freediving – Syndication Server

Watch: Diver grabs tail of a great white shark in second encounter

While freediving, Nick Bailey spotted a great white shark for the first time and wished it could happen again so he could touch it. Then it did.

While freediving off Florida, Nick Bailey spotted a great white shark for the first time and, after watching video of his close encounter, wished it could happen again so he could touch it.

His wish came true the next day. This time, he swam toward the great white, and reached out and grabbed its tail, prompting the shark to calmly kick a bit stronger to get out of his reach.

Bailey kicked to the surface to announce his achievement.

“I touched a great white!” he exclaimed in the video. “Dude, two great whites in two days. That’s insane…Unreal experience.”

Bailey posted a video on Instagram that showed both encounters.

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A post shared by Nick Bailey (@nick__bailey15)

Bailey and Justin Shaw were diving about 4 miles off the coast of Stewart in 60 feet of water when Nick spotted the first great white shark and turned on his video, according to WPBF.

“I thought I saw a bull shark but really quickly I realized it was not a bull shark,” Bailey told WPBF.

“After I looked at the video, I realized I was like, man, I was so close to it. I was like, I really wish this could happen again and I could touch it like that would’ve been so cool.”

The next day while diving off the coast of Jupiter, it did happen again.

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“When I realized what it was, I was like, wow, this is happening,” Bailey told WPBF.

Shaw told WPBF the shark was just cruising the bottom “and Nick went down and I just follow behind them. I was just like super surprised. I’ve never seen them before and we see like hundreds of sharks every day we go out.”

WPBF said Bailey admitted it wasn’t smart to grab its tail. But he seemed to justify it.

“I know that sharks can change their behavior in a matter of seconds, but that thing, he was cool,” he told WPBF. “I knew what he wanted and he wanted nothing to do with me.”

Thankfully that was the case.

Hawaii diver captures rare great white shark encounter on video

A Hawaii-based photographer was astonished Friday to spot a 15-foot great white shark swimming toward him off Kona on the Big Island.

Deron Verbeck told FTW Outdoors that he was freediving and first spotted the shark about 100 feet below the surface. “But she turned and came up into about 30 feet when I got all the shots and video,” he said.

The accompanying video shows the shark’s close approach as Verbeck captures video footage with a GoPro while also shooting stills. (Video is best viewed with volume.)

Great white shark sightings are rare in Hawaii, but adult white sharks from Mexico and California seasonally visit island waters.

After the encounter, Verbeck joked on Facebook: “Well check this one off the list of things ‘I shouldn’t have been swimming with.’ My first ever GREAT WHITE SHARK! And it happened to be in Kona and a 5-minute drive from my house!”

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The renowned freediver told KHON 2 that he first thought he had spotted a tiger shark but quickly recognized the classic shape of a large female white shark.

“It just kept getting bigger and bigger and I was like, ‘That is for sure, 100% a great white,’ ” Verbeck said. “And I just shot as much as I could as she went by, and she just disappeared back off the drop, then I was just shaking like, ‘Woah! That was insane!’ ”

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A post shared by Dr. Michael Domeier (@doc_domeier)

The shark, although inquisitive, did not seem to regard Verbeck as prey.

Carl Meyer of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology told KHON 2 that white sharks might be attracted to island waters by the seasonal abundance of humpback whales. (White sharks are known to feast on whale carcasses.)

Michael Domeier of the Marine Conservation Science Institute stated on Instagram that “after a quick scan” the shark did not match any of the nearly 400 white sharks in the photo-identification catalog from Mexico’s Guadalupe Island.

Deep Blue, said by some to be the largest great white shark ever documented, measuring about 20 feet, is in the Guadalupe Island database and has been spotted in Hawaiian waters.

Domeier said his research team suspects that “this beautiful female is from the Central California Tribe or Pt. Conception Tribe” of white sharks.

Domeier stated that the shark “was spotted literally right in front of my house. This is the stuff that gets me out of bed in the morning with a smile!”

Verbeck is an award-winning photographer who specializes in shooting while freediving, or on a single breath without scuba gear. Many of his photos are shared via Instagram.

Divers ‘fight for their lives’ during relentless leopard seal attack

Three spearfishermen are fortunate to be alive after they were attacked relentlessly Sunday by a leopard seal in South Africa’s False Bay.

Three spearfishermen are fortunate to be alive after a prolonged attack Sunday by a leopard seal in South Africa’s False Bay.

The harrowing ordeal – the seal disarmed the divers and bit them repeatedly – began over a reef more than 400 yards offshore.

According to the National Sea Rescue Institute, two of the men are Jiu Jitsu instructors and one is a Cape Town Municipal Lifeguard. Despite their superb conditioning, they barely prevailed in an exhausting “fight for their lives.”

Jerome Petersen, 50, of Stellenbosch; Joshua Joubert, 40, of Bloubergstrand, and Cameron Vannithing, 24, of Strand, were treated by NSRI and Cape Medical Response personnel after reaching the shore. Their injuries were serious but not life-threatening.

