Shark Madness

I just watched a Discovery Channel program about sharks that renewed my desire to go on a Great White viewing expedition. The program is called "Air Jaws", because it starts off with footage of sharks that jump out of the water. The footage of Great Whites jumping clear out of the water is pretty amazing.

The most interesting part was the last segment. Apparently a 35 foot, 12 ton whale died and washed up on the shores of South Africa, so it was towed to nearby Seal Island because I guess they didn't want to Blow it up with a half-ton of dynamite. I highly recommend you watch the Exploding Whale Video. It makes a great dinner conversation, especially at a nice restaurant. (Inside voices)

Anyway, Seal Island is aptly named because it is a huge seal habitat. In the winter before the waters turn warm there are so many Great White Sharks patrolling the island that they call the zone around it the "Ring of Death". Once the huge whale carcass was out in the water, the sharks focused their attention on that, and the researchers counted some 25 great whites feeding on the carcass (making it the greatest feeding frenzy ever captured on film). There is some amazing footage of the sharks getting so full that they get clumsy (drunk, almost) and bump into the boat as well as each other. These researchers theorize that whale feeding frenzies are the basis of shark orgies, although no one has ever seen or filmed great white mating.

Since the sharks were so full from eating, they sort of wandered away for a while, allowing the researchers a rare opportunity to get in the water and film the seals. On day 2, the carcass was almost completely gone. One of the crazier researchers climbed out onto the small chunk that was left to get some up close footage (seriously staring right into the shark's mouth) of the feeding. The slipperiness of the carcass alone would have told me this was a bad idea, but the footage of jumping sharks would definitely have prevented me from doing what this guy did. He did get some really cool footage though.

I would love to go on a Great White expedition some day, and get in a cage where I could observe them from the water. Maybe if I stumble upon a huge whale carcass, the researchers will let me join them.