Shark Cage Diving...Guadalupe Island, Mexico

[bamagrad75]

For @jvett77

Been twice. Warmer, clearer water in a more sheltered arrangement, bigger sharks who are pretty curious & come right up to the cage & hang out with you.

This is the island, a big rock hundreds of miles off the Mexico coast, only a few people live there, takes an overnight trip from Ensenada to get there. This morning was particularly interesting with a creepy cloud coming over the island. We were all thinking Independence Day



5 cages total, 2 deep dive (for dive certified) and 3 surface (about 10 feet to the floor of the cage). We were on surface air via regulators. As you can see, the sharks come right up to the cage, occasionally bumping it. If you dared (and it's sort of against the rules), you could reach out & touch one.



This shows the deeper dive cage, about 40 feet down to get closer to the sharks and the surface cage. The deep dive cage includes scuba tanks in the corner in case the surface air gets cut (and yes, it's happened). The upper part of the deep dive cage is open more than the bottom which means they can actually get their face in there. It takes a bit of guts to stand on the upper part.



There were often several sharks at a time. Running from 14-17 feet. The biggest ones are female.




On each side of the back dive deck, the "wranglers" are throwing out fish heads, attached to ropes. This attracts them to come in & go for the food. It's a mark of shame for the wrangler to lose a fish head to a sneaky shark.

 

[bamagrad75]

This was our 17 footer who was very interested in the deep dive cage. My daughter was on the upper deck at that time.




This is how close you can get.




Another looking at the deep dive cages




Big teeth

 

[bamagrad75]

Surface dive cage from the dive deck




I was in the surface cage & heard a noise, turned around & this idiot was banging into the bottom of the boat. Uh, dumbass, this isn't the Orca, it's a steel bottom boat. He slammed it for about 10 minutes, bit the propeller & dived off, obviously miffed.




They roll back their mouths & actually close their eyes when they go for food. More than one ran into our cage because they weren't looking. Fortunately, none were injured, though a few wet suits needed extra cleaning.




Big Fish



This was a luxury liveaboard. Flew into San Diego, we were bused down to Ensenada where we board the boat for the overnight trip to Guadalupe, arriving early in the morning. Then did diving for 2 1/2 days before coming back to Ensenada, then back to San Diego.

My first trip, the year before, we were escorted at time by pilot whales, dolphins, saw lots of other whales, turtles, seals, all kinds of sea animals along the way there & back.

 

[bamagrad75]

I've done cage diving on 3 continents, Seal Island, South Africa, Neptune Island, Australia & twice at Guadalupe. Guadalupe hands down the best of them with the better, clearer water & bigger sharks.

 

[jvett77]

This was our 17 footer who was very interested in the deep dive cage. My daughter was on the upper deck at that time.

View attachment 241949


This is how close you can get.

View attachment 241950


Another looking at the deep dive cages

View attachment 241951


Big teeth

View attachment 241952


View attachment 241953

I've done cage diving on 3 continents, Seal Island, South Africa, Neptune Island, Australia & twice at Guadalupe. Guadalupe hands down the best of them with the better, clearer water & bigger sharks.

Those are some big fish! That one near the cage could easily make meal of two people. Great shots!