Photos of the moment a Great White Shark Severs a Diver’s Air Hose have been published.
Chris Gillette was enjoying a shark cage dive off the coast of Guadalupe, Mexico when he got an up close view of a great white shark.
A bait bag floated directly next to the semi-submersible cage Gillette was in. Unfortunately, Gillette’s surface-supplied air umbilical was outside of the cage and near the bait bag.
As the 15-foot long great white shark approached to consume the bait bag, it bit through Gillette’s air supply hose.
The die-hard photographer was able to swim to the top of the cage to take a breath and sink back down into the cage to continue taking pictures of the shark.
Guadalupe Island has a healthy population of migrating great white sharks. While shark tourism booms in the area, there have been several negative interactions issues between humans and sharks.
On October 14, Tracking Sharks shared a video that featured a great white slamming into a shark cage. The shark hit the cage with such force, it entered into the cage and became stuck.
Thankfully, the support crew was able to open the top of the cage and the shark worked its way out of the opening. Diver Ming Chan, who was also in the cage at the time, escaped unharmed.
A second incident also occurred in October. A group of several divers were in a submersible cage when a great white shark swam down into the cage and became entangled. The crew reacted quickly and was able to assist all divers out of the water. Once the divers were safe, they were able to dislodge the shark.
By happenstance, a cage diving shark movie is scheduled for release in 2017. Cage Dive is a found-footage film that follows three friends as they head to Australia to go cage diving.
During the trip things go horribly awry, and they are left in the water surrounded by great whites that were chummed into the area.