The NSRI, which issued a public safety warning on Tuesday, provided details of the attack in a news release:

“About 400 meters offshore, between Spaniard Rock and Caravan Reef, having reached a reef to begin spearfishing, Jerome dived to the sea bed when he was bitten on the leg by a seal that continued relentlessly biting and bumping the three spearfishermen while they desperately tried to get back to shore.

“The seal snapped and broke off their flippers, disarmed them of their spearguns and caused serious bites, puncture wounds and soft-tissue injuries, scrapes and bruising.

“They fought for over half-an-hour before finally reaching the shore exhausted and bewildered by what had transpired.

“They attribute their survival to years of experience with the sea and their high fitness levels and state-of-the-art equipment that they had with them,” the NSRI stated. “A 5-millimeter wetsuit arguably saved Jerome from fatal injuries.”

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City of Cape Town authorities are monitoring pinniped activity and have warned ocean enthusiasts to be extra cautious.

Leopard seals inhabit Antarctic pack ice but can also be found in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania, and other Southern Hemisphere locations.

They’re large, powerful pinnipeds that hunt warm-blooded prey, including other seals. Attacks on humans are rare but have occurred.

According to the New Zealand Department of Conservation, at least one human fatality has been attributed to a leopard seal attack.

–Leopard seal image is generic

Hawaii freediver happily endures whale shark ‘attack’; video

Kara Pedersen was spearfishing off Oahu’s Waianae coast last weekend when her dive partner yelled, “Shark!” It turned out to be a giant whale shark that “plowed right into me.”

Kara Pedersen was spearfishing off Oahu’s Waianae coast last week when her dive partner yelled, “Shark!”

Pedersen looked up, expecting to see a dangerous tiger shark. But it was a much larger whale shark that apparently did not see her.

“When I looked up there was a massive whale shark right behind him and headed straight towards me,” Pedersen, a veteran freediver, told For The Win Outdoors. “I didn’t have enough time to swim out of the way and it just plowed right into me, pushing me onto its back.

“It was simultaneously one of the coolest and scariest moments of my life. To feel the force of an animal so big was pretty surreal.” (See Pedersen’s video below and on Instagram.)

Whale shark sightings off Waianae are rare so it was a wonderful surprise for Pedersen and Steve Murphy to be able to swim alongside the plankton-eating gentle giant for several minutes.

The footage, jokingly titled, “Shark Attack,” shows a portion of the encounter that occurred after Pedersen and Murphy had been tossed a GoPro from the dive boat.

Interestingly, the whale shark seemed to interact with both freedivers (no scuba gear), especially Pedersen, as Galapagos sharks lingered a bit farther away.

Whale shark swims toward the camera. Photo: Kara Pedersen

Pedersen’s boyfriend, Rob Ryan, was on the boat cleaning a fish that he had speared before the whale shark appeared, perhaps explaining the shark activity.

Of the initial collision, Pedersen said, “Luckily, they are harmless animals and I was able to push off and get out of the way of its tail.

“Surprisingly though, she kept swimming back towards me and made several close passes. I think she really liked my Waihana wetsuit and how I blended into the environment.”

Whale sharks are the planet’s largest fish and can measure nearly 40 feet and weigh 20,000 pounds. They feed by swimming through plankton blooms with their mouths open.

Pedersen said swimming with a whale shark had always been on her bucket list and added: “But this encounter exceeded our expectations.”

Florida divers encounter colossal, ‘abnormally round’ bull shark

A Florida freediving guide has captured images showing a bull shark so massive and “abnormally round” that it dwarfed other sharks and divers brave enough to swim in its company.

Capt. John Moore, whose close encounter occurred earlier this spring off Jupiter, Fla., told For The Win Outdoors that the shark featured in many of the accompanying images was likely pregnant and perhaps close to giving birth.

“With sharks you can never really be sure, but it certainly seems that way,” he said. “This is the correct timing for pregnant females to be having their pups.”

Moore, 55, also a photographer and conservationist, has posted several of his images on Instagram.

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In an interview he acknowledged what some have claimed after seeing media reports: The shark in the image atop this post looks bigger than its actual size because of the angle at which it was photographed.

But Moore assured that it was still enormous.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CO8KUWBhnna/

“The shark is big, but perspective shots make it look bigger,” he said. “But most of our bulls are about 250 pounds and she was closer to 600 pounds.”

For the sake of comparison, the rod-and-reel world record catch – a record established in 2001 – stands at just under 700 pounds. Bull sharks can grow much larger, but those specimens are becoming scarce because of overfishing.

Freediving with bull sharks (no scuba gear), to some, might be considered foolish.

The apex predators, which occur in tropical and subtropical waters, have been implicated in at least 100 attacks on humans, according to the International Shark Attack File. More than two dozen attacks resulted in fatalities.

They’re considered by many to be the most dangerous sharks in the world.

This is partly because bull sharks are so widespread and typically found close to the coast – even in freshwater. Bull sharks (and attacks) have been documented in murky rivers hundreds of miles from saltwater.

Moore, however, said that in clear water bull sharks are often hesitant, in most cases, to approach divers.

