| Wildlife filmmaker Randy
Wimberg was with his
dive team at Bikini Atoll in
the South Pacific, filming
shipwrecks and the wildlife around them. They
were focused on a particular area of the atoll
known as Shark Pass that has a large congregation
of aggressive reef sharks, so they built a shark cage
to protect the cameraman. A panel of the cage
was removed so that the camera would have
an unobstructed view. It measured 20 inches
vertically and extended around the circumference |
of the cage. The plan was for Wimberg to be in
the cage while someone in the nearby boat threw
chum (an oily mix of fi sh bait and blood) into
the water to attract sharks.
Wimberg climbed into the cage and was eased
out on a line about 15 feet from the boat. When
the deck hand started throwing in chum and bait,
the sharks began showing up in large numbers.
There were at least 30 reef sharks competing for
food that was either stuck to the cage or drifting
through it. Suddenly a shark shot right through
the gap and exited through the other side of the |
cage, grazing Wimberg as it passed. Then the
inevitable happened. A shark shot through the
gap but didn’t pass smoothly out the other side.
Instead it dove for the bottom of the cage. Scared,
it frantically tried to get out of the confi ned
space. Wimberg’s fi rst reaction was to curl up in
the bottom of the cage to escape the thrashing of
the frightened animal. But the shark was diving
down as well, trying to get out.
At the bottom of the small cage, Wimberg
desperatel y tried to use his camera to push the
animal up towards the exit but that didn’t work. |
