A lot of preparation goes into a successful white shark expedition. Obviously, cages are needed. By the time we arrived to the boat, the cages were already on board, ready for deployment. Also necessary are copious amounts of bait and chum. On our way out of San Diego, we stopped to fill up our holding tanks with live bait, and fishermen extraordinaire Darren and Don (and the crew as well) fished for almost the entire time they weren't in the water, catching both dinner and shark bait. One interesting implement on board is a homemade "chum cannon," which is sort of like a potato gun, except that it shoots out chunks of rendered fish. It's almost too much fun to handle.

Also on the boat is a "Harry," a Herring-esque human-shaped cutout made from carpet and wetsuits. Harry is a big hit with white sharks, who will take a test bite out of pretty much anything on the surface (this is not to be confused with a predatory attack, which does considerably more damage).

Live bait station

Dave loads the holding tank with bait

Netting bait

Evening fishing

Don's blue fin tuna

Don, posing with his blue fin tuna

The cages, ready to be deployed

The chumming begins

The crew lowers the cage into the water

Dave, on one of the cages

Jessie Harper, with cage

The first diver enters the cage

Entering the cage

Harry floats near the bait

Blood is dumped into the water

Fish head, used as bait

Cages, in Guadalupe waters

Jessie fires the chum cannon

The chum cannon. Always fun.