Immersed in the middle of the Atlantic with a handful of divers, a shy blue shark approaches us. It is in the Azores and you will not soon forget this memorable dive, read on instead ...
The blue shark - PRIONACE GLAUCA - is a pelagic shark, meaning that you will not find it near the coast but in the middle of the ocean. This species likes temperate zones so the semi-dry suit is a must - well for me anyway 🙂
The Azores archipelago belongs to Portugal and has 9 islands, all of volcanic origin. From Paris, it takes 4 hours by plane to reach Faial airport. There is no mass tourism here and only two diving centers are present on this island.
The blue skin shark from every angle
The skin of this shark is a gradation of color, indigo blue on the back, gray on the sides and white under the body. It thus hides itself from predators such as the white shark, the mako or the killer whales.
This elegant and slender shark especially likes squid, bony fish like herring and is not too fond of tuna. The blue shark measures at most 3 meters and those encountered were around 2 meters.
That said, diving with sharks requires taking some precautions so as not to be mistakenly identified as prey.
Cause a meeting with a blue shark
A dive with a blue shark in the Azores deserves, you will have to prove that you are able to balance yourself close to the surface, remain calm and above all count 3 hours of semi-rigid and perhaps an hour of waiting on the surface .
The life of a shark is not to visit nice divers but to eat. So the diving center prepares a generous soup based on the blood of fish, herring and squid before departure. A bait is made with a plastic container pierced with several small holes containing this soup. It will be attached to one end to be submerged a few meters from the boat.
All this attention is not always enough to attract nice sharks although they have a very developed sense of smell.
Divers who have turned a little red under the midday sun wait in the middle of this ocean, scanning the horizon. The semi-rigid marks out an area by pouring small amounts of soup so that the currents diffuse this foul odor enough.
The first flying fish strike the surface and approach the boat. A good hour and a half later, a shy blue shark comes to check what is in the bait. But will he stay with the divers?
How do you dive in the middle of the ocean with a blue shark?
4 weighted ends of lead are attached to port to allow divers to form a line. The shark must see us as a group under the boat. Some less comfortable divers can also hold the end and it is quite reassuring for a first meeting with a shark.
The shark first turns around the bait while the surface divemaster continues to throw herring overboard. He is not very interested in divers at least at first and is content to revel in pieces of fish floating between two waters.
Photographing a blue shark
I was very ballasted because of the semi-waterproof and my box a little too light in the water. I go into the water without a hood and without a glove because I was just too hot on the semi-rigid in the middle of the dungeon. It is rather advisable to wear gloves, a hood and black or blue fins.
My goal was to have the sun behind my back, avoid the white spot of the sun in the photos, my eyes at shark level and point the viewfinder up to capture the surface. I would also have liked to take pictures very close to the surface but the conditions did not allow it.
I left with a wide angle and two flashes. I wanted to flash weakly because the fish soup in the water does not participate in very clear water and I wanted to reduce the recycling time of my flashes. My presets made, the arms of my flashes deployed, the shark advances towards me, I look at it and I want to admire its gliding under the reflections of the sun piercing the surface. It passes very close to me almost brushing my dome. Floating in the blue, my nose behind the viewfinder, I try to capture this moment.
Looking up, I realize that I had moved away from the group as this moment was magic.
Shark behavior observed during dives
The blue shark is often quite shy at first, it keeps away from divers. He just swallows the pieces of fish in the water. Maybe a little full after an hour or two, it starts to revolve around the group of divers. It goes closer and closer. The shark slowly approaches a weighted end of lead left free by a diver who has returned to the surface. The shark slides its midline against lead. Does he want to get rid of parasites or feel more closely the waves emitted by the movement of lead in water?
The shark approaches the fins of the divers. A young woman becomes a little nervous at the repeated passages of the shark in its yellow palms. Maybe the shark's attention is drawn to the little fluttering of the fins and the yellow color, who knows?
The shark having left the area and the fish soup almost exhausted, we return to the surface under a cloudy sky. The divers who feared this encounter were able to convince themselves that the blue shark is not a man eater or even aggressive.
Such interaction with blue sharks also opens our eyes to the need to protect this species from its main predator: humans. Scientists estimate that 10 and 20 million blue sharks are caught each year. The blue shark is not prized for its flesh but for its fins. The sponsors are consumers of shark fin soup and shark liver products.
In conclusion,
it would be simplistic to consider this kind of diving as a show since the shark is in its natural element and it is baited with fish without any other additive. Each diver thus participates in my opinion, in their conservation, on our small scale, since a living shark thus has a higher value than a dead shark.
5 comments
this is a good account of an adventure say so we believe it
El'eau Claire,
Or in the Acores, Ponta Delgada?
Oops! I unwittingly just made a rotten pun with “clear water” !! 🙂
Sorry, not wanted !!
Nice report and beautiful images. Thank you !
I have already been asked if that was my real name hahahaha To answer questions, the center was based in Horta on Faial Island. Otherwise, it is possible to go with the clubs of Pico, the neighboring Island. Thanks for the feedback 🙂