Giant Squid Diving-Steve Blairs Report

From Steve Blair this week a quick albeit amazing Giant Squid report from the Sea of Cortez:

Patric,

I wanted to tell you about my dive trip down to Santa Rosalia, Baja last week. I had an interesting trip! As you know I was going down there to dive with the giant Humboldt squid and with our infamous friend Scott Cassell. Scott was finishing up a Discovery Channel film shoot when I arrived and we had 3 days of diving to look forward to.

The idea was to get into the water once at dusk and then again after dark to observe and film the squid’s natural feeding behaviors at night. Because the squid can be pretty dangerous we were wearing full chain mail suits and helmets for protection against bites and the ring teeth in their 1200 suction cups and eight arms.

Here’s the fun part – we were diving at night in blue water with only 10 foot visibility hanging on a steel cable 40-50 feet deep under the panga and suspended over the 3000 foot deep abyss below. At night with the limited visibility you looked down below your fins into the inky black that only monsters come out of! We had no lights except for two small LED lights on a cable suspended 15 below the boat.

To bring the squid in close (and that’s not difficult) we had the fisherman on the boat cut up chunks of squid they were catching and throw them overboard. It was eerie to watch the white chunks of flesh flutter down all around us and just before you lose sight of them in the dark around you “something” would quickly appear and the chunk of flesh would be gone in a blur of arms.

The squid are very fast and in the limited visibility they move in and out of sight really quickly. These were some pretty large ones at about 6 feet total length. I was watching one attack Scott in the head and seeing others move around near him when one hit me in the side of the head as well. When they attack they hit with force and the arms grab and hold while the beak rips into you. Luckily I was wearing a helmet and this one didn’t try to bite me.

In the dark with hundreds of squid darting all around eating the chum raining down it can get pretty intimidating – like walking through a bar where everyone is throwing punches at you or is about to! Wild stuff to say the least. And I thought cage diving with great whites was cool.

Wanna go diving with us?

Joel & Suzie almost eaten by Tiger Shark?

You can watch this video three or four times and come to different conclusions about what you are seeing.This is a growing trend with Tigers within the industry. Until recently no one would have considered Tiger encounters like these.

The main question on the table...is it sustainable?

Canada-Maple Syrup, Nice People and Sharks?

According to a recent study more than 100 million sharks inhabit the cold dark miserable waters off Canada's Atlantic coast.

Here's a quick run down of what you might see if you were to dive there:

SHARK SPECIES

Of about 400 species of sharks found in the world’s oceans, 19 of those species are regularly found in or are occasional visitors to Atlantic Canadian waters:

•Atlantic sharpnose shark

•Basking shark

•Black dogfish shark

•Blue shark

•Deepsea cat shark

•Dusky shark

•Great white shark

•Greenland shark

•Oceanic whitetip shark

•Porbeagle shark

•Portuguese shark

•Rough sagre shark

•Sand tiger shark

•Shortfin mako shark

•Smooth dogfish shark

•Smooth hammerhead shark

•Spiny dogfish shark

•Thresher shark

•Tiger shark

Editors Note: The critter in this picture is the Porbeagle shark, a close relative of Alaska's Salmon shark and a distant relative of the Great White shark...the thing coming out of it's mouth is a strawberry flavored liquorice whip. Shark researchers have found this flavour calms the sharks so they can work on them better.

Shark Week Gets Dirty-Shark Vivisections?

Mike Rowe's upcoming 2008 Shark Week show will feature an "in depth" look into the mysterious Greenland Shark:

Shark gutting lures TV crew

It's enough to turn you off sushi for good.

In the name of science, University of Windsor's Aaron Fisk hauls monster Greenland sharks out of the frigid Arctic depths, then guts them to see what they had for dinner.

Somebody has to do it, says Fisk. And it's why Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs came calling last spring.

Editors Note: The sharks and film crew were under the guidance of an ongoing research project headed up by the University of Windsor's shark team lead by Dr. Aaron Fisk.

