“The rule of law for cage diving?
One touch and you’re out, on deck for
the rest of the trip. Not only is it dan-
gerous for the diver and a liability for
the crew, but by touching sharks and
other marine animals we wipe off the
beneficial parasites that coat their skin
and provide their natural immunity in
the wild. I’ve been diving since 1989
and I admit the urge to reach out and
touch that majestic, utterly magnificent
creature as it swam by was hard to
resist.
Next, the crew on deck pierced
whole frozen tuna with thick rope and
threw them into the water, jerking
the bait up and down to tantalize and
excite the sharks. It worked.
“During my first cage dive, a great
white came from out of nowhere. Like
a 747, a bolt of white lightning, it shot
past us on a quest for the tuna as our
crew yanked it into the air. Frustrated,
the shark whipped around and came at
us, gnashing its huge jaws lined with
thousands of multi-layered, serrated
teeth on the bars of our cage.”
“I was awed, scared and mesmer-
ized at the same time. These powerful
creatures have been hunting the world’s
oceans for millions of years. Predation
begins in the womb. The first pups to
hatch eat the unborn eggs. Once they
fly the coop, mom or dad may decide
Carcharodon
carcharias
THE GREAT WHITE SHARK
navigates the coastal waters of all
the Earth’s major oceans. Mature
females stretch to an average of
15-17 feet, with males measuring
about 10-13 feet long. These
apex predators can weigh in
at a hefty 4000-5000 pounds.
But listen up people! Their life
expectancy is about 70 years. I
dare say, plenty of time to figure
out how to match wits with
humans in dive suits who, in a
shark’s world, look like a yummy
seal dinner! While great whites
are solitary hunters, their only
natural predator, the orca, likes
to hunt in pods. Their greatest
enemy? Fishermen who continue
to capture them, cut off their fins
to sell for pricey shark fin soup,
and throw them back, finless,
leaving them with no recourse
but to drown in their own home.
As the world’s leading aquariums
have discovered, great whites
taken in during the decades-
long interval between birth and
sexual maturity never reproduce,
making population recovery
and growth difficult. They not
only maintain the health of the
marine food chain by eating
the sick and weak, but they are
self-appointed and very effective
garbage collectors…they keep
our oceans clean.
86
GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017
gmhtoday.com