When one of Daniel Botelho's images last appeared on this website it was a spectacular depiction of a giant mola mola, captured while searching for blue whales off San Diego.
(Editor's note: This is a reprint of a Pete Thomas post on the GrindTv Outdoor blog. All images are protected by copyright laws.)
More recently the photographer traveled to a remote island off Mexico to photograph great white sharks without cage protection, and returned with a series of captivating images he hopes will help dispel perceptions of white sharks as blood-thirsty killers.
Botelho was on an assignment for Disney but also served as safety diver during an odyssey to Guadalupe Island, during which passengers--only one at a time--were allowed to venture out of submerged cages and swim freely with full-grown white sharks.
"White sharks are like the Lion King," the photographer states on his Facebook page. "Predators, yes, but not psychopathic man killers."
Asked to provide more details, Botelho messaged back to say that he has been diving with white sharks since 2006, but this was his first time in the gin-clear waters of Guadalupe Island, which is located 165 miles west of Baja California.
Of his role as safety diver he said: "The safety diver is the guy that takes care of everybody in the water, a bodyguard of the guests, and that doesn't mean to be brave; not at all, it is much more about keeping a relaxed and peaceful interaction with the animals."
Three divers were outside of the cage at a time. Botelho, the expedition leader, and one guest. Botelho said he logged nearly 24 hours outside the cage during a two-week trip. He experienced no close calls with predators that can weigh up to 5,000 pounds and bite an elephant seal in half.
"The sharks are like dogs; you need to keep them calm," he said. "As dogs, they can get excited with wrong moves and unstable attitudes, so the trick is to keep the right attitude, transmitting tranquility and peace to the animal, so it can come really close but not try to touch the diver.
"This is the definitive proof that great white sharks are not man-eaters; people can live and interact with great white sharks, as long as they have the understanding of how the animal reacts and how to build a positive interaction with this magnificent creature!"
White sharks are specialized feeders and do not regard humans as prey, and most attacks on humans occur at the surface and are believed to have been cases of mistaken identity.
Still, they're wild and extremely powerful creatures, which is reason for pause when considering an out-of-cage experience.
Botelho said the divers sometimes had as many as six great whites around them at a time, all making close approaches, as if curious about the intruders.
"It was one of the best dives of my life and the experience as safety diver out of the cage was incredible," Botelho said. "It is much more than just taking photos; I learned so much more about how to 'read' and interact with those apex predators."
He labeled the 24 hours he logged outside of the cage during the final seven days of this odyssey as his own personal "Shark Week" and from now on for the photographer, the TV version will never quite compare.
--Pete Thomas
Wonderful pictures and a wonderful opportunity to draw some reasonable inferences, given the litany of erroneous inferences cited by Mr. Botelho. As a threshold matter, these images tend to prove that properly fed White sharks in similar circumstances could arguably be the safest time to interact with a White shark. While some might argue a whale carrion with a single White shark would be preferable, I would submit that White sharks (e.g., Cal Ripfin) understand that the cage dive is a free handout and to "not bite the hand that feeds it." The sharks understand the arrangement and are not typically in “predation mode”. Of course, Mr. Botelho erroneously implies that interaction with a very hungry migrating White shark (see, e.g., "shark takes woman's leg" youtube search) would not, in fact, constitute "bloodthirsty man-killers". The witnesses to the aforementioned Boswell attack very much prove otherwise. Moreover, the Groh attack was likely a migratory Tiger that was drawn to the stimuli and needed a much more substantial meal. But applying Mr. Botelho’s logic, couldn’t some other diver in Groh’s group point to their pictures and say, “gee, sharks are our friends.” Not in the end. They are literally Nature’s official executioner, just as an Orca off Patagonia might treat a seal, killing with a zeal that defies this kind of “sharks are just misunderstood” party line dispensed by Mr. Botelho.
Now then.
One cannot credibly contend that interacting with sharks in conditioned response settings with a reasonable food reward (i.e., in contrast to Ritter attack) has any sociobiological relevance to, say, understanding the recent Santa Barbara attack. I would suggest an “Open Ocean” theory to explain such White shark attacks. Namely, the vast majority of attacks on humans are the result of highly migratory pelagic sharks adjusting to the contrasting ecosystems, i.e., in the open ocean, where resources are scarce, anything edible is prey. Conspicuously, Mr. Botelho erroneously states that White sharks are "highly specialized" predators. This is simply untrue and quite the opposite; the scientific data unequivocally proves that mature White sharks are generalist feeders. They literally occupy the same niche as the Tiger shark but in more temperate waters. So one can't be "the garbage can of the sea" that is a documented man-eater and claim the other (White shark) is a “highly specialized pinniped-only” predator, say, like that finicky cat Morris seen on TV. Most inapt is Mr. Botelho's suggestion that "we are not prey." If humans were not prey, White sharks would not eat them. But as recently as this week, another person in So Cal fell prey to a White shark.
Most of these fatal attacks by White sharks presumably result from the shark returning from migrations. This “Open Ocean” theory may explain the spate of human fatalities in Western Australia; notably, many of the victims were consumed completely, indicating that the White shark has depleted metabolic resources. It is not unfounded speculation to surmise that the mature White sharks migrating from South Africa see fewer and fewer fish as a result of commercial fishing depleting and disrupting the White shark’s open ocean habitat. When pelagic sharks endeavor upon their open ocean migrations, their behaviors instinctually shift to reflect the reality of very limited food resources. Coupled with the shark’s innate opportunistic nature (see, e.g., maritime disaster shark fatalities), I would surmise that global warming and depleted fish stocks have created a much bleaker marine ecosystem (I do not like this term, since it is naturally occurring) that has “caused” Western Australia’s increased shark attacks. And until regulation and proactive measures of sustainable fishery are implemented on a global scale, there will be even more attacks in the future. The migrating White shark’s metabolic needs, coupled with returning from a more ruthless and indiscriminate open ocean ecosystem results in these "hit and run" attacks we see in coastal CA areas. That is, unlike the total consumption in South Africa and Western Australia, “hit and run” attacks (e.g., Von Emster attack in Pt. Loma, CA) serve as a bridge meal in White shark’s endless search for more suitable, higher caloric prey items. But suggesting we aren't prey because White sharks are docile at cage dives?
Try to be serious.
“The map is not the territory.” – Alfred Korzbybski
Posted by: drudown | Oct 30, 2012 at 04:06 PM
oh my god. so brave. I could never do that!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Chloe | Oct 25, 2012 at 09:26 AM