Saturday, October 13, 2007

SharkDiver.com came face to face with a Great White shark attack!

Adventure seekers hoping to encounter Great White sharks on a recent adventure vacation with SharkDiver.com got more than they bargained for last week when a 15 foot white shark explosively attacked a seal right in front of astonished divers.“We were in the middle of cage diving operations on the back deck of the MV Islander when all of a sudden a 6 foot geyser of black foam and red blood erupted 50 yards from our position.

I immediately deployed the shark research team from CICIMAR with video cameras and they caught a rarely seen white shark feeding event and repeated attacks on a 7 foot long resident Elephant Seal (Mirounga angustirostris).”“The attacks lasted about 15 minutes and having witnessed a “full on” predation first hand I have a new appreciation for the whites we encounter here. After four years of personal observations with these animals it’s always good to be reminded of the power of this top ocean predator”, said Australian born Luke Tipple, dive operations manager for Shark Diver and host of upcoming television series Wild Side Encounters.

“In 6 years of operations at this unique dive site, there have only been two recorded surface shark attacks on seals, this one was nothing short of spectacular. Today we decided to release this video to the general public”, added eco-adventurer and Shark Diver CEO Patric Douglas after reviewing the video."We have research data showing these sharks actively stalking the smaller Guadalupe Fur Seals (pups and adults) early in the shark season," says Douglas.

"By November these pups are quite big and begin to play offshore, which is the equivalent of ringing the dinner bell for larger female whites who need to consume mass quantities of food to fuel up for the winter and for breeding season."Located 210 miles off the coast of Mexico, Isla Guadalupe has become the worldwide recognized dive destination for an unprecedented number of Great White sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) and provides exceptional opportunities for divers seeking encounters with these misunderstood denizens of the deep.

The Shark Diver crew, lead by dedicated shark specialists in conjunction with U.C Davis and CICIMAR's research teams, documented this rare attack on the surface and from below and will be studying it in depth in the coming months.There are few places in the world that feature consistent sightings andinteractions with Great White sharks as Isla Guadalupe, Mexico.About Shark DiverRecently featured on the 20th Anniversary of Shark Week, SharkDiver.com has been thrilling divers from around the world for the past 6 years with safe and exciting shark encounters.

Shark Diver has expanded to offer cage diving trips with Tiger sharks in the Bahamas, Giant Squid encounters, as well as deep-dive submarine trips to see giant deepwater sharks in Roatan.CEO Patric Douglas is a natural born eco-adventurer who started his career in the U.S. Virgin Islands in hotel tourism, spent several years as a tour guide in Vietnam, Bali, Hong Kong, Australia/New Zealand and Latin America and served as an extreme adventure reporter for CBS in San Francisco, Ca. He went on to found the outdoor adventure club "Absolute Adventures" which continues to thrive in San Francisco to this day.

For the past several years, Douglas has dedicated his life to providing educational and interactive experiences for his clients through shark diving. In addition, Shark Diver, along with its partners recently launched the non profit Isla Guadalupe Conservation Fund and is partially funding efforts to preserve the habitat and safely study the Great White shark species at Isla Guadalupe.

For more information on Shark Diver and attack video:www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahsvA1TpIvkwww.sharkdiver.comwww.guadalupefund.org

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