November 2010    Download the Entire Issue (PDF)

Vol. 25, No. 11   What's this?

Zen and the Art of Cageless Shark Diving

a rejoinder from Amos Nachoum

from the November, 2010 issue of Undercurrent  

Subscriber Content Preview
Only active subscribers can view the whole article

In September, we published an article in which Amos Nachoum was derided for letting divers leave their cage to dive with Great Whites off Guadalupe island in Baja California. Some operators called it an accident waiting to happen.

As an answer, Amos asked us to publish another piece about his diving with great whites in South Africa (written by Amos and Angela Schuster, it originally appeared in the Explorers Club Journal – June 2010). We agreed, but we also include a second piece that raises other issues about South Africa great white diving.

* * * * * *

I bring my breathing down to a mere 15 pounds an hour, as my pulse settles in at a steady 50 beats per minute. Nothing outside of the present moment lingers in my mind as I focus on the totality my surroundings. I am but ten meters down on the seafloor, relaxing in the relative comfort of a large steel cage. I am in Shark Alley off the coast of South Africa, where I have come with two fellow divers to observe the Great White on its own terms. The time has come for us to abandon our protective cocoon....