1,000,000 “Shark Attack” hits on YouTube

Recently the “Wildside Encounters: Shark Attack” video hit one million views and I’m absolutely stoked. So many people have asked about the story behind this unique piece of footage so here’s what really happened.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahsvA1TpIvk

Isla Guadalupe is one of the few untouched places in the world where a traveler can truly visit an extreme environment. Out here we have no real contact with the outside world except for satellite phones and long range radio. There are no flights, choppers or fast boats to get out there but making the 24 hour sea voyage is well worth it when you consider it is the single greatest place to dive with Great White Sharks in the world.

Typical dive conditions are 100ft of visibility, deep blue water (seriously, you can’t see the bottom which is 200-300 feet below you!) and beautiful sunny skies. The typically pleasant conditions can be deceptive however and I have seen seemingly perfect weather turn into gale force winds and water spouts within hours!! That day in October was one of the perfect days where the water is calm, the sharks are plentiful and the conditions just ‘feel’ right. I was working on the back deck of the Islander (in my somewhat biased opinion the best boat to dive Guadalupe from) with SharkDiver clients when I watched a 14 ft shark jump 6 feet out of the water followed by what looked like a water fountain of blood on the surface. Great White sharks are known to jump out of the water in a display called a ‘breach’ which can be used for territorial displays or for feeding… this breach was definitely the later.

Luckily Maurico Hoyas, a local researcher that I’ve had the pleasure of working with for three years, had his boat nearby so I yelled for him to come over and we sent one of our lucky divers out to film the action. Credit has to go to Kevin Dean for the footage he brought back, he’s not a pro cameraman but the shots were great. Over the next 15 minutes we witnessed a Great White shark tear apart a 400 pound Northern Elephant seal. This was the first time that a feeding event such as this had been filmed at Isla Guadalupe which is extremely significant. Prior to this day prominent researchers were still arguing whether the sharks are predating on the huge elephant seals, well guys, they certainly are and Mauricio was right!

There was a certain amount of controversy surrounding the filming of this event. During the feeding there were three boats around the shark; ours, a fishermans (local) and another tour operators. The aforementioned operator was there in an inflatable dingy and was asked to leave the area as the shark was acting quite aggressively towards the boats (read: biting them), however they did have a nice camera trained on the shark so I hope one day that footage also comes out. In any case reports of the tenders ‘running over a feeding shark’ were absolutely incorrect, nothing of the kind happened and the scientific value of such footage is undeniable.

So anyway we rushed home (taking 24 hours of course) with the footage and I immediately drove to Long Beach to film the intro with the 689 Design film crew so we could share this footage with everyone. Obviously you enjoyed it and I hope you were not only entertained but educated by this Wildside episode.

Cheers
Luke

 

 

About the Author
Luke Tipple is a Marine Biologist, professional diver and wildlife production consultant with an infectious passion for travel and adventure.

Originally hailing from Adelaide, Australia, his travels have taken him around the globe working in positions such as research scientist, tour guide, dive instructor, trip director and sometime bar man. Currently he is based in L.A. but is most frequently found out on the waters of the Bahamas or Pacific Ocean working and diving with sharks. Recently he has worked with the Discovery channels Mythbusters while they filmed content for Shark Week 2008, and the French documentary team from Ushuaia Nature. He is currently working on developing his own Television show with the vision to both educate and entertain his audience.

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