Sharky Commercial Aquarium Trends

We have blogged about the current trend of commercial aquariums that allow "divers" into their enclosures for face to face encounters with sharks.

Like it or not this is a trend-and a poor one at that. Commercial aquaria were never constructed and designed as underwater public encounter spaces. In 98% of them-these for profit public encounters-are an afterthought. Basically these aquaria are becoming hybrid organizations at best.

Why not build a state of the art public dive encounter site complete with sharks, safety and education? Seems like a far fetched idea? We're closer than ever.

Here's the growing list of aquarium adventure dives for your review:

Georgia Aquarium, Atlanta. A whale shark, the world's largest fish, is the prime attraction. One 30-minute dive daily. There is also a swim option, with no diving experience required ($290; www.georgiaaquarium.org).

Florida Aquarium, Tampa. Dive with the Sharks. One 30-minute dive daily ($150; www.flaquarium.org).

National Aquarium, Baltimore. Wings in the Water and Atlantic Coral Reef tanks are available for diving. One 30-minute dive in each tank, every other Saturday. ($295; www.aqua.org).

Epcot Center, Orlando. Epcot Dive Quest, sharks, eagle rays, sea turtles, plus 60-plus fish species, 40-minute dive twice daily. ($150; disneyworld.disney.go.com).

Underwater Adventure at the Mall of America. Offers dives to Fisherman's Hollow and Shark Cove on Wednesday evenings and Saturday and Sunday afternoons ($195). There is a swim option for those without diving experience: snorkeling Rainbow Reef, on Friday afternoons and Saturday and Sunday mornings ($80; www.underwaterworld.com).

Shark Introduction "Cuddles" Isla Guadalupe

For those of you who will be joining us this year at Isla Guadalupe we thought we would introduce you to some of the "locals" that you'll be meeting this season.

This gal is called "Cuddles". For reasons that are obvious, she's also one of the "nicest" white sharks on site.

We have been lucky enough to dive with her over the past three years, and she's usually the last to join us on any given day, seemingly content just to have divers gaze at her.

Not all animals at this pristine and unique site are the same and many have "distinct personalities" that become evident once you spend enough time with them. It's a strange way to look at Great Whites, purported to be the "ultimate killing machines". One week with this little gal will change the way you look at them, trust us!

Hawaii diver says he escaped white shark

It would seem as more and more divers, kayakers, and thrill seekers find themselves in the waters off Yokohama Bay...more and more are encountering Great White Sharks.

This mornings news greeted us as another diver/speero claimed to have encountered a 14 foot critter who was moving up his chum line.

Since the beginning of May we have had 4 emails from divers claiming to have seen them but no images (this image is "Shredder" from our Isla Guadalupe site).

Rare events? We think not.

The latest long range tagging data from both Topps and elsewhere suggests a robust white shark migration to these islands each year.

Case in point.

White Shark Cafe TOPP's

In the news again-the team from TOPP's with more revealing data about the Great Whites of the Pacific. While the focus of this study is mostly on three populations off the California coast, our very own Isla Guadalupe population is on the same migration track.

Thanks in most part to the tracking efforts of Marine CSI we know that Guadalupe populations also join coastal populations off shore each season.

" The sharks spend months at the cafe, an area of about 600 square miles, but nobody knows what they're doing there. Even stranger, they dive up and down more than 1,300 feet every 10 minutes. They repeat the cycle over and over for days, a behavior they don't exhibit anywhere else."

This new data is perhaps some of the most exciting tracking data to come from these populations in a decade of research.

SharkDiver.Com and the Media

When you have a shark diving company like ours you get hit with media requests almost daily.

Recently we just completed a three part article for a German Magazine due out in April. The trick with working with the media is credibility. Never do anything that makes you, the sharks, or your operation look like an idiot. This is just Media 101.

That's a trick here is most media sources come to you with a basic Discovery Channel understanding of how sharks work. It's our job to introduce them to an expanded view of things.

