It's almost unbelievable that a sea lion would hang out in close proximity
to multiple great white sharks, but this male swam with us for three days,
stealing bait at every opportunity. By the last day, one of the sharks
had gone after him a couple of times, but I guess most of the
time white sharks aren't fast enough to catch one. Experts theorize
that white sharks usually attack by surprise, from below. In years past,
the
SD Shark Diving folk have seen a great white eat a bird and a blue shark.
I've seen the video footage of the white shark taking the blue shark, and
it's incredible. The white shark literally cuts the blue shark in half
with a single bite, leaving the head half to wiggle around in a futile,
post-mortem attempt to escape. It's really too bad we didn't get to see
"wild" predation on this trip. Two guys on board (who would
probably want to remain anonymous) suggested that we tranquilize the sea
lion as
a catalyst
for more action, but of
course,
we would never really do such a thing. ;)
