November brings the largest Great White Sharks to Mexico; the
eighteen foot long sharks a big draw for divers.
November usually brings to mind visions of Thanksgiving, voting
ballots and recovering from Halloween candy. However, in the world of Great White sharks,
November is their Spring Break.
Isla Guadalupe, 210 miles off the coast of Mexico, has
become the world-wide recognised dive destination for an unprecedented number of Great
White sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) and exceptional opportunities for divers seeking
encounters with these misunderstood denizens of the deep.
After four years of solid operations at the Isla Guadalupe dive site,
the Shark Diver team, lead by dedicated shark specialists in conjunction with U.C Davis
and CICIMAR's research teams, have noted several unique seasonal shark patterns.
Something Exciting Always Happens in November
Close-up With Sharks - © Shark Diver
For the past several years we see many juvenile and mid-sized animals
from September through late October. But when the seasonal temperature shifts, the real
giants appear!
The giants in question are massive female Great White sharks that
appear in large numbers later in the shark season.
In early November, when water temperatures dip several degrees lower,
larger breeding-aged female Great White sharks stalk the waters at Isla Guadalupe looking
for something the Shark Diver research team is trying to discover.
We have data showing these sharks actively stalking the small
Guadalupe Fur Seals (pups and adults), early in the shark season. By November these pups
are quite big and begin to play offshore, which is the equivalent of ringing the dinner
bell for females who need to consume mass quantities of food to fuel up for the winter and
for breeding season.
There are few places in the world that feature consistent sightings
and interactions with Great White sharks as Isla Guadalupe.
A divers' best chance of seeing sharks as long as 18 feet (or more) is
in November.
As we have discovered with past Great White shark diving, off the
coast of California in Ano Nuevo and off the Oregon coastline, sharks of that size don't
just wander around aimlessly - they are destination animals, just like any migratory
species.
By Patrick Douglas.
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