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Swimming with the sharks
'It's absolutely awe-inspiring'
August 2, 1997
Web posted at: 11:19 p.m. EDT (0319 GMT)From Correspondent Jim Hill
OFF THE CALIFORNIA COAST (CNN) -- The Pacific Explorer sails into the deep water off Southern California in quest of something many would prefer to avoid.
Chumming the deep blue water with a stew of fish guts, the crew is out to attract sharks. Before long, the surface is broken by a fin.
Jim Hill Reports
1.2M/28 sec. QuickTime movie
It's a blue shark -- and a big one. Eight feet to 9 feet long, it's the biggest shark the crew has seen in months.
Quickly, about 10 students from Learning Tree University squeeze into wet suits for a class they won't soon forget. Safe inside a floating metal cage firmly attached to the boat, they're inches from a shark in the open ocean.
"When you get the occasional 8-to-10-footer in, it's really quite magnificent," marvels excursion leader Yehuda Goldman. "It really makes you feel this is what a shark is."
'This is a primitive animal'
The graceful blue shark is a favorite among experienced scuba divers, who follow guides into the open sea to observe the big fish.
Goldman, an expert shark guide, leads CNN photographer Jerry Nulty and I into the water for unobstructed pictures. The male shark glides past us again and again, interested but unthreatening.
The world's oceans are filled with about 350 types of sharks. About 30 are considered dangerous to people, but of those only six or seven kinds are so-called "man eaters."
The blue shark is not considered one of the most dangerous ones. Like all sharks, it is constantly on the prowl for food. And its table manners are dreadful.
The blue shark eats small fish, or scavenges the kill of other predators. Humans seem to register in its mind as a curiosity, not cuisine.
"This is a primitive animal that has been around for over 300 million years, and it's a very interesting feeling when you look into those eyes," Goldman says. "It's absolutely
awe-inspiring." The shark observation program is run by the university and Hydrosphere. As a member of the Southern California Marine Institute, the company's mission is environmental education.
The seagoing classroom is about the only way to spot the big predators, which are rarely seen near shore.
As the expedition leaders see it, if someone can learn to understand a shark, it's possible to appreciate nearly everything in the sea.
Related sites:
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- Southern California Marine Institute
- Sharks, Information & Conservation - Shark Biology
- Shark ETC. Page
- South African White Shark Research Institute
- Fiona's Shark Mania
External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.
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