In all media is fun to work with and we have been blessed to work with some of the greats over the years producing what amounts to a massive amount of positive press for both us and the sites we operate in.

After all, we're on the front lines of not only shark research, as is the case of our Isla Guadalupe site, but if we say so ourselves, we run a pretty cool little operation as well.

TOPP's White Sharks

You gotta hand it to the TOPP's people (Tagging of Pacific Predators). They recently announced new findings from over 100 high tech sat tags placed on white sharks all over the Pacific in 2006. This last year was one of the most ambitious tagging projects on record:

"Every winter the sharks leave California's coast for one of two destinations. A minority of sharks head to the Hawaiian Island chain. The majority, however, congregate in a part of the open ocean halfway from California and Hawaii, 1,300 miles from land. Researchers have yet to uncover what attracts the shark to this particular spot. During these journey the sharks will occasionally dive up to a quarter-mile beneath the surface and stay at this depth, where light barely penetrates, for hours. On returning to California, the sharks display remarkable site-fidelity, always heading to the same area of coast they left before. “These animals appear again and again at very specific areas,” Salvador Jorgensen says, a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station and the Monterey Bay Aquarium".

Isla Guadalupe island located in Mexico plays into this ongoing migration drama every year with animals returning every season after visiting the same sites as their California cousins. Making the Pacific a very small body of water after all.

Shark Tech Cool

Or not. Turns out this is the week for the roll out of all manner of new underwater gadgets and gizmondo's designed to prove to the entire world two things:

1. That you Mr.Consumer have way too much money
2. That you Mr. Consumer will spend it an anything

Take for example the latest offering from Rinspeed sQuba.

Available at your local dive stores in and around 2015. This underwater electric car will take you anywhere in style. Estimated sticker price...$400,000.

Want to go white shark diving? Tiger diving? Whale sharks anyone?

O.K, so the concept is cool. But like we like to say with commercial shark diving operations...just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should.

Think we'll pass on this in favor of a ratty old BCD and dive computer that beeps too much, add a 50 square foot shark cage to that with a huge shark on the other side...now you got something!

Shark Attack 500,000!

Four months ago the crew and divers of Shark Diver were treated to a rare and spectacular feeding event at our Isla Guadalupe white shark site. In this video-shot in part by CICIMAR shark researcher Mauricio Hoyos-a 15 foot Great White is ripping apart a 700lb elephant seal.

We wrapped the video up and stuck it on You Tube with Luke Tipple our dive operations manager as the front man. Much to our surprise this video just hit 500,000 views this morning. This kind of shark attack is a rare event at this site:

Shark Attacks at 20 Year Low

George Burgess, the world's top shark attack guy has described his latest shark attack data sets as ""spectacular".

He's been gushing to the media the fact that there had only been one fatality in 2007 resulting from a shark attack worldwide.

""The danger of a shark attack stays in the forefront of our psyches because of it being drilled into our brain for the last 30 years by the popular media, movies, books and television, but in reality the chances of dying from one are infinitesimal," Mr Burgess added."

The crew here at Shark Diver could not agree more with George.

Scuba Scooters

This is pretty much the dumbest idea to come down the pike since the invention of the UW Pager For Business Travelers.

Once again some science/business guy has come up with a way to get non divers down to an incredible 60 feet without knowing the first thing about scuba.

"This year the company will build 100 Scuba Scooter units from fibreglass moulds for a chain of international resorts in Malaysia and by next Christmas it's hoped a million of the units will be out for sale".

Shark Diver will soon be marketing the all new "HUD-view mask" guaranteed to warn you when a Scuba Scooter, driven by a Narc'd Malaysian, is weaving its way towards you.

Cue the Jaws music boys...

5 Questions with a Shark Diver

We caught up with Shark Diver Derek Heasley owner of the online underwater image site Sea Pixels. When he's not shooting some of the closest shark shots on the planet he's usually to be found in Ireland. He just stepped off a 14 day adventure in Socorros with the Nautilus Explorer.

