A group of cage divers off the coast of Mexico recently encountered several great white sharks, departing from the safety of their cage in order to swim with the predators.
As Shark Attack News notes, the astounding footage was captured in September, at Guadalupe Island, off the coast of Mexico. Over the course of the six-minute-long video, which was posted to YouTube by DiVentures , the divers can be seen outside the safety of the cage several times. The great white appears to hardly notice their presence, paying no attention to the group as it continues to circle the area.
Just over two minutes into the footage, one brave diver approaches the shark, attempting to touch the top of the great white’s caudal, or tail, fin. By the end of the video, several great whites are visible, as they circle a diver engaged in filming them.
The waters surrounding Guadalupe Island have long been a favored area for divers seeking to encounter great whites. Numerous sharks call the area home, heightening the chances that divers will sight a great white, while visibility in the water is superb.
The great white shark can smell a seal colony from two miles away pic.twitter.com/AGIUhB0xUo
— Sharkingaround (@sharkingaround) October 31, 2014
Last year, a team of researchers seeking to film white sharks descended upon Guadalupe Island, bringing with them an undersea drone designed to follow tagged sharks. The REMUS sharkcam, operated by scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, successfully tracked several great whites in the area, observing territorial and predatory behavior from the sharks. As the Inquisitr noted, the camera survived multiple attacks by great whites, while recording dozens of interactions.
VIDEO: SharkCam gets mauled by a great white: http://t.co/Tvn707J32N pic.twitter.com/TbVMloWmRQ
— Discover Magazine (@DiscoverMag) August 4, 2014
More recently, a group of cage divers at Guadalupe Island witnessed unusual behavior on the part of a baby sea lion, which fled into their cage to hide from a nearby white shark. The divers had been filming the sea lion before the shark approached, prompting the frightened animal to take cover among them. As the great white turned away from the cage, the sea lion fled, making it safely to shore, according to Grind TV .
Located 165 miles west of the Baja California port of Ensenada, Guadalupe Island is a seasonal home for white sharks, as the predators can be spotted there from midsummer to early winter. Divers regularly descend in cages to view the sharks, as the area is considered a premier location to observe great whites.
[Image: DiVentures via Shark Attack News ]