The first time you come face to face with a 17 or 18 footer through the cage, it is like being in the presence of something majestic whose size on paper does no justice to it's size up close and personal. I have done so in Mexico, in other parts of California, in Africa, and in Oz, but none matched the Farallon Island experience, as although I saw bigger individual sharks in African waters, there is nowhere that has such a population of consistently big Great Whites as the Farallons. It has to go down as my favourite spot to cage dive. Interestingly the waters around the Farallon Islands gets visited a number of times per year by large pods of Killer Whale, which generally causes the waters there to practically clear out of Great Whites. The Farallon Islands does have a huge seal population but it also has a large whale population, is quite heavy in terms of large shoal fish, and has a large seabird population also. Your post is quite timely with the pictures from Australia today of the 10 foot Great White that had a huge chunk bitten out of it by what people think could be a 6m to 7m Great White. What is to say they could not predate on large sharks such as the basking shark too.The sightings off the coast of Cornwall are more than likely mako sharks or thresher sharks but if GW sharks can live off the Farallone Islands,they could certainly live off Ireland.Not withstanding the Farallon Islands has a huge seal population.Īll of this could be happening out in the Atlantic Sea off the north,west and south and off the Irish Sea without anybody knowing. This post really sums up the chances that they could frequent our waters or at least pass through.Ireland has a very large dolphin and porpoise population along with smaller sharks,tuna and game fish like ling and some swordfish etc. They also thrive in the Australian, African, and Mexican waters where the temp is much higher. Some may dismiss the idea of them being able to survive North of Ireland, but some of the largest Great white populations and the some of largest specimens are found in the waters around the Farallon Islands, which has water temps far lower than in the waters above the North of this country. Now I don't think that our coastal waters has a large popultion of great whites, but I do think that it is more than fair to say that they have been in Irish waters, and given that they are in the Atlantic, in the African waters below Ireland and in the Mediterranean sea, around Italy in particular, then it would be foolhardy to dismiss the idea of them passing through our waters given that they are living in every direction from Ireland. We have a decent seal population in Ireland but an even bigger small dolphin population, which is something else that atlantic GWs feed upon. GWs in different parts of the planet tend to have totally different main food sources, and in the atlantic that main food source just happens to be the six gill shark as well as tuna. No for great whites you need a food source. I have gone cage diving to look at GWs in many places, and in many water temps, from the warmer waters of the coast of Africa to the bloody cold waters near the Farallon Islands near San Fran, so I have no doubts at all about our water temps being very tolerable for a GW.įor great whites you need something like a large seal population. Our water temps would support a GW, and to be honest, even if they were out there in the deeper waters off of our coasts, would be even notice? They are one of the favourite prey species for the Great White Shark in the atlantic, and where you have one you normally get the other at some point. These guys interest me a lot in that they are in our waters. To go back to one of the sharks I mentioned the seven gill sharks that have been seen off the Kerry coast. In theory every one of those could do damage to a human, with some of them more than able to kill a human.īut a bull is also more than able to kill a human and so can many dogs, in fact you would be more at risk from dogs imho. Of late we have has six gill and seven gill sharks in Irish waters, the latter being caught off of the Kerry coast and the former off of the Clare coast. Blue, Thresher, Porbeagle, and Mako sharks have all been recorded in Irish waters.
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