1. What draws you to sharks?

They are shaped beautifully. Just look at the curves on them. They are streamlined for perfect hunting. I get a huge thrill taking images of this shape in motion. From a tiger sharks snout to a basking sharks mouth. There is a lot to see.

2. How hard is it to shoot sharks vs say, blennys?

Blennys are beautiful also.They generally stay in their own area and pop their little heads out to see whats going on.  Always a close background in the image.  Sharks are always on the prowl and open water is where their at.  Blennys tend to be easier by their nature.  Stay still and a 105mm macro lens, your sure to get a good image.  With sharks its a different ball-game.  I mostly stay still when the sharks are around and use either 10-22mm or 18-55mm lens.  If your shooting
upwards, watch out for your air bubbles in the frame.

3. Favourite shark story?

Coordinating a photo shoot with a great white and a diver. We noticed the great white sharks were coming up to try catch the bait on the surface. We were cage diving at Guadalupe with Shark Diver. But myself and Colin Ball from England arranged that when I give him the thumbs up sign, that he was to face me and put his two thumbs up while I captured the great white which was right behind him...We couldn't have planned it any more precise. I couldn't have laughed anymore while taking the images:)

4. Your take on shark finning and what to do about it?

Its like somebody coming up to you and cutting your arms and legs off.Then walking away.I think there must be a huge demand for these fins. You and I know that if you eat shark fins its no more going to cure you and make you healthy than it is if you drink pints of Guinness...If there was a pro active government agency in country's where shark finning takes place. A simple education system that categorically list benefits of NOT finning.  So education is key.

5. Where's your next dive adventure?

Well, I live in Ireland, so there is plenty of good diving here. Abroad, I think the Coco Islands for the Hammerheads.

Editors Note: We could not agree with you more!

Lava Lamps For Scuba Divers

You had to know this was coming. For all you desk bound scuba fans who would rather be out in the deep blue playing with all manner of big toothy sea critters, here is the ultimate Lava Lamp.

At $169 it gets you where you want to be...at least for 15 minutes. While the promotional video below will put you to sleep, we still think this is pretty cool, and hey, it's a hit in Japan!

O.K, cube dweller, back to $$work$$!

Georgia Aquarium-Calling Bullshit!

Let us be the first of what will probably be many people, eco-groups, and divers to call "Bull-Shit" when we see it.

Recently, the Georgia Aquarium announced to one and all-real live scuba diving experiences and snorkeling experiences with their much coveted Whale Sharks...part two.

You see, the first set of Whale Sharks they had in captivity died mysteriously and they just Fed Ex'ed in another set a few months ago.

Look, this is not the way to run an aquarium, and the good folks in Georgia should know this. Whale Sharks are a unique and amazing shark species. While we are all for wild encounters with these critters, aquarium dives are just plain wrong.

Fact: If you cannot even keep the Whale Sharks you have alive for more than a year, then you absolutely shouldn't be charging "Scuba Yabbo's" to go dive with them.

We had a feeling that something like this was going to happen, after all this corporate aquarium is sponsored by the Home Depot, and what do they know about sharks?

Great White Shark Accident

It's not all fun and games when you're a Shark Diver.

Case in point this slightly disgusting video from 2004.

Let us "set the scene". It's late November and we have three big white sharks swinging at the hang baits at the back deck- complete with two jam packed dive cages full of otherwise excited divers....that's when all hell broke loose.

Suddenly, this large 15 foot male lets loose an incredible stream of shark excrement out his tail end. Up until that exact point in time no one in the history of shark diving had ever filmed a white shark doing something like this.

Anyway, the story ending is the best part. Diver Jason Sullivan who shot the whole thing stays in the cage as the current moves this yellow "ort-cloud" of poo all over the guy. He comes up to the surface with with worlds biggest grin and says this "Dude, a white shark just crapped all over me, and I got it on film...cool", he then proceeds to get back in the cage and does not come out for the rest of the day: