Great White off Seacliff Pier 10/1

[Chuck Tribolet]

The protocol is to stay close to the bottom or a wall/reef if you can until they pass, then get out of the water ASAP. Funny looking divers with all the gear and blowing bubbles aren't on their menu but if you look enough like a seal on the surface, then you might become a case of mistaken identity.

Michelle has it right.
.
Beach divers: hug the bottom all the way in. Heck, your might even see something
interesting in the sand.

Boat divers:

Learn to navigate so you can find the boat.

Learn to take your BC and fins off underwater. I dive a small boat where you gotta
take your BC and fins off to get on the boat. If the Landlord is hanging around, I'm
gonna clip off the camera (tag line is at 15'), take off the BC (I may do this on the
bottom), clip off the BC, but keep one stap in an elbow, take off fins, head for the
ladder, and into the boat.

Yes, I've dived the Farallones.

 

[fisheater]

Speaking of the Farallones, those divers like to ascend directly under their boats to discourage a fro
below attack.


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[Peter_C]

we stay low and if we see a shark don't turn and run, we know to give the dang thing space and slowly back away.

Close! "More like turn the camera on and take a few pictures since no one is going to believe you". There have been a few shark sitings by ab and scuba divers. Someday I hope to see one and hopefully I have a camera in my hands.

FWIW sharks hate bubbles, and you can easily create a wall of bubbles with a free flowing reg. Of course that is also going to cut into your bottom time. White sharks will also not swim into the kelp forests so you are safe there too.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Michelle has it right.
.
Beach divers: hug the bottom all the way in. Heck, your might even see something
interesting in the sand.

Boat divers:

Learn to navigate so you can find the boat.

Learn to take your BC and fins off underwater. I dive a small boat where you gotta
take your BC and fins off to get on the boat. If the Landlord is hanging around, I'm
gonna clip off the camera (tag line is at 15'), take off the BC (I may do this on the
bottom), clip off the BC, but keep one stap in an elbow, take off fins, head for the
ladder, and into the boat.

Yes, I've dived the Farallones.

There are times to dive the Farallones and times not to. Fall is a bad time.
I have a friend that worked one of the boats that runs GWS charters to the Farallones. Two years ago when I still had contact with him, he told me that everytime they went out they saw sharks. They didn't get skunked once. The charter boat, a research vessel, and an ex urchin diver turned shark photographer learned to collaborate and they would plan their trips out together. The research vessel had a permit to chum to bring the animals around, the charter boat would get to see the sharks from the cage and the urchin diver would anchor between the two and free scuba (no cage) down below the action and film it all. The sharks would cruise between the chum boat and the charter boat for hours.
Once right when the boats pulled up, a shark breached and grabbed a young seal launching it and bitting down hard at the same time. They said blood squirted everywhere making a bunch of the onlookers sick.
They wanted to see nature and they got it!

 

[Sasquatch]

Great White while diving? Hug the bottom and release a yellow dye marker. At least that's my plan...

 

[Peter_C]

Great White while diving? Hug the bottom and release a yellow dye marker. At least that's my plan...

Which brings us to one of the other attractants of the Landlord. They smell the urine from mammals and follow the scent back to their prey

 

[Drewpy]

No need for a freeflow..there would be plenty of bubbles coming out of my reg!

My understanding is they dont like kelp much..?

 

[drbill]

I repeat what Chuck Tribolet said about divers usually surviving great white "attacks."

I would worry about diving in waters where they are present when visibility is low (as it often is "way up north." Down here in SoCal where waters are much clearer (usually) I don't worry much.

Since I'm usually filming benthic critters, I stay very close to the bottom. Until great whites learn to bury themselves in the sand and pop out to grab unsuspecting divers, I feel pretty darn safe. Did have a 14 footer swim past us when I was buddied up with Wyland to film giant sea bass a few years back. It didn't seem to have any interest in either of us and was heading towards the East End where the sea lions haul out. We stayed in the water until the end of our dive.

 

[norbs007]

Great advise guys, thanks.

 

[fisheater]

Another thing I read in an account of Farallones urchin diving: don't let the shark get behind you. Keep turning so that he/she sees that you are looking. They greatly prefer to ambush unsuspecting prey.


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