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Great White Shark Adventures in San Francisco

The Gulf of the Farallones Marine Sanctuary is home to some of the world's largest great white sharks. These rocky islands 30 miles off the coast of San Francisco are the winter water hunting grounds of adult great white sharks measuring 15 to 20 feet long. The sharks come to the Farallon Islands to dine on the local population of Northern Elephant Seals. In these waters the elephant seals compete in a race for their lives against one of the planet's most incredible marine predators, the Great White Shark.Watching this natural Great White Shark feeding event is an experience you'll never forget.

Incredible Adventures, a company offering exotic trips for the adventurous, has a shark watching boat and an expert shark diver team going on one day trips out of San Francisco in the prime viewing months of September, October and November.

The researchers at Incredible Adventures contacted us wondering if Fool-a-Fish sprayed onto the canvas seal decoys used to trigger great white attacks would increase the frequency or violence of the attacks. (Soft canvas is used so as not to injure the teeth of these protected predators. Bait and chumming cannot be used in this Marine Sanctuary). Would ultraviolet light reflected by Fool-a-Fish cause increased predation by the Great Whites? Well, we don’t know. It’s never been tried.

We know most marine species have ultraviolet vision. We presume great whites also possess this visual ability. In theory, UV vision should be extremely important to successful predation by great whites. Ultraviolet light is known to travel up to ½ mile in clear ocean water whereas visible light is absorbed in the first 40-60 feet. If the great whites are using ultraviolet vision, then seal decoys sprayed with Fool-a-Fish should be much more visible to them at long distances and hopefully would stimulate them into attacking. The other possibility is the Fool-a-Fish sprayed seal decoys would attract fish to the vicinity and the great whites would respond to this increased concentration of prey.

We are impressed by the forward thinking of the people and researchers at Incredible Adventures. They have decided to apply Fool-a-Fish to the seal decoys and other attractive devices they use during this coming season of shark watching. We expect that Fool-a-Fish will improve great white viewing successes for those adventurous souls cage diving or upper deck watching from the Incredible Adventures excursion boat.

We will let you know in future newsletters how using Fool-a-Fish to attract the great whites pans out. You can go see for yourself by booking an excursion to the Farallons with the nice people at Incredible Adventures by calling 800 644-7382 or by visiting their website. http://www.incredible-adventures.com/

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