People often ask me about sharks… What’s it like to swim
with sharks? Am I afraid of them? Why risk it? I try my best to answer, but always
fail to adequately convey the magic of the encounter, the feelings, the
thoughts going through my head. They are most impressive creatures, masters of
their realm, a perfect blend of capability and beauty. 400 million years of
fine-tuning under the hood.
While on my recent trip to Mexico’s Socorro Islands, I photographed a number of different shark species, including whitetip reef sharks, Galapagos sharks, silvertip sharks, whale sharks, scalloped hammerheads, and silky sharks. One of the highlights of the shoot was finding a baitball out in open water, a swirling tornado of baitfish. Small hapless fish which happened to be under attack by at least one hundred silky sharks. One of those Blue Planet moments I’m lucky to stumble across a few times in my career.
