Shredder can be identified by his jagged dorsal fin, although the story how he got his name is an adventure unto itself. Photo by Steve Hutchings

To be a great white shark, it goes without saying that size is an issue. Yet the undisputed bad boy great white shark at Isla De Guadalupe isn’t that big. But what he lacks in size he makes up in attitude. He’s Shredder, the King of Great Whites and the baddest boy on the block in the shark community off Southern California.

Some folks might take issue with that. And I’m not a marine biologist. My only claim to knowing this 11 footer with a “shredded” dorsal fin is that I dove with him back in 2007. But true to his reputation, he never failed to make an appearance each day – usually multiple – and while some sharks were shy and kept a cautious distance, Shredder always approached the cage, in his sharky way of saying hello, and was always the first shark to take a run at the tuna bait.

The shark diving community knows him intimately, along with the other estimated 120 or so great whites that make the annual migration to the small island off Baja California. And it remains a mystery where they, and Shredder, spend the first six months of the year, though there’s some speculation that they winter in a vast area between Hawaii and the west coast called “The White Shark Cafe”.

There are many, many reasons to dive with great whites at least once in your life. And if you have the privilege of doing so off Guadalupe, you’ll more than likely encounter our feisty friend, who made his initial acquaintance to the guys on the Islander (the boat I went diving with) by biting through the anchor cable. Everything worked out fine, of course, that was just Shredder introducing himself .

Shredder is my absolute favorite great white shark at Isla De Guadalupe (sorry Bruce!). And this one’s for Shredder, for all he does, and just for being the coolest shark on Earth.

A heart-warming video here of a baby great white shark, beached off Venice Beach Pier and with a hook in its mouth, saved by a lifeguard known locally as ‘the animal-whisperer’. Very cool indeed. And great to see that people are really starting to show they care about sharks.

Ask any shark freak (like myself) and they’ll tell you there’s a specific pecking order among shark tourism destinations around the world. I mean, you can see reef sharks pretty much anywhere near the equator, but where do you go for the big boys? Cause we all wanna see a great white shark, correct?

That’s a good question. And you’ll get different opinions on the best shark tourism spots around the globe. South Africa’s good. Australia’s interesting. There’s California. And right in the middle of the Pacific, there’s Hawaii.

The fiftieth state has a little of everything when it comes to all things sharky. I was there in January of 2010 and had a short but very enjoyable dive off the North Shore with Hawaii Shark Encounters. At that time of year it’s usually galapagos and sandbar sharks, although tiger sharks appear in the fall.

But the reason for this post, is that something very special happened, on December 18th, 2005. On that day, a great white shark made a very rare appearance, to Jimmy Hall and the crew at Hawaii Shark Encounters. A beautiful, 20 foot female great white dazzled Hall and the gang for 45 minutes. And Hall left the cage and swam with this marvelous creature. Read about the encounter here.

Sadly, the encounter was a swan song for Hall, as he passed away while BASE jumping just two years later. But the legacy of this remarkable interaction lives on. Watch this video and you’ll see what I mean.

Are there great white sharks off Hawaii? On a very, very few special occasions, the answer is yes. But they’re so rare that it’s pretty much assured that you won’t see the great white in Hawaiian waters any time soon.

And by the way, enjoy this video, because to date it’s the only time a great white shark has ever been filmed off Hawaii.

Be at peace, Jimmy Hall.

Even great whites need a summer vacation

We’ve come a long way since 1975, when Chief Brody (AKA Roy Scheider), Steven Spielberg and the boys in JAWS started a trend off New England that led to a world-wide paranoia (and ultimately billions of sharks being killed). In that summer, beach-goers shunned beaches the world-over for fear that our finned-friends take them to dinner.Fast-forward 36 years, and the opposite is true. This week, three juvenile great whites have been spotted off Cape Cod. The difference this time? People flock to the beach to see these elusive creatures…and considering there are less than three thousand of them world-wide, making them more rare than tigers, people are stoked about sharks and hoping for a glimpse of these three great whites, vacationing off Chatham Massachusetts.

Even great whites like an exclusive summer vacation!

Really cool to see people enthusiastic about sharks too. This is progress. Anyway, enjoy the video!

