JAWS! Sunday February 12, 2012

And, you know, the thing about a shark... he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be living... 

 

Guess what I did today?! Got into a cage. With sharks.

I made it out with all limbs, fingers, and toes intact, no worries.

We began the day early, at 6 am we left the front gates and were shuttled off into the hazy morning.  I was so excited! We arrived at the Great White House where I enjoyed a large breakfast of scrambled eggs and cheese, fresh bread, yogurt, muesli, and orange juice! Yum! As I was eating, I was really hoping I’d keep all these contents in my stomach. Seasickness has always been a problem for me… 

So we heard a quick spiel about the sharks we’d be seeing, how people kill way more sharks than sharks do people, etc. We were warned that we may not even see any sharks on our trip, and that the water may be too hazy to make out anything beneath the surface. The crew we were going out with has been featured on National Geographic’s Shark Week! It’s getting real…

So we went out on the boat for about a twenty minutes before we stopped. “I see one!” one of the crew members shouted. I was too seasick to turn around to see the great white coming up alongside the left side of the boat. No, I don’t know if that’s “starboard” or "seaboard" (is this even the right word??). So please bear with me when I say left and right. We continued on for another ten minutes before stopping.

They explained to us how they release fish oils and blood into the water to attract the sharks with some scent. They don’t feed the sharks anything because they do not want the sharks to get dependent on humans feeding them. At the same time the scents were being released, the cage was removed from the deck and locked down on the left side of the boat. The cage was large, with enough room to fit seven people arm-to-arm across and about two people wide. There was a large gap in the front, about a foot wide, right in front of our faces. Why would that be ok? 

There were two pieces of bait that went along with the scents. On the right, there was a plywood baby-seal shaped decoy. The crew told us that this decoy didn’t have a long life expectancy. Would the shark leap out of the water to go after it and snap the rope?! I was hoping I could see that happen. On the left, there were a bunch of fish bits all roped together that were dragged through the water to attract the shark to the surface. This proved to be most interesting to the sharks, and I got to see a couple leap out a bit!

We were all given wetsuits and I changed into mine, not without wobbling back and forth in the cabin and nearly completely losing my balance. Just thinking about it now is making me dizzy. I quickly sat back down and stared at the shore until I could muster the energy to stumble to the left side where I held on the railing above those in the cage to take pictures.

Every group that went in couldn’t always see directly in front of them since the cage and their goggles blocked their views. To make up for this, there was a crew member shouting at them, “Down right!” or “Down left!” to tell them to hold their breath and pull themselves underwater to see the shark. His voice was so deep and demanding that I felt like I was on some battlefield where I had to get down to avoid some bullets.

Three groups later, I was ready to get in. Once I got in, I was ready to get right back out! The water was cold and it suddenly became very real to me that there were great white sharks only feet away from me in the water. I admit, I did scream. I didn’t get any clear pictures with my underwater camera, but I did get to see a shark underwater! It was only the side fin, but it was enough for me. I was in the middle, but those on the left got the best view! The sharks really went after the bait, and when I was in the cage, one of them slammed up against it and rattled the whole thing. I screamed again. When I was climbing back out of the cage, I was a bit scared a shark would jump back out of the water trying to get the bait and get me instead. 

I was in the cage for that - and I felt it! The whole cage rattled and I nearly got hit by a great big gray fin!

DUN DUN DUN DUN

On our way back to sure, we passed THE seal island! And seal island it was! Everywhere you looked on the craggy rock structure was literally covered in seals, big and small. We were told that in the fall, when the babies started getting more mature and able to swim out into the channel, the area would be filled with sharks looking for an easy snack.

What an incredible experience! I’m really glad I can say I’ve gone cage diving with great white sharks now. We were told that ten different great whites appeared on our trip, averaging about 10 feet in length. I purchased the DVD of the best footage. I’m excited to watch it later, though I’m sure I look like a grumpy little seasick girl.