands it was nothing short of perfect conditions. Crystaline pure blue sky with still air and water and heat like south of the border. There were no shark sightings that day. Well let me correct that. A White Shark Breeched but I didnt see it. Divers in the cage did have some glimpses.

I myself have seen White Sharks out at the Farallon Islands at least six times including two major feeding events and and four surface sightings. I have been to the Farallon Islands about 65 times. One of the feeding events was the fall of 2002, when Susan Casey, author of "Devils Teeth" was out there. It was the most brutal of all the attacks and the photography I took that day the most spectacular. It is also the only photography I have ever accidently deleted. Oh well. Beyond the bloody feeding event, the tracking tags, and the myriad of cast of characters at the feeding event that day, it probably was best. It was definitively my lowest moment as a photographer as I realized I had deleted those photos. I had a Gig card, in those days that was a big card and I had downloaded all the shark photos and was late for an aerial photo shoot. I mistakenly thought the files on my hard drive were the photos on the Gig card and deleted them to clean the card for the next shoot. Well. We are working on letting that go.

So back to the glassy flat shark hunting perfect weather this last fall. On the particular day I went there were people from all over who had flown in to go cage diving seeking white shark adventures. The couple that went in the cage together, the girl that turned out to be afraid, the guy that went at least for four sessions, the famous photographer that sat on the roof, and the cast of characters that make the Shark Diving Crew.

No white sharks were seen. By me at least. I did see something spectacular and even more random though. A pod of 12 to 14 Risso's Dolphin came swimming in from the direction of the Continental shelf in staggered chorus line formations and literally, seriously, went up to to each and every boat as if greeting the captains, and passengers. Risso's Dolphins tend to like deep waters. But this the second time I have seen them do something like this in this area, that being the Gulf of the Farallones. They swam in past each boat, and then went to the famous surf break, the one that in theory could be surfed if you were insane and not afraid of white sharks eating you, and rode the wave and jumped and breeched repetitively. This was so wierd that a white shark in turn breeched to see what was going on!!!! I missed this, the shark breeching that is, but Captain Mick and several people on our boat saw it. I did however happen to see one of the major attacks in the video above on an entirely different day.

If you decide you want to go and spend a day yourself as shark bait in the cage the contact info is below:

Great White Adventures www.SeeSharks.com

• Shark Diving International
• 2516 Blanding Avenue
• Alameda, CA 94501-1506
• 888-814-8256 (Good only in the United States and Canada)
• 510-814-8256