Researching the Great White Shark:
Research scientists based right on the islands have been participating in ongoing research and scientific studies of the nature of Great White Sharks and other natural studies around the Gulf of the Farallones for many years.

Passengers can not disembark on the islands.

 

Your experience will be unique and very special if you should lay eyes on a great white shark that is literally born live already at five feet in length! Young sharks prey on fish and for the most part pay no attention to larger marine mammals.

When we happen to see our sharks, they are usually young adults to fully mature specimens between ten and twenty feet in length. They will be on or just below the surface where they are hunting the seals and sea lions that are moving from the rocky shore to their own hunting areas in deeper water.

Sharks will lay in wait for their prey to pass back and forth from the rocky shore to go hunting for fish. What we witness may be as brutal, yet natural as any predator/prey interaction in nature, and no different than watching a lion and antelope on the African Serengeti, a crocodile taking a zebra or a large snake devouring a furry little creature.

In fact, a very low percentage of all life in the sea actually dies of old age; perhaps one or two percent. Virtually everything ends up being eaten alive!

At the top of this food chain are what are known as "apex predators" and the Great White Shark is at the very top of the list!

While the Shark Week tv shows on the Discovery Channel have shown great whites flying through the air (in South Africa), these have mostly been enticed by artificial top water lures just like a large version of fly fishing.

Some lucky participants have witnessed flying great whites in the natural setting of the Farallon Islands while hunting for their favorite prey!

 

More info: SharkWatch@GreatWhiteSharkExpeditions.com