I am a shark enthusiast. So any chance I have to see a shark out in nature I am excited. Back in California I would commonly see horn sharks and leopard sharks with the occasional small blue or mako when we did our chums. Then I was lucky enough to swim with great white sharks with the cage dives in South Africa. Lots of white tip reef sharks here in Hawaii with a couple of grey reef sharks out at Molokini, and of course some incredible encounters with whale sharks have been added to the list. But even after all of that, I was not prepared for what I saw today... an Oceanic White Tip Shark! 3 miles offshore, in water over 2000ft deep, this beautiful shark slowly swam around. Its huge white tipped fins giving its identity away when I first saw it about 80 feet away. As it swam closer the thought of all those military ships going down and people eaten by this type of shark did cross my mind but in this clear water, with no blood to draw its attention, I figured the swim by was just a bit of curiosity. I made sure to keep my eyes on it. It was very cool to see some pilot fish hanging out near the dorsal fin. Almost all the pictures of this shark I can find have pilot fish right next to it. If I didn't know better I would think they look like little striped baby sharks protectively swimming next to mom. Maybe they just taste bad.
I am a shark enthusiast. So any chance I have to see a shark out in nature I am excited. Back in California I would commonly see horn sharks and leopard sharks with the occasional small blue or mako when we did our chums. Then I was lucky enough to swim with great white sharks with the cage dives in South Africa. Lots of white tip reef sharks here in Hawaii with a couple of grey reef sharks out at Molokini, and of course some incredible encounters with whale sharks have been added to the list. But even after all of that, I was not prepared for what I saw today... an Oceanic White Tip Shark! 3 miles offshore, in water over 2000ft deep, this beautiful shark slowly swam around. Its huge white tipped fins giving its identity away when I first saw it about 80 feet away. As it swam closer the thought of all those military ships going down and people eaten by this type of shark did cross my mind but in this clear water, with no blood to draw its attention, I figured the swim by was just a bit of curiosity. I made sure to keep my eyes on it. It was very cool to see some pilot fish hanging out near the dorsal fin. Almost all the pictures of this shark I can find have pilot fish right next to it. If I didn't know better I would think they look like little striped baby sharks protectively swimming next to mom. Maybe they just taste bad.
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