Shark Rodeo

As soon as I hit the water in my Scuba gear, I see a dozen or more remoras, and that means just one thing—sharks. Remoras are narrow foot-long sucker fishes that live in close symbiosis with many shark species. I haven’t seen any remoras on whitetips, but they definitely like grey reef sharks, which are bigger, leaner, and can take a meaner bite out your dangly bits — as Mike can attest. Cat, Sanjayan, JR and I descend straight down onto a coral shelf where we’ll sit and observe the action, while Richard and Mike come down with the bait box and lasso ropes, along with George Evatt, the underwater camera guy and his huge 100-pound underwater video cam.

As we swim downward, several sharks circle around, coming within two feet of me. At least two are grey reef sharks. I’ve never been this close to a shark, nor have I swum near any grey reefs until now. As Mike says, grey reefs are a whole different animal than whitetips. They look more “sharky.” I have a few thoughts running through my head about how close these dangerous sharks are to me. Respectful awe.

We drop down to a boulder coral and I follow Sanjayan’s lead and lie flat with my fins behind me. A floating cloud of bejeweled coral reef fish swim just above me. The shelf drops off to the “arena” where Richard, Mike and George are about to try to rope themselves some whitetip sharks. Front row seats at the shark rodeo.

As soon as the bait box goes down, more and more sharks start circling. Richard shakes the box which gets fish scent in the water, and Mike and George hang back a bit so the bubbles from their Scuba gear don’t scare them off.

When the shark rodeo goes as planned, you grab the shark’s tail, slip the rope from your hand over the lower lobe of the tail fin and then cinch it tight around the caudal peduncle, a bump at the base of its tail fin.

Mike and Richard can talk underwater with specialized Scuba masks with built-in walkie talkies. As soon as Mike reaches out for a whitetip, Richard says, “No, no, no!” Or so Mike thinks; turns out Richard actually was saying, “Go, go, go!”—so much for technology.

Richard grabs a whitetip tail and slips the lasso on so quickly it looks like anyone could do this without even trying. Just reach out, grab a shark, slip the rope on, and you’ve got shark on a rope. When Mike or Richard successfully lasso a shark, they hand it to JR or Sanjayan, who hold the rope so that the shark dangles downward from its tail. Shark on a rope!

Watching from the coral shelf, even though we’re only about 15 feet away, it’s difficult to make out everything happening. We wait for what seems like a long time with no action and I’m starting to get cold. After 40 minutes of shaking the bait box and waiting for the right opportunity, they get their sharks— the same three with the white capsule temp recorders that they attached to their tail fins. The whitetips return each night to the same general location, making it possible to recapture the same animals.

Richard catches two sharks relatively easily — he’s the shark wrangler after all — and Mike successfully lassoed his first shark, which he aptly named “Finally.”

“You think that once you have it by the tail, you’ve got it,” says Mike, but adds. “That’s the easy part. The shark isn’t happy that you have it, and it will turn around and say hello in a most unfriendly manner,” he jokes.

Despite more sharks than I’ve ever seen in my life swimming around 15 feet from me, the sharks are not out in force. Richard says normally you’ll have 30 to 40 sharks coming in close to the box. We may have seen 20, with a dozen closing in on the bait box at any one time. That’s still a lot of sharks! A four-foot long potato cod – aka grouper – also muscled its way in amidst the sharks. Some of them grow big enough to eat whitetips.

The researchers have come up with possible reasons why they’ve experienced such challenges with shark capture this trip. When we first arrived, another tourist boat was out here. The sharks may not be hungry enough. While that may be good for my arms and legs, it’s not good for shark research.

If many tourist boats feed sharks it can desensitize them in the same way that grizzlies feeding on garbage can become aggressive because they associate humans with food. Richard and crew use the bait box to lure the sharks, but other than a few wayward scraps that get out, they don’t feed them except on rare occasions. During regular trips of the Undersea Explorer, when tourists are on board, they will take a bait box down and let the divers sit back and watch the shark ballet.

Five tourist boats come out to Osprey Reef throughout the year, though only the Undersea Explorer stays for extended week-long trips. Each company varies considerably in their ecological sensitivity, Richard tells me, and the industry is not regulated. Undersea Explorer has received an Australian government eco-certification for their use of sustainable tourism practices.

Before our dive, Richard suggested two other possible reasons we’re seeing fewer sharks numbers this trip. Either a fishing vessel came through and killed them, or predators have sent them running—or swimming as the case may be. We tend to think of sharks as top dog of the sea, but many sharks have their own predators in addition to humans. “Last year around this time, a pod of false killer whales were out here and were attacking and eating the grey reef sharks,” Richard explains. False killer whales are cetaceans, related to dolphins rather than baleen whales. “And there may also be orcas.” He figures it’s possible that since it’s the same time of year, the false killer whales are around. “So keep a lookout for black dolphins.”

When we’ve got three sharks on a rope, Richard gives us the signal to ascend, slowly. Up we go, three sharks in tow.

Images: Cameramen film the rodeo; Richard expertly lassoes a whitetip; Ascending with shark in tow.

Photos: Cat Gennaro/DCL

Comments

[Brian Shmaefsky]

Nice entry. Enjoyable reading.

[TXsharon]

There you are and you are still gorgeous! So fun reading about your adventure. Wish I were there!

[samantha egnor]

Don't hurt that LITTLE SHARK THATS IN YOUR HANDS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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