Occurred on October 11, 2016 / Ascension Island, Saint Helena
Info from Licensor: My friends and I traveled to Ascension Island hoping to spearfish large Yellowfin Tuna. Ascension Island is one of the most remote places in the world, and to get there we took a military jet from London. Ascension historically hasn’t had a large Galapagos shark population, and they have never shown themselves to freedivers or sport fishermen there according to the locals. Earlier this year Galapagos sharks migrated to Ascension in large numbers, and thus became a big part of our trip. We don’t know if this was caused by climate change, or just coincidence, but they were there. We freedove 14 days, and every day we saw many sharks. We studied their behavior and quickly realized you have to show them you’re not food immediately. You have to be the alpha in the water with the sharks. When sharks would come in to check us out we would dive down and meet them face to face, and push them away. Once they realize you’re a threat and not dinner their behavior is calm and docile and they are beautiful to dive with. Ascension Island has a large concrete dock, and there the local fishermen filet their catch daily. The fileted fish carcasses get tossed over into the shallow water, and so the sharks have been trained to show up to this area every afternoon for a free snack. One day after freediving, I took a kayak off the beach and paddled out to the sharks. My friends were watching me from the dock and throwing in chucks of fish for the sharks to feed on. The sharks quickly and aggressively surrounded my kayak, and I spent a few minutes pushing the sharks away with the plastic kayak paddle. After their aggression mellowed out I was able to paddle around with them swimming calmly underneath me. The trip was an incredible experience, and we are already signed up to travel to Ascension Island again in 2017."
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