Had an amazing Great White Shark Research trip 180 miles offshore of Baja Mexico with professional underwater photographer Pamela Whitman and a whole team of world class shark experts on the large Nautilus
Research Ship!
It took us 20 hours of boating time to get out to the remote Guadalupe Island off of Mexico where we spent four days documenting over 20 different Great White Sharks up close in about 200 feet of water.
Many of these massive sharks migrated from San Francisco to Baja Mexico then out to Guadalupe Island on their way to Hawaii. Due to satellite tracking some of the largest sharks have been documented to go all the way to Hawaii where we observed them feeding on a dead whale only six months ago!
With a Mexican government biologist and 10 other highly trained shark experts we documented juvenile Great Whites, adult males and massive 16 to 18 foot pregnant females. We recorded their movements, feeding behaviors, wounds and bite marks, and sharks social behavior.
This is cutting-edge research and I am making a whole documentary movie of the event to show to our school classes here in Hawaii.
These sharks have an amazing method of feeding. They are attracted to Guadalupe Island to feed on the plentiful fur and elephant seals and the sea lions. The younger Great Whites feed on fish then at about three to four years old shift to eating seals.
We observed a very calculated feeding behavior where the sharks will circle their prey several times then dive deep and attack from below often launching their prey completely out of the water! I got an amazing video from below of a very large female beaching all the way out of the water like a whale would do!
The Great Whites have their live babies in shallow warm water along the California and Mexican coastline and then leave their young to fend for themselves. The adults will even eat their own offspring so the babies live in areas different then the adults. Only the large adults and a few half grown individuals migrate out to Guadalupe Island and then only a few of the large females migrate all the way to Hawaii!
It is still unknown why they make this long journey to stay for a few months then migrate all the way back to Northern California!
October is coming up and some folks in Hawaii call it “Sharktober” because of the increase in shark bites on surfers. This only happens because our good surf here in Hawaii starts in November and October so there is a massive increase of humans out in the water where the sharks live and feed! This simply increases the chance that a shark will accidentally bite a surfer while chasing its prey!
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Terry Lilley is a marine biologist who has done extensive underwater research around Kauai and writes a column for TGI.
