Most people would be horrified to be surprised by the ocean’s top apex predator, but scuba divers in Catalina, USA, were ecstatic to be joined by a great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias).
Even more incredibly, "most of [the group] completely missed this magnificent beast,” says Seamus Callaghan, who captured the footage.
The divers were on a three-day trip out of Long Beach California testing underwater photography equipment for Huish Outdoors onboard the Sundiver Charter, but they had no idea that they were about to capture footage of Jaws herself.
On their final dive, the group descended onto a small shipwreck about 30 metres (90 feet) deep. As he was adjusting his camera, Callaghan realised they weren’t alone.
“At that moment, the 15-foot-plus [4.5 metre] great white shark swam slowly from behind me and over my right shoulder, almost within arm’s reach,” he says. “It took me a couple of seconds to compose myself and lift up the camera to shoot the shark as it circled around me – a complete 360.”
Incredibly, several people didn’t spot the gigantic shark just metres from them in the water.
“It swam within 10 feet [three metres] of each of us, despite going completely unnoticed by five of the eight divers," says Callaghan.
Kacy Madigan, instructor and dive professional, was lucky enough to get a front-row seat as the shark swam calmly below her, just six metres away. “She appeared suddenly out of the blue murkiness – a massive white shark,” she says. “At first, I couldn't even register what I was seeing because of how large and close she was. It took a moment for reality to sink in.”
Madigan exhaled deeply so she could drop down for a closer look “and nearly got a little too close in my excitement,” she says. The shark circled the group, still unnoticed by several divers, then took off. “My encounter with a white shark in the wild, especially without a cage, was one of the most surreal experiences of my life,” she says.
Although movies often position great whites as man-eating monsters, humans pose a much greater threat to sharks than they do to us. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species categorises white sharks as vulnerable to extinction and over 100 million sharks, of all species, are killed by humans each year.
Callaghan describes the shark as “slow and very calm. It did not pose as aggressive but definitely curious,” he says. “Overall, I had mixed emotions, none really of fear and certainly not panic. Powerlessness comes to mind.”
“We do love sharks out here,” says Captain Kyaa from Sundiver International, which hosted the trip. “The danger on our trips if someone yells 'shark' is from divers trampling one another to get IN the water.”
Although they shared the water with the white shark for just a moment, this once-in-a-lifetime experience will stay with them forever, says Madigan: “I’ll be thinking about that shark for the rest of my life.”
Video and images: Seamus Callaghan, Huish Outdoors testing Oceanic iPhone Housings and Oceanic Plus software.
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