Watch the little fishies in this video. Now wait a little longer and…OMG!!! Where did that shark come from?? Great whites have this gift, of sneaking up when you least suspect it and make for some seriously great video. This clip took place in South Africa, filmed by one of several cage diving operations in that country, from what I can tell.

Nerve-wracking as this video might be to someone not expecting a great white shark to come out of nowhere, remember that we really, really need sharks, for our ecosystem, and ultimately for the health of the planet. Estimates suggest there are fewer than 3,000 great white sharks remaining, making them rarer than tigers. Admire them, yes. Respect them, always. Fear them? Never.

There’s been some confusion over the years whether or not a great white shark was caught off Ucluelet in 2005.  Specifically, it’s this image, of what appears to be a large great white, dead and hoisted above the wharf.  Go here to see one of the many posts regarding this rumour.

Anyway, while it appears to be a great white, it’s actually a mako shark, which look similar and are closely related, but it’s not JAWS.  The harbour isn’t Ucluelet either.  Rather, it’s Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.  Tanya Dowdall, a park ranger at Pacific Rim National Park points out that the area code (902) on the boom in the background of the picture gives it away.  And as she also comments, it’s a sad story how this shark died.  The mako shark is a magnificent creature that can leap right out of the water.  Only a privileged few have seen the mako – the world’s fastest swimmer – in its natural environment.  It’s also critically endangered.  So why kill it?  Sheer f*#%ing stupidity.

So to answer a question that pops up from time to time.  Are there great white sharks off Tofino (and Vancouver Island)?  Actually, there are.  But  they’re very, very rare.  There’s photographic evidence of juvenile great white shark bites at the BC Shark Reports blog (where Tanya Dowdall sometimes contributes).  To my knowledge this is the only proof of great whites off Vancouver Island, although I’ve heard that surfers and fishermen occasionally see them far off shore.  The great whites that do swim this way are usually juveniles, and the theory is they learn the art of stealth and hunting when they’re this far north.

I should emphasize though that great whites in Canadian waters are very, very rare, and if you actually saw one, you’d be in very select company, as there have been less than five confirmed sightings of great whites off Vancouver Island in 50 years.  We do get the odd salmon shark, but its sexy cousin, the great white, is pretty darn elusive.

And I’ve said this a thousand times. GREAT WHITE SHARKS DON’T EAT PEOPLE.  In the few occasions when they have taken a swimmer or surfer, it’s a case of mistaken identity (a surfer looks very much like an elephant seal from below), and they swim away.  But when this happens, the media jumps all over it and demonizes sharks, and the authorities and “do-gooders” with an IQ below 75 slaughter the sharks (to the point that some species are down 90%).

Sorry, I’m done preaching for the day.  Are there great white sharks off Tofino?  On a very few special occasions, but the way they’re being killed, our generation could be the last to see one, if at all.  Unless we do something to protect them.

A very good read in the Vancouver Sun this week, in a five-part series about sharks in Canadian waters. Several years back, researchers were surprised to find a ‘hot-spot’ of over 10,000 sharks off the Queen Charlottes. According to researchers, many of the sharks were blue sharks, and over 28 different species of sharks swim Canadian waters, including blue sharks, salmon sharks, and of course my personal favourite, the great white (very rare in BC). That’s the cool news. The downer is that sharks are generally few and far between, not just in Canada, but world-wide, with some species decimated by over 90 per cent in the past 20 years. That sucks. Check out the series, and Sharktruth.com, for the issues facing the ocean’s top predators, and why losing sharks is devestating to the planet, and to humanity.

I guess you can tell that I like sharks?

Want proof that surfers aren’t on your typical great white’s diet? California paddler Chuck Patterson was paddle surfing recently off San Onofre State Park in California when he happened upon two great white sharks circling his board. He went out the next day, same time, same place, with an underwater camera, hoping his fishy friends would show. Sure enough, within five minutes, two juvenile great whites returned, and put on a little show for 15 minutes. The best action starts a minute into the video.  Very cool!

First the good news. A kayaker and some fishermen encountered a huge great white shark in Australia and got some cool video. Now the bad news. This is shark porn folks, and it’s why people are killing upwards of 100 million sharks each year.

Sharks smile too. The Telegraph posted this picture in November, taken at Guadalupe, which is where I did my great white shark diving in 2007. What a happy guy!