I worked in the little harbor town of Gansbaai on a boat that takes people to sea to dive with white sharks for three years. I even met my husband there, whose family still owns and operates one of the boats.It is strange and wonderful place at the end of the African continent where the swirling waters of the warm Agulhas and cool Benguela currents results in high levels of marine biodiversity.

And coupled with resident cape fur seal colonies, this makes Gansbaai an ideal habitat for an abundant population of transient white sharks.

My husband is a PADI instructor and most of his family makes a living out of underwater photography and filming so we took our first leap and procured a brand new Nauticam underwater housing for our Nikon D90.  We luckily have many opportunities to use this equipment to take pictures of sharks and our most recent travelling took us from the tropical waters of Hawaii to Mozambique, down to Gansbaai and Cape Town, South Africa.

I won’t bore anyone with the tragic details of trying to fly with expensive and fragile camera equipment but somehow we managed our first flight from Miami to Honolulu without incident.  I was attending the International White Shark Symposium but we arrived two days early so I could get a chance to get in the waters of Hawaii.

Some people question the sanity of those who eagerly face rough seas to observe, photograph, handle, track, and monitor an animal that has the potential to kill a human but there is a hardy stock of marine researchers that believe there is more to these animals than the archaic image from the movie Jaws and have dedicated much of their lives to elucidate the mysteries of this elusive shark to better understand its role in the ocean ecosystems. 

These characters of somewhat dubious career choice descended upon the Hawaiian island of O’ahu, gathering at the New Otani Hotel on Waikiki Beach for four days of networking and presentations from February 7-10, 2010.    It has been several years since a dedicated white shark symposium has been held and it seemed about time to revamp the old reference volume with the technological advances and renewed interest in this species of shark.

Known for its " Big Game," sportsmen from all over the world travel to Bimini to land their prize catch. In recent years, as is the case across the globe, the number of big game fish is declining. Many species of sharks are considered trophy game fish; sought after for their strong fight, jaws and fins. My first visit to Bimini was in 2005 and our boat hit the dock just in time to see a dead 10 ft hammerhead being strung up. This amazing animal was surrounded by a group of guys drinking beer and snapping photographs. They later cut out the jaws and tossed the body into the marina. How could an island so proud of its world-renowned shark work, allow this horrific display to happen?

I spend most of my time these days filming and photographing sharks across the globe, but was first exposed to these animals as a research assistant on various shark projects. I combined my science background and passion for the ocean to pursue ecotourism and have been very fortunate to share sharks with hundreds of people around the world. It is however, always immensely rewarding to return to the science world because it is truly the core of conservation.

There have been only a handful of sightings reported- the last one dated April 13 and consisted of mostly males, as it is usually the case.

At time of print there are now 78 Honduran whale sharks in the Ecocean Photo-Identification Library and you can now adopt one!

Here is the rundown as we speak:

• • 12 days of encounters recorded, of which
  • 5 males
  • 3 females
  • 5 unknown

Please note that more photos are still to be processed and those numbers could vary accordingly.

The concept was for the host to dive with sharks for the first time while describing it through an underwater communications system. It would show people that diving with sharks is not only safe, but truly and amazing experience. Our group was asked to join because of our experience in the water and love for sharks.

I have been approached to be a talking head for other programs and I am always very cautious about getting involved. I debated with myself about this particular one and decided that the American public needs to see how incredible these animals are.