After 3 years of trying to charter a boat to see Blue sharks, we finally did it! If it wasn’t the weather, it was the sea conditions or our availability, but it finally all came together.
We set off from Mylor harbour aboard SeaWatch I, with her captain Nigel, of cornwallfishing.co.uk. It was a pleasure to meet Nigel, who is very passionate about the sea, fishing and wildlife. He eagerly discussed with us the current challenges the industry faces, which was eye opening.
After heading out of Falmouth Bay, it didn’t take long for a pod of common dolphins to join us. They raced to the boat and spent several minutes riding the bow waves.
Once we were ~10 miles off the coast, we prepared our chum (mackerel) and hung it out the side of the boat in a basket. We waited an hour before the first sharks turned up. Nigel was first to spot them and sounded the klaxon.
Pumped with adrenaline, we excitedly climbed into our wetsuits and jumped into the water. Holding onto the orange rope with orange buoys that Nigel had provided, we paddled 15m from the boat and gazed into the open depths looking for the sharks. 10 minutes passed and the shadow of a blue shark appeared. It wasn’t long and there were a total of 4 individuals circling us, including one large female (~2.5m).
The sharks gradually became more confident, swimming closer and closer, sometimes getting so close that you had to gently tap them on the nose to stop them bumping into you. Curiously, the blues seemed to be attracted to the colour orange and to our cameras. Although it was a bit daunting being in the water with the blues, they were very friendly, and we all agreed they were the labradors of the sea.
We spent ~1 hour in the water with the sharks and could have easily spent longer if it wasn’t for the cold water. On the journey back to dry land we were spoilt by several sightings of tuna full body breaching!
Overall, the trip was a massive success and I’m desperate to do it again. Below is a short video of our adventure, which doesn’t quite portray the awesomeness of the experience (as I didn’t get the best bits on camera), but provides some documentation of the trip.