Video: Watch This and You’ll Never Go Shark Diving (Even in a Cage)

When I was in South Africa on a press trip I was offered a chance to go shark diving in a cage. I turned it down because it was an all-day event and you had to travel five miles out in rough seas. I’m glad I didn’t go since my friends who went said the majority of people got sea sick, but I was really happy I didn’t go after seeing this video of a shark getting though a dive cage.

This video was captured off of Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe) which is located 150 miles off the west coast of Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula and 250 miles southwest of the city of Ensenada. According to the video description on YouTube

“On a recent great white shark cage diving trip we experienced a very rare event, a shark breaching the side of the cage. What might appear to be an aggressive great white shark trying to attack the cage, this is not the case. These awesome sharks are biting at large chunks of tuna tied to a rope. When a great white shark lunges and bites something, it is temporarily blinded. They also cannot swim backwards. So this shark lunged at the bait, accidentally hit the side of the cage, was most likely confused and not able to swim backwards, it thrust forward and broke the metal rail of the cage. There was a single diver inside the cage. He ended up outside the bottom of the cage, looking down on two great white sharks. The diver is a very experienced dive instructor, remained calm, and when the shark thrashed back outside the cage, the diver calmly swam back up and climbed out completely uninjured. The boat crew did an outstanding job, lifting the top of the cage, analyzing the frenzied situation, and the shark was out after a few long seconds. Everyone on the boat returned to the cages the next day, realizing this was a very rare event. The boat owner, captain, and crew are to be commended for making what could’ve been a tragic event into a happy ending. I’m sure God and luck had a bit to do with it too!”