Saturday, July 5, 2008

Shark Diving Trends-We Hate Being Right

Last week we blogged about the next big idea for shark dive encounters. All things considered we see it as an emerging trend.

Seems a group of developers in Turkey had the same idea. They open to the public this week:

Turkey's new sea park opens

Turkey's first sea park is ready to open in the Aegean resort town Kuşadası. The park, which was under construction for two years, will be inhabited by 2,000 tropical fish. The sea park only has one equivalent, in the United States.

Visitors to the park can dive in with the ocean fish, swim with dolphins, see alligators at close range and swim in the same pool with a shark while inside a cage. Based on the slogan "We fit the ocean to pools," the Adaland Sea Park is expecting visitors who are interested in sea creatures and adventures.

Those who want to experience a shark at the closest possible range will dive inside the pool within a cage to meet the terrifying white shark. There will also be three baby alligators behind wire fences in the park. The most eagerly anticipated part of Adaland Sea Park, besides sharks, dolphins and multi-colored fish, is the section that includes Nemo, the hero of the award winning animated movie "Finding Nemo."

Isla Guadalupe, Mexico-Capturing "The Moment"

As we speed to another amazing season at Isla Guadalupe we always spend a few days hunting through old cd's stacked full with images shot by our lucky divers.

In all the years we have been going to this unique site together, we have seen some pretty amazing things. The image you're looking at is one of them.

As far as we know this is the only full shark breach image every captured at I.G...and it was entirely a fluke.

The animals at this pristine site give absolutely no warning when they are going to breach, so it was another extraordinary day when this photographer happened to have her camera resting on the ships rail and this magnificent 14 foot animal came blasting out of the water.

Her finger reflexively hit the trigger and "voila", the perfect shot including the morning sun blazing off this critters belly.

Sometimes being in the right place at the right time can make all the difference. In this case 210 miles off the coast of San Diego-at an island time forgot called Isla Guadalupe.