A while ago I posted an article called The Ethics of Shark Photography. I stand by everything I wrote in that post but there is sometimes more to photographing a timid shark than meets the eye and the publishable images do not necessarily tell the whole tale.

For the first time on Elasmodiver I have loaded some pictures of a diver purposefully manhandling a shark. The animal is a Blind Shark that is barely two feet long and the diver is my girlfriend Claire. In Claire’s defense I should immediately point out that it was me who reached into a crevice and picked up the resting shark. After it stopped thrashing I handed it to Claire who floated nearby looking rather bewildered by my actions.

Neither Claire nor the shark were in much danger from this encounter but there are reports of disgruntled Blind Sharks turning tail and latching onto divers that have disturbed them in a similar fashion. As long as the shark is held gently but firmly on its torso, avoiding the gill openings or fins, it should be ok. Blind sharks are hardy creatures that are known to have good survival rates even when thrown back by fishermen and when you consider the abuse and indignity that shark researchers and fishermen put these animals through in the course of their catch and release activities, removing a shark from a crevice pales by comparison.

If you’re wondering why a photographer would manhandle a Blind Shark in the first place, the answer is simply that you cant get publishable shots of a shark that you can barely see tucked into a thin crack. This is especially true if your camera housing is so big that the dome port wont fit into the crevice anywhere near the animal. The answer is to either leave it alone (not a bad course of action) or to relocate the shark onto a surface where shooting is possible and that is exactly what I did (with Claire’s help) on this occasion.

Releasing the brown hued Blind Shark close to the beautifully contrasting green algae on the reef resulted in a series of images in which the shark was well defined yet still in its natural environment (although normally it would only hunt in this area at night). Within a few minutes the exhausted Blind Shark was back in its crevice, unscathed but no doubt happy that its ordeal was over.

This kind of encounter is not unusual in marine photography. I asked a prominent professional photographer how he had managed to photograph an elusive species of reef shark because repeating the method that I had used on the Blind Shark would be almost impossible with a fast swimming carcharinid. He told me that he had first caught the shark on rod and reel. He had then removed the hook from it’s jaw, tail looped the animal with monofilament fishing line, and jumped in with his camera. He was then able to get the shots he wanted while the shark (that would normally not approach a diver) swum in circles under his boat.

As I have never done this I am not sure how much stress it puts on the shark. Probably a great deal. Stress induced lactic acid build up inside the sharks body can quickly turn fatal even if the animal appears to be fine upon release. I have no desire to hurt any creature (let alone a shark) and I am not a fan of fishing but I can see how this is probably the only method that some species can be photographed. If it is your mission to catalog rare shark species, my only advice would be to make the encounters as short as possible.

Incidentally, sharks are not the only creatures that are sometimes manhandled in the name of photography. I remember marveling at those award winning images of octopuses in mid water, perfectly composed in front of a dramatic sun-splash, with their arms splayed out all around them. As I learned more about the ocean and the habits of its occupants, I started to wonder why any self respecting octopus would be floating around in the water column. Sure enough, most of these shots are achieved by someone swimming up to the surface with the octo and unceremoniously dropping back towards the reef.

The mollusks (like the sharks) are probably not harmed by these activities so there is no real cause for alarm. You may disagree with these photography tactics but if you simply want to protect sharks there are far bigger and more worthy battles to fight.

 

Follow this link: Blind Shark Pictures to see the images.

 

For the sharks,

Andy Murch

 

Host of Elasmodiver.com the webs leading source of new shark pictures and information.

Summer is speeding by in a blur of shark photography shoots. I am sitting in a friend’s house in Ontario desperately trying to clean and prepare my images from the last two trips before starting the next one. Next week I am leaving for Baie Comeau in Quebec to hunt for Greenland Sharks. Following that adventure I plan to continue to the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswich to join Eli from Shark Diver Magazine on an attempt to find and photograph the Porbeagle Shark. Porbeagles (to my knowledge) have never been photographed by divers in the wild so it will be a historic achievement (in our small shark diving world) if we are successful.

Last week I was down in San Diego with Eli on a trip to find Mako Sharks for our readers. Over a five day period we brought in 14 Makos and although I spent a lot of time on deck I was able to get a number of new angles that can be found here: Mako Shark Pictures.

As I already had plenty of Mako shark pictures it was hard to justify the trip. Therefore, I needed to head off on my own in search of new sharks and rays after everyone left. I went north to Ventura and searched the kelp forests for  Angel Sharks and Swell Sharks. The sea was unusually calm so I had no problem locating these sharks and a new ray. The Thornback Ray is a unique animal that looks like it is part guitarfish and part skate. It is quite common in California but it was the first time I had seen one.

The west coast of North America has a very diverse array of elasmobranch species and there are still many that I have yet to photograph. Sadly, for personal reasons I am now relocating to Ontario which means that I will have less access to Pacific species but there are also a number of sharks and skates that I can now hunt for in the north east. The adventures will be more challenging but in some ways that just makes success that much sweeter when it finally comes.

Time to get back to the images. Keep an eye out for more shark pictures over the next few days.

 

For the sharks,

Andy Murch

Host of Elasmodiver.com – The online shark picture database