Caught On Video: Scuba Divers Survive Great White Shark Attack
Ryan Brower
- December 10 2008
- 6 comments
As reported by Sophie Tedmanson for the UK Times Online.
In a scene that could have come straight out of Jaws, two scuba divers in Mexico had a heart stopping experience when a 15ft great white shark slammed into their metal shark cage and ripped it open, leaving them stranded as bait.
The whole incident, which took place last year at the Isla de Guadalupe, has emerged on YouTube where it has been watched by over half a million people.
The incredible footage shows the 2 tonne predator feeding on tuna as the two men in wetsuits, who had paid about £2000 for the ‘ultimate shark diving experience’ watched from inside a six-year-old steel shark cage.
According to the diver who posted the video, the attack by the giant ocean predator – known as CC or Cut Caudal among regular divers in the area - was actually an accident that happened after the shark unwittingly blinded itself while feeding on fish.
CC apparently instinctively rolled his eyes back as he took some bait and rammed into the viewing window of the cage, narrowly missing the head of one of the divers.
As the shocked divers tried to swim out of the way, the shark’s entire head, up to its pectoral fins, was jammed into the small window.
Panicked, the man-eater thrashed from side to side to free its snout from the cage but instead removed the front of the cage with its enormous weight.
As one of the divers kept filming the other managed to open the emergency escape hatch and the two were pulled to safety by crew members on board their boat, The Searcher.
The diver who posted the video online under the pseudonym ScubaDubaDive, said the shark - apparently one of four great whites in the vicinity - was not angry or provoked, and was “definitely not attacking us or the cage”.
“It is just that after it hit the tuna in front of the cage its eyes were closed to protect them. It hit the cage blind and then reacted,” said the diver, who was back in the water 15 minutes later.
“Never-the-less it scared the **** out of me!!! “
For the full article head to the UK Times Online.
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December 11th, 2008 at 9:57 am
That was lame sorry what a joke/
December 11th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
The company responsible for this is Shark Diving International aka Great White Adventures. They are based in California. They have been under investigation in Mexico for this event and two others where sharks slammed into or got stuck in their cages with divers.
They still claim a 100% safety record.
December 22nd, 2008 at 2:00 pm
“Sharks R Us” get your story straight….they are not under investigation, the cage broke away because that was what it was designed to do in the case of a shark entanglement and the shark nor the divers were harmed. The shark also did not attack the cage nor the divers. I saw these divers interviewed on the news and they said the shark was going for bait that was hanging in the water. When the eyes rolled back it banged into the cage and went through the window. The shark was small and fit through the window and the cage broke away. Both divers got out safely and have a terrific story and video to share!!! Sharks are not monsters….you want monsters??? Go after the illegal fisherman slaughtering our sharks in the 10s of thousands!!!! Soon, all we will have left of these beautiful predators are videos and exaggerated up stories of what they used to be like.
September 4th, 2009 at 1:11 am
Umm Dive GRRL, are you aware that Shark Diving International has had quite a few cages breaches out there?
Check with diver Dean Karr who claimed a shark was stuck in a cage a killed two years ago by the same operation. It was bait mishandling AGAIN by a cowboy operation who claims to love sharks, but does the opposite. How can you greenwash that video? Oh I know, you work for SDI.
Terrific story? I think not.