GREAT WHITE SHARKS — TOPSIDE

Carl has been taking annual expeditions to South Australia to dive with great white sharks  since the movie Jaws was announced. By the time the film hit the theaters, Carl's company was actively recruiting the very first sport-diving group to go into Rodney Fox's cages for photography. Over the years, much of what we thought we knew about the sharks has drastically changed. Still, the original adventure in the original locale where the underwater scenes were shot for Jaws is still the greatest adventure in all of diving. These images show one of the anchorages, a baby sea lion who decided to join the team for a couple of hours and the remarkable scenery.

GREAT WHITE SHARKS — UNDERWATER

Great white sharks are cautious predators, often approaching and retreating numerous times even when there is the scent of bait in the water. They are curious but risk-averse, especially about damage to their eyes. They are individualistic in the extreme; some who have recently fed are mostly curious, while others for no reason that is apparent to us are homicidal. Those are generalizations, of course, but one must always remember that the shark which bites you won't be the one you are looking at--it will be the one coming up behind you.

Carl remembers the few 'Natural Born Killers' he has met, such as the famous Rusty (the set of three images shows her attacking) with special affection. They were the sharks which produced the classic images he treasures.

 

GRAYS

Grays are the most common sharks on tropical reefs. Much of the time they patrol, graceful sentinels on the watch somewhere nearby. In that mode, they are merely supremely graceful, powerful-looking fish. During these phases they are relatively harmless, though attacks have occurred without warning in the late afternoon crepuscular period. The first gallery portrays the sharks when they are patrolling.

GRAYS Feeding

The first that a divers even knows there are any sharks nearby is when bait is taken into the water or a fish is speared. Suddenly, those placid sentinels become very active and quite competitive. They seem to understand that if they don't quickly find the food source, it will be gone. The second gallery illustrates this abrupt change of mood and the wild melee that can ensue.

BLACKTIP REEF SHARKS

These distinctive sharks are fairly small, are usually found in shallow reeftop zones and are quite inoffensive. They rarely mix it up with gray and silvertip sharks when a feeding is in progress. They are more likely to appear at the outer edges of the scene, then drift away.

SAN DIEGO BLUE SHARKS

Their slender body shape belies a fairly aggressive demeanor. They are open water sharks, found miles out to sea. When there is any kind of food in the water, they soon appear and will be fairly persistent in getting their share. In the early days of cage diving with them, they sometimes managed to get into the cage—which got the divers’ attention.

CAT SHARKS

While most non-divers think of the sleek carcharrhinid sharks such as grays or silkies when they hear the word 'shark,' there are many species of sharks which lie around the bottom by day, then scavenge for prey such as lobsters, wounded or dead fish and those small fish who are unwary.

Among these sedentary sharks, one of the most elegant is the Cat Shark. These beauties are often reluctant to expend the effort to swim away when discovered, waiting until you approach quite close before sighing and slowly lifting off.

GUITAR SHARK

Generally found lying on the sea bottom, these sharks can reach impressive size. The larger one shown here was patrolling atop the wreck of the S. S. Yongala on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Scavengers, like most sharks, they feed on whatever they can find. Dead or wounded fish never remain on the sea floor without being consumed, often by these sharks.

HAMMERHEAD SHARKS

Hammerheads occur in two main types. The Great Hammerhead can be immense (up to seventeen feet in length), patrol the open ocean and are very intimidating up close. The one shown here appeared at the end of a shark feeding and was so huge it’s mere presence frightened  everything else away. Smaller hammerheads include the inoffensive scalloped variety, a nocturnal feeder which gathers in huge schools during the day. These small sharks are half-asleep when we see their huge schools, and we can often swim up quite close to them before they realize we are there.

NURSE SHARKS

Growing quite large, these sharks spend much of their time at rest on the bottom. They prey upon scavenged fish as well as shellfish they encounter on the bottom. They seem to resist being disturbed, apparently not wanting to make the effort to lift off and find another quiet place to settle down again. Nurse Sharks rarely bite humans, but when they do, they seem to lock on and are very difficult to dislodge.

OTHER SPECIES

There are more than 250 species of sharks, many of which are sedentary or nocturnal. If we see them at all, they may be lying about on the bottom waiting for darkness to fall so they can scavenge. The Epaulette Shark, an example of which is seen in this gallery, walks about the darkened reef using its two front fins as if they were paws.

 

WHITE-TIP REEF SHARKS

These slender scavengers can be aggressive in packs, though when swimming about alone or in small numbers they are very cautious. Once there is food in the water, they will try to get their share even if there are gray sharks whizzing around them. When not engaged in searching for food, they tend to rest on the sand with a good view of any danger approaching.

SANDBAR SHARKS

These sharks are heavy-bodied and very streamlined. They are seldom seen on tropical reefs. Which would indicate that they are deeper and not inclined to investigate human visitors.

SAND TIGER SHARKS

Sand Tigers are large, generally slow moving and not aggressive during daylight hours. They don’t get to be as big as they are without consuming prodigious amounts of food, however, so their nocturnal hunting must be very effective.

SILKY SHARKS

Silky sharks are long and slender, but big enough to do real harm. They hunt off the coasts, but move in to fill the void if reef sharks are hunted out. Since one is usually observing them in open, deep water, there is no place to hide if they become aroused.

SILVERTIP SHARKS

These distinctively-marked sharks tend to have slate-gray bodies and brilliant white fin-tips. They are curious and can be aggressive. When divers drop into the water on never-dived reefs, silvertips will rocket up out of deep water to investigate. In a feeding situation, they will aggressively mix it up with other species of sharks.

TIGER SHARKS

These sharks get to be fourteen feet in length, a big, powerful shark. They can be found inshore in murky water where they have been very dangerous for pearl divers. They are especially fond of trailing turtles to their nesting grounds and preying upon them. 300 miles out to sea, this one swam up to me in clear water, on a reef top with no shelter. It circled me twice and decided not to attack. To say the least, I was relieved.

WHALE SHARKS

Whale sharks are the largest species, reaching forty feet or more and weighing several tons. They gather at particular sites in Western Australia, Mexico, the Maldives and the Seychelles for specific feeding events. In Western Australia, for example, twenty-four showed up on the first day of coral spawning, when huge amounts of krill were attracted in from the open sea. Sometimes two or three will swim around inside a massive ball of krill, feeding happily.

WOBBEGONG SHARKS

Wobbegongs can be sizable, reaching seven feet or more in length. They lie about the bottom by day, and don’t like to be disturbed. They are known to have a temper if pestered, and when they bite, they lock on and are very hard to dislodge. They are also masters of disguise, mottling their bodies to blend into whatever bottom coloration they must match.