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  • The Great White Sharkone of the most feared predators in the seas. This is one of the

  • most dangerous sharks in the world, considered by many to be a man-eater. But just how aggressive

  • are these sharks? Join me on a mission to investigate great white sharks.

  • Hi, I'm Jonathan Bird and welcome to my world!

  • Great white sharks are not easy to find. There are only a handful of places in the world

  • where divers can see them in the wild.

  • So I've come here, to San Diego California, to get on a boat and make a 200 miles crossing

  • to an inland in Mexico called Guadalupe where we hope to find Great White Sharks.

  • My home for the expedition is a converted fishing boat. I'll be spending the week

  • with several other divers and a few shark researchers.

  • Our journey will take us across 200 miles of open Pacific Ocean, from San Diego, to

  • Guadalupe Island in Mexico, off the Baja peninsula.

  • We depart from the dock and start our journey with high expectations.

  • Our first stop, however, is at the bait shop, where we pick up baitfish to use for catching

  • tuna. Then the tuna will be used as bait for the Sharks.

  • While I often swim with sharks in open water, unprotected by a cage, White Sharks are a

  • little too big for that. The crew insists that we use cages for safety.

  • After 2 hours, we pass the Coronado Islands in Mexican waters. This is the last land I'll

  • see until we reach Guadalupe...another 20 hours from now

  • Along the way we stop to do some fishing. I'm generally not much of a fisherman. After

  • all, I would rather swim with the fish than catch them, but in this case we need some

  • bait to attract the sharks, so everyone has to do their part. Oh Strong. HELLO. Aw another

  • on it the food chain.

  • Whoa! Strong! HELLO. Aww another one in the food chain!

  • We then continue our journey to Guadalupe Island.

  • We encounter rough seas, but finally, the next morning we arrive at Guadalupe. This

  • desolate island is an extinct volcano that pokes out of the Pacific. Almost nothing can

  • survive on this rock outcropping.

  • Our first task upon arrival is to get the chum in the water. The crew use fish meal

  • and water to create a fishy soup in a trash can. Then, a pump squirts it overboard. This

  • creates a scent trail in the water to draw the sharks to the boat.

  • Once the chum has been started, we turn our attention to getting the cages in the water.

  • These large cages can hold up to five people each, and they have large holes for cameras.

  • Hopefully I'll be able to get some great shots of the sharks.

  • Once the cages are in the water, we tie some tuna on a rope and throw it into the water

  • with a float to keep it near the surface.

  • Members of the crew also take turns whacking the water with a pole, which is said to attract

  • sharks.

  • The water slapping and the chum soup helps get the sharks to the boat, but only something

  • more substantial like tuna chunks will convince them to stick around and approach the cages.

  • Now we wait. It can take hours or even days to get sharks.

  • Then without warning, a shark comes up and checks out one of the tuna baits. Today we're

  • lucky because it only took a couple of hours.

  • Now the fun part. I suit up into my gear for my dive with a White Shark!

  • The water is about 70 degrees, so I need a wetsuit to stay warm. Next I step down onto

  • the swim platform where the crew outfits me with a really heavy weight harness.

  • A normal weight belt for diving with this much of a wetsuit is about 10 pounds, but

  • I am wearing a 40-pound weight harness so I'll be able to stand firmly on the bottom

  • of the cage without floating up and hitting my head on the top of the cage!

  • I don't need a bulky scuba tank because we are using surface-supplied air on a long

  • hose.

  • Diving with Surface-Supplied Air is a very different kind of diving than what I'm used

  • to, but it works well for this kind of underwater experience....as long as the shark can't

  • get to the hose!

  • They hand me my camera and I drop below the waves to wait for a shark.

  • You would think it would be easy to see the sharks once I hit the water, but it's more

  • complicated than that. The sharks like to stay down in deep water, watching the surface

  • from below.

  • White Sharks get the advantage over their prey by surprising them. We have to hope that

  • the shark wants to grab this bait and come close to the cage.

  • While I wait for a shark to go for the tuna bait, I can't do anything but wait. And

  • wait. And wait. Shark diving can actually be pretty boring sometimes.

  • Since the sharks are taking so long, the crew has put out another kind of lure...a 5 gallon

  • plastic bucket filled with frozen fish. Yummy!

  • At last I see something coming, but it doesn't look like a shark. It's a sea lion coming

  • in to check out the tuna. It turns out the sea lion is only mildly interested in the

  • dead fish. Sea lions prefer to catch live fish. Yet this curious animal doesn't seem

  • too concerned that a White Shark is lurking somewhere below. Or maybe it doesn't know.

  • Suddenly, the Sea lion vanishes and a shark appears. It seems to be aware of us, but it's

  • definitely more interested in the bait. It makes a couple of close passes to examine

  • the bait.

  • Then it makes its move, going directly for the tuna. It grabs it, bites easily through

  • the rope, and takes off with a tasty mouthful.

  • After that, the shark heads back down below us, out of sight. What's going on? Why is

  • the shark not attacking the cage and trying to eat us?

  • As I watch the White Shark behavior over a couple of days, I can see a pattern. It likes

  • nice chunks of bait to eat, and it has no interest in the cages or the people in them.

  • WOW! What an incredible animal. Well, it just goes to show you the sharks are really interested

  • in the bait. They really haven't got a lot of interest in me. They know exactly what

  • they want and they go straight for it. And the cage is really to make me feel better.

  • Occasionally the shark comes up and bites the bucket full of frozen chum, just to see

  • if there is anything tasty in there. When it figures out that the chum is chopped up

  • too finely to eat, it goes back to the bottom.

  • The White Sharks only come up for food. They can tell the difference between nice juicy

  • piece of fish, and a bucket. And they show no interest in chasing the sea lions around

  • the boat either.

  • These sharks are obviously a lot smarter than they appear.

  • Some of the shark research being done around Guadalupe Island includes identifying individuals

  • to see if they return year after year. Several have been named including Scarboard, a large

  • female who has a scar on her right, which is her starboard, side.

  • Other identifying features researchers look for include the coloration in the area around

  • the gills, and also the color pattern by the tail. No two sharks are exactly alike.

  • Any distinguishing marks like this white streak on the nose help researchers identify individual

  • sharks.

  • Time flies when you're having fun. All too soon, our time with the sharks comes to an

  • end and we have to turn for home. I look forward to returning the island of Guadalupe and visiting

  • the sharks again soon. It may be rather desolate above the water, but is rich with incredible

  • animals living within its blue underwater world!

The Great White Sharkone of the most feared predators in the seas. This is one of the

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