Ok so you're in the cages for 3 full days starting at 8:00 am until dusk-right around 6:30 pm. There are 2 submersible cages that go 40 feet down, maximum 3 divers and 1 dive master per cage. Each cage on a pair of 1 inch steel cables, you climb in at the surface and they get lowered off of two top side cranes. Air is supplied from the surface through a hookah system. No external tanks, but emergency tanks in the cages.
45 minutes per dive on a schedule you sign up for. Like 4 layers of redundant safety, cables, chains, floatation system. The divers stay in the bottom section of the submersible cages and the divemasters are on top in a "minimally protected area" called the "balcony" that is basically open on top with just massive chains holding the tanks as the protection. The divemasters would let you come up to the balcony for a few minutes at a time- I did it a bunch and it's pretty cool, reaching out trying to touch the sharks as they swim by.
Two surface cages hang off the back of the boat, 4 divers and you can pop in at any time there is an opening. 10-12 feet top to bottom.
The first full day was phenomenal, visibility to 150 feet and constant shark activity. Never felt an ounce of fear—just beautiful massive animals swimming leisurely by. A million sardines and a bunch of yellow fin tunas. The sea lions stay on the island.
The second day, a little less visibility but even more shark activity. I had just finished my last submersible dive of the day and decided to pop into a surface cage because of all the activity. At around 4:00 one of the females (14-15 feet) named Milana Arnone started to get a bit aggressive.
One of the divers was on top of the balcony in the port side submersible cage with the divemaster when the shark approached the cage. When the divemaster tried to shooh it away, it turned over sideways and inexplicably bit one of the cables- the cable where the surface air supply tube is attached. The air tube was easily severed creating a big explosion of air bubbles that seemed to further agitate the shark.
The divemaster, realizing the divers were without air, quickly dropped down into the bottom section to turn on the secondary air supply system. Whilst he was doing so the shark made a very quick turn and made a b-line for the balcony.
Now, these sharks weren't making sharp turns the entire time we were there, they were very slow and deliberate- almost docile--they'd circle the tuna hunks being wrangled from the boat 5 times before actually making an attempt to eat it, so the immediate and abrupt turn was unexpected. The shark basically went shark.
The shark shot straight down and dove through the chains and got tangled, and when it got caught it did what sharks do, it tried to swim even harder forward (can't swim backwards-they have to constantly move forward or they drown) and wedged its head inside the bars of the cage (bending the bars during the ensuing struggle). The shark started violently thrashing around and spinning- literally 2000 pounds of muscle and teeth spinning and jerking and smashing- with a diver- a chick- right in the balcony with it.
The divemaster came back up to the balcony and pushed the diver to the opening to the bottom section and she climbed down, literally climbing under this massive shark. The divemaster-he had no air at this point- then dumped his weight belt and shot to the surface screaming to pull the cage up.
He then dove back into shark infested waters- the largest shark we saw all week swam right up to him as he was attending to the rescue but then swam away--and he then swam down 25 feet or so in a 7MM wetsuit-he was super buoyant with no weight belts--this was super-human--and climbed back into the balcony to try to push the shark out. No can do- the dorsal and pectoral fins could not fit through the opening squares of the cage even though it swam and thrashed as hard as it could and the divemaster couldn't push it back because (i) it weighed 2000 pounds, (ii) it was trying to violently swim forward but most importantly (iii) it's gills had pushed past the cage bars and it's gill plates opened and got wedged on the bars making it impossible to be pushed back.
At this point everything was bedlam, the shark is shaking the cage violently, the cage started to go horizontal from the actions of the fish and blood started to flood the water. From my vantage point in the surface cage about 25 feet away I could see that the blood was coming from the shark's gills (very vascular) but everyone else is thinking the divemaster or the diver has lost a limb or gotten severely bitten. I cannot adequately describe how crazy and violent and confusing the mayhem was at this point—we’re thinking 3 or 4 people were going to die.
So the divemaster then grabs a regulator so he can start breathing- he was without air for a while- and he opens up the side door to the bottom of the cage, orders the 3 divers to dump their weight belts, swim past the shark's tail and swim up to the boat.
In Great White Shark infested water.
Holy fuck. All the while I'm watching and snapping pictures.
The divers, scared shitless, miraculously get back to the boat and by this time the shark became inverted and went catatonic. It's what happens when they turn upside down and stop swimming. Because they start drowning.
Right about now I figure it's time to get out of the cage, what's the likelihood of two such incidents happening at the same time- but I honest to God at that moment thought back to my buddy who survived 9/11 because he decided to head down when the first tower was hit, so I followed his lead. And then all the other cages were them emptied.
So as I'm taking off my gear they finally lift the cage to the surface. The divers are all on board safe scared shitless, the divemaster is straddling astride the unconscious shark making a vain attempt to free it so now all our attention turns to this beautiful animal dying before our eyes. Some of the folks were literally crying- from shock, fear and from despair about killing an incredible creature just so we can get our jollies.
There wasn't much I could do so I ordered a double tequila on the rocks with fresh lime (the cutie Mexican hostesses on board had no idea what was happening and just kept serving) and we all stood on the various decks overlooking the cage just watching and hoping.
At this point we're figuring the shark is dead, the trip is over, close up shop, head home and that’d be the end of shark cage diving off of Guadalupe Island. Certainly if someone had died, but I think the Mexican Govt and the National Park would have put a halt to the trip because we killed a Great White Shark.
The Captain, as calm, cool and collected as I could ever hope for gathers the 6 divemasters to figure out how to save the beast and the crew starts to get out sawzalls and blow torches. This is like 20 minutes since the initial contact and we're basically counting the shark out. It's drowning before our eyes.
Then one of the other divemasters does the ballsiest thing I have ever seen.
The Captain decides, before they try to cut the shark free—which would have just cut it to pieces--to try using the weight of the cage to free the beast. He ties a big thick hemp rope around the shark’s tail and anchors it to the transom of the boat and he lowers the cage just a bit to create buoyancy for the shark—which takes some of the pressure off the gill plates. Then this super calm totally cool dude divemaster with massive balls then drops into the surface cage right off the cage with the shark and uses it as a staging are.
He opens the side door to the surface cage, grabs a regulator to get a lungful of air, holds his breath and then swims over to the shark in the other cage, straddles it with his legs and forces the gill plates on one side of the shark closed—no longer wedged in the cage bar on one side. Then he swims back to the surface cage for another lungful of air, swims back over to the shark and forces the other gill plates closed—effectively freeing the shark. The Captain then lowers the cage and the shark is just hanging limply off the back of the boat, lifeless but free of the cage.
He takes a big machete used to cut the frozen tuna hunks and gives the rope a whack and the shark starts to spiral and float downward.
Then slightly flicks its tail, rights itself and slowly swims off. We had no idea whether the shark was going to live or not but two divemasters in the water said they saw the shark swim off—and saw the rope come off the shark’s tail.
We had an all-hands meeting that night to discuss the “incident” (it was not an attack) and document it—with all of our pictures and videos—and the Captain said no one was going to hide anything. He had to file reports that night with the National Park and they gave us the okay to continue the dive the next day, our last day of diving.
And the next day we got in the full complement of diving and the subject shark was back all day and swimming freely and seemingly unharmed (recognizing that ALL of these sharks are completely beat up—they attack each other during mating and feeding and all of them are completely scarred). The injuries she received in our incident were minor by comparison.
It was really fucking crazy. It would have been the trip of a lifetime but this just put it over the top.
Bloody pics to follow.
_