“Bull sharks get a bad rap and they are, in my opinion, one of the easiest sharks to freedive with here in Florida,” Moore said. “They are big, but very cautious and much less trusting than most of our sharks. It’s safe to say that they are one of the most misunderstood sharks.”

The freediver continued: “The majority of stories you hear about are mistakes made by the shark in poor visibility where they mistake a flash of skin for a fish. In clear water they are honestly very gentle and respectful.”

The pregnant shark, however, was not shy in the presence of Moore and his companion.

“This big female rolled up with the confidence and swagger of a true apex predator,” Moore recalled. “There’s normally an adjustment period where they size up how much of a threat they think you are. There were no such formalities with her.

“She felt comfortable around us very quickly and boldly paraded around me and my dive partner Logan. It’s a big accomplishment to grow to maturity for a shark these days and seeing one this large gives me hope.”

–Images courtesy of John Moore

Astonished paddlers suddenly amid orca ‘feeding frenzy’

A group of paddlers off La Paz, Mexico, recently found themselves surrounded by orcas as the mammals feasted on schooling mobula rays.

“The whole thing was absolutely powerful, magical, and oh so lucky,” Sergio Garcia, owner of Baja SUP, told For The Win Outdoors. “We felt grateful to have been there at exactly the right moment and place to share that experience.”

Garcia, 39, on Thursday provided a summary of the late January encounter involving at least five Eastern Tropical Pacific killer whales, or orcas.

He was on SUP board and two others, Terri Lynn and Rene Potvin, were on kayaks. Lynn and Potvin had been freediving and spearfishing from their kayaks before the orca sighting off Playa El Coyote in the Sea of Cortez, just north of La Paz.

The encounter began after Garcia saw a large splash behind Lynn as the group prepared to paddle back to the beach.

“Assuming that this encounter was going to last only a few moments as the orcas cruised by, Sergio and Terri Lynn paddled quickly to follow behind the orcas and soak up every glimpse,” the summary reads. “Then, to their surprise, they realised that the pod wasn’t actually leaving! They were corralling a group of mobula rays – it was a feeding frenzy!”

Garcia said the paddlers tried to keep a responsible distance but that became impossible as the mobula rays rushed toward the paddlers while trying to escape the orcas, bringing the orcas to the paddlers.

“The orcas used bubble curtains and swam tight circles to keep the rays together and at the surface, and picked one off every once in a while,” the summary reads. “Rene saw a half-bitten ray floating by shortly after the feeding ended.

“The whales fed for about 10 minutes, then, apparently satiated, let the remaining rays go and turned their full attention to us.”

The orcas made repeated passes in what seemed expressions of curiosity, and remained with the paddlers for another 10 minutes before disappearing to the south.

One of the females in the pod, identifiable by a deep notch at the base of her dorsal fin, has been spotted elsewhere in Mexico and was once documented preying on a sunfish off the Mexican state of Michoacan.

Eastern Tropical Pacific killer whales are encountered sporadically and have been spotted as far north as Southern California.

Freediver’s rare orca encounter a ‘dream come true’

A freediver off Kona, Hawaii, has captured brief but stunning footage of a rarely seen type of killer whale.

A freediver off Kona, Hawaii, has captured brief but stunning video footage of a rarely seen type of killer whale.

With his charter business closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Seth Conae and a couple of friends ventured out on April 22, hoping to spear a few fish for dinner.

Instead they watched two pods of killer whales, or orcas, for more than three hours. At one point, Conae jumped in and captured the accompanying footage.

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“It has been the No. 1 species that anyone in our industry has wanted to see,” Conae, owner of Manta Ray Dives of Hawaii and Kona Diving EcoAdventures,” told For The Win Outdoors. “Finally, after 10 years on the water, this dream finally came true.”

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Killer whales have never been known to attack humans in the wild, so Conae knew there was minimal risk, if any. Still, he said, “It was a little nerve-racking at first, not knowing what could happen.”

Orca sightings are extremely rare in Hawaiian waters. The mammals spotted by Conae and friends are part of a central tropical Pacific population that spends most of its time offshore, making only sporadic nearshore visits.

The Cascadia Research Collective, based in Washington State, keeps a photo-identification catalog of these killer whales and scientists matched one orca in Conae’s video to an individual spotted by researchers twice in 2016 and once in 2017 off Kona.

“The fact that we have multi-year matches even with a small catalog (57 individuals) suggests that this population is quite small,” Cascadia stated this week on Facebook. (The match was based on pigmentation patterns on the orca’s left eye patch.)

Conae, who said it’s legal for Kona residents to go boating in small groups, said the encounter occurred mid-morning about two miles offshore.

“We noticed some splashes and decided to investigate, and at first I thought they were false killer whales,” Conae recalled. “But then two of them lunged out of the water, exposing the white circles around their eyes. Then we knew. Orcas!”

There were two pods – eight in one group, five in the other. The ocean was rough and Conae said it took “a few attempts” before he was able to spot one of the pods while diving beneath his vessel with a mask and snorkel.

“Seeing the holy grail of cetaceans in clear Hawaiian waters was extremely fulfilling,” he said. “My team and I live for these moments; it’s what drives us to get out on the water.”