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Over the last year, DeepSharkOne has
captured footage of multiple shark species including two species
from South Africa that have not been filmed before.
After some initial deepwater trials in
Baja, we were able to install the deep cam on reefs in the Bahamas
and in South Africa. The footage from those locations is included
below:
SOUTH BIMINI ISLAND
On both our deep drops around South
Bimini Island we had Tiger Sharks show up to take the bait. The
Bimini Shark Lab conducts long-lining deep surveys in order to
assess the composition and abundance of sharks in deepwater surround
the island. By sharing this footage with them, we hope to
demonstrate a less invasive and less destructive method of
monitoring depths far beyond scuba limits.
First deep drop to 600ft/200m
Second deep
drop to 800ft/270m
SOUTH AFRICA
In South Africa we were able to capture
footage of two rarely seen sharks. As far as we know, this is the
first video footage of these animals:
In relatively shallow water in False
Bay, we were able to attract a number of Tiger Catsharks. Although
relatively common in the area, they are virtually never seen by
scuba divers.
In East London in 300ft of water, the
deep cam was visited by a pair of shortnose dogfish sharks. Although
never seen because of its prefernce for deepwater, this species is
relatively abundant in South Africa but it comes under similar
fishing pressure to the critically endangered Spiny Dogfish that is
present in Europe.
Unfortunately, after many drops in the
Bahamas, Mexico, South Africa and Sri Lanka, DeepSharkOne was lost
at sea. After returning to the last coordinates where it had been
deployed we were unable to locate the camera's surface marker buoy.
Likely it was recovered by a fisherman in our absence but it is
possible that the line was cut by a boat or possibly a shark.
Construction on DeepSharkTwo will begin
shortly.
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