Back From Guadeloupe Great White Trip

Hello

I returned a few days ago from Guadeloupe Island aboard the Ocean Odyssey. The first 2 days seemed pretty bleak - we had only one shark the first day which only made a few passes between 5-6pm. I was lucky enough to be in the cage during that time and got a few shots. Lighting was lousy and the picures were less than ideal. The second day wasn't any better - we had a large female show up around 9am which only 2 people saw from the cages. I spent hours freezing in boredom the rest of the day waiting for another to no avail.

The third day made up for the whole trip! We had a 16 foot female named "Mystery" show up at approximately 9am. She made continual close passes and went for both hanging baits almost continuously for the next 3 1/2 hours! I finally left the cage after 3 hours after I filled a 6-gig card and my battery went dead on my D200. A 12 foot male ("Shredder") showed up right before "Mystery" left and he hung around on and off for the rest of the day. Great end to the trip.

My worrying about the crossings from San Diego worked out as well. We had relatively smooth seas in both directions. We also had a Shark researcher join us for last evening who gave a lecture and slide show about his work. He's tagging the sharks with with GPS locators and tracking them worldwide among other things. He said they've identified and named 72 individual White Sharks at Guadeloupe.

Thanks to everyone who gave me advice before the trip. All pictures were taken with a D200 and a 17-35mm lens at approx. 28mm. I didn't have the correct zoom gear but I think it worked out pretty well.

John

Nice shots John. I like the straight on shots.

My friends went a couple of weeks ago on the Nautilus and had a good trip.

Look forward to our CA trip in December, I hopefully will have a D80 by then.

Jack

Grat pictures! I hope I see one once in my life . Numbers 2 and 4 are my favourites, great colours and sharpness. I love the fatty look of this shark and the shy bad boy look of the face...

Great shots! I'm glad you didn't get completely skunked. Just out of curiosity, what was the water temp? I was there the end of Sept. and it was 69-71.

We spent the first day at the Southern end of the island where the temp was 65 degrees F and the next 2 days at the Northern end where it was a bet warmer at 68 degrees. I started off in a wetsuit the first day then switched to a drysuit. Even in a drysuit I got pretty cold after an hour. Pretty boring too sitting in those cages for hours. Seriously, if I do it again I'm going to house my video I-Pod.

John

What would you be watching on the Ipod, "Jaws"?

What would you be watching on the Ipod, "Jaws"?

I was actually joking with my wife that it would be a funny picture with me holding up the Ipod wtih the "Jaws" intro on the screen with a white shark in the backround swimming by.

Seriously, I found it freakin boring sitting there for hours watching the mackeral going back and forth chasing the hanging baits as they were thrown into the water every few minutes. Everyone was getting pretty despondent by the end of the 2nd day. I plan on listening. to music or Pod casts while waiting. Once the sharks were there - and you were paying attention - they would seem to come out of nowhere and just appear in front of the cage at times. I don't think I'd go all that way to miss a good shot because I was watching reruns of "Friends".

John

Yeah, that water over there is kind of creepy. It's so clear, but they blend into it so well. The couple of times that I had long cage times with no action, I was actually really comfortable and at peace. I even took a short nap in the cage one day.

Matt

Hey John-

Looks like you got some great photos! I like 1 and 2 the best and the 17-35 worked well!

M.