Trip Report:
Guadaloupe White Sharks, 2004
My Great White shark
adventure began as I landed in San Diego,
and I was picked up at the airport by
Larry and Kerry, who arrived a few hours
earlier. We headed over to the Vagabond
Inn at the marina where the boat was
moored and checked in. Slowly, everyone
began to show up and we met at the pool to
discuss the trip. After a few beers across
the street at a dive bar, and I do mean a
DIVE of a bar, we headed back to our rooms
to get a good night's sleep before
departure the next morning.
We got up the following
morning and brought our stuff over to the
boat, right behind the motel, and met some
of the staff. We loaded up, got a briefing
on the "do's" and "don'ts" of the boat (of
which there seemed to be a lot of "don'ts"
apparently because they wanted to keep us
all from being eaten by hungry sharks) and
then we headed out. The captain told us
about a storm that was supposed to miss us
by about 400 miles, and we gave it no
further thought as we enjoyed calm seas.
We had about a 24 hour ride ahead of us to
make it 200 miles from San Diego to
Guadalupe (pronounced "Gwa-da-LEW-pay").
Within 2 hours we passed the Coronados
Islands (already we were in Mexico) and
conditions were perfect. After dinner we
turned in for bed. In the middle of the
night I was awakened by a massive wave
that nearly knocked me out of bed. We had
been hit by the storm we thought we would
miss. We had 15 foot seas. The rest of the
night was agony, as most everyone was
seasick and the seas pounded us
mercilessly. I hung on tightly to my bunk
and tried to sleep.
By 11 AM the following
morning (two hours late, 26 hours after we
lefft San Diego), we arrived at Guadalupe
and anchored the boat in the lee of the
island for some lunch. It was nice to have
calm conditions. The captain informed us
that even though it was calm in the lee,
it was still windy in the shark spots and
we likely wouldn't be able to get the
cages in the water. Everyone was bummed
out to say the least, but so tired from
the crossing that many just wanted to get
some sleep.
Within a few hours, the
wind had calmed down although it continued
to rain. A river of runoff created a silty
area in the bay that was spreading. (Keep
in mind, this is for an island that only
gets a couple inches of rain in a year and
it had probably just had two years worth
of rain in two days.)
The captain gave us the
go-ahead to put the cages in the water,
but we couldn't go to the best spot for
sharks. We decided to just try where we
were. We started chumming and put the
cages in the water immediately. I was part
of group A and got in the water around
3:30 PM. We had two medium sized (12 foot)
white sharks occasionally circling the
boat and cages, but they were pretty
skittish and keeping their distance. We
were lucky because within the limited
amount of time we had while there was
light, everyone got a chance to get in the
water and see the sharks before it got
dark.
We had a hearty dinner
and went to bed early, ready for day 2
shark action. We woke up the next morning
around 7 and the captain moved the boat to
the best shark spot on the island. I
filmed the cages being placed in the water
while most of the divers got a nice hot
breakfast. I'm more of a cereal kind of
guy anyway.
At last we started
chumming and got people in the cages.
Normally, the chumming is done with a
mixture made from powdered fish and/or
beef meal that it mixed with water in a
trash can and pumped overboard through a
sprayer that looks like an alligator.
(Hey, I couldn't make this stuff up!) The
wind was still blowing a bit, and that
tends to blow the chum on people, so they
decided to use some buckets of frozen chum
lowered down on ropes. Fortunately the
sharks really love the white buckets full
of chum. They started going for the
buckets much to the delight of everyone.
Within an hour we had two sharks
again.
Throughout the day,
each group got 3 turns in the cage. They
divided the boat into four groups of 5
divers. With two cages, each holding five
divers (with surface supplied air) there
can be 10 divers in the water at a time.
So each group of 10 gets an hour, they
they climb out to warm up and change
batteries/tapes/film while the next group
goes in. With a water temperature of about
70 degrees, it gets cold pretty fast
sitting there not doing much. The sharks
tend to vanish for 5-10 minutes, then
re-appear, usually from below, right when
you least expect them. The crew dangles
tasty pieces of tuna off the back of the
boat on ropes with a float. When the shark
goes for one of them, they pull the tuna
closer to the cage so people can get
pictures. The goal is not to feed the
sharks, but to NOT feed the sharks and
merely tantalize them and keep them
interested without filling them up. They
are fast though and they frequently get
the tuna before anyone can pull it
away.
Midway through the day,
a large cloud of sediment showed up.
Patric called it "Mung". Basically, the
surf stirs up sand and silt in the
shallows and it washes out deeper where it
reduces the visibility. Our vis went from
50 feet to about 20 feet within minutes
and shark diving was pointless. Larry,
Carl, Daniel and I went in the cages
during the "mung" storm to report back
when the vis cleared. It took about an
hour, and we went back to shark diving,
now thoroughly cold!
The sharks are very
tough to predict. They always come at the
cages from below, where you least expect
them, and manage to do it from the
direction you aren't looking. But in spite
of the challenges, we were able to get
some decent shots in fairly clear water of
the sharks going after the bait. One thing
that impressed me was how quickly the
sharks could be attracted to the boat if
we were in the right spot. It took days in
Australia, but it only took a couple hours
in Guadalupe.
By the third day, the
weather was getting very windy again, and
we had to go seeking shelter to the south
of the island. Once there, we found
amazingly clear water, at least 100' of
vis, but no sharks at all. It's not that
big an island, but the sharks definitely
have their favorite spots. So we had one
good shark out of three with really good
shark action. In spite of the bad weather,
everyone saw White sharks and got
pictures. Judging by the clear water in
the calm areas, I can only imagine how
amazing this place is with perfect
conditions. I will definitely return to
Guadaloupe again to give it another try.
Jonathan
Bird
More
trips with Jonathan...
The incredible majesty of Wolf
Island!
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All of the pictures here are from
guests on the trip, not me (I was shooting
video). Check out their awesome
pictures!
Our cool group, plus staff, after some
shark divin'!
View of the port cage, from the top.
Divers breathe from regs on hoses, rather
than tanks. This really helps make the
cages more spacious.
The island of Guadaloupe
Guadaloupe in the morning, before the
cages are launched.
Tossing the bait, a small tuna. Stand
back..fish guts!
View from the cage
A beautiful black and white shark
portrait.
Just for a little size comparison...that
is a 5 gallon paint bucket. This shark is
way bigger in diameter than a 55 gallon
oil drum!
Another nice close swim by.
"Did you see the size of that
thing????"
A shark goes after the tuna.
Another close swim by.
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