Entourage (2017)

DAVE SANDFORD SIGNATURE SERIES IMAGE EDITION OF 20 [Signed and Framed]

Living for the moments I can’t put into words, but I will try!

The movie Jaws terrified some and unfortunately created generations of people with irrational fears towards sharks. What Jaws did for me was the complete opposite, it fascinated me and set me on a lifelong path of getting into the water with white sharks. I have loved them since I was a young kid and that has never changed.

Back in 2015, I formed a great relationship with Calypso Star Charters, based in South Australia. It is through my relationship with them that I have been so blessed to now have so many white shark dives under my belt. The dive site located in the Neptune Islands, is about a three-and-a-half-hour boat ride from the mainland in some pretty heavy Southern Ocean swell! Being the successful apex predator’s that they are, white sharks seem to appear out of thin air and vanish into the deep blue without a trace, all right before your very eyes. Adding to the challenge of their silent stealth like abilities, is shooting with a regulator that produces bubbles with each breath (I have learned to do deep breath holds to help prevent this). There is also the fact you are shooting with a dive mask on and through the back of a water housing containing your camera. If the swell is big, add that to the challenge. The first time I ever dove to shoot sharks, it was beyond humbling. I have learned how to overcome the challenges and am proud of the work on white sharks I have produced and share with you here today.  Swimming alongside this shark is a trevally, they often stick close to sharks, picking up scraps and eating small parasites attaching themselves to sharks. There is little danger to the small fish as it is hardly worth the shark’s effort to catch and eat such a tiny snack.

Pictured here is a beautiful 5 m (16.5’) great white shark we call ‘Buffy’. The sharks in the Neptune Islands are not resident sharks. This means, the sharks we see here, have travelled hundreds and in some cases thousands of km to make the trek to the Neptune’s to feed on the large Australian sea lion population here. Most of the sharks we see here, stay for a few weeks, feed and move on. What is really interesting is the timing of when they come. Thanks to GPS tracking, and shark identification programs, we have learned that many sharks, such as Buffy here, return at the same time each year. It seems when I am typically there, April – May, it is the large females that frequent the island's seal rich waters. In December, it seems many of the juvenile males frequent the region. I guess like the big girls who show up in the early Australian fall, I like to migrate to the islands at this time as well! It has been so interesting to see and learn about the different personalities of the different sharks I see year after year.

Swimming alongside this Buffy are a school of trevally, they often stick close to sharks, picking up scraps and eating small parasites attaching themselves to sharks. There is little danger to the small fish as it is hardly worth the shark’s effort to catch and eat such a tiny snack.