Oct 17 thru 21 at Isla Guadalupe 150 miles in the Pacific west of Baja.
I have read lots of books on Great White sharks and have seen the documentaries. Nothing compares to seeing them in the field. I watched them attack tuna head bait on a rope while on of the boat crew pulled the bait away from the sharks. These sharks tried different attack methods, made decisions, and just plain took alot of tuna heads by fooling us.
One shark figured out that attacking in the line of glare on the water made it tough for us to see him coming before we could pull the bait away.
They are cautious beasts, are acutely aware of their surroundings and they make decisions. I saw behaviors that books cannot capture. Some swam to the shark cage and looked right at us, their closest eye scanning us.
I wish I could have this kind of window into kingsnakes. I can see how captivity may short-circuit their natural behaviors and remove the stimuli that they would have in the wild. I believe you FR when you say that seeing behaviors in the field is the only way to truly understand them.
What an awesome trip this was.
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Mark
