PHOTOGRAPHY AND STORY BY:
Rodrigo Friscione
Today I had an unique encounter that I feel changed the way I see and
appreciate the greatness of the sea.
I was photographing sailfish with my good friend Rafa Gonzalez.
We already had a couple hours of great diving and we were both enjoying a
day of clear warm water, with lots of activity. We were shooting sailfish,
when this large shadow appeared between my fins. At first I
thought this elongated figure was a dolphin, but it was too large. I then
thought it was a pilot whale, but the body was too lean, and its face was
too sharp. Then it hit me, I recognized that it was a shark, but not just
any shark, it was a mako shark!
I had never seen one and what I had heard, thought that they were not very
big. But this shark was huge, around 3 and a half meters long, it had no
scars that I could see... it was just a beautiful example of its kind. I was
nervous and also very excited. I was trying to shoot images of it, but I was
having trouble finding the trigger of my camera with my shaky finger.
The shark turned to my left and swam away, I swam after it as fast as
I could. The animal turn with grace and calm towards me. It swam up to the
front of my lens and Rafa’s video camera. It then descended to our right,
then climbed back up towards us. The shark seemed very interested in the
bright material of my fins. She investigated them, but not aggressively, she
remained calm and elegant .She then turned and swam up to Rafa, swam inches
away from Rafa’s dome port then turned and came straight towards me. Then
she elegantly turned and swam back out into the blue, disappearing as
silently and mysteriously as it had appeared.
I was shooting the whole time, but not once did I look through the
viewfinder. I was not that concerned with capturing great photos, I put more
importance on thoroughly enjoying the encounter. The fact that an animal of
this size and power would simply just appear from out of the blue can not be
expressed in words.
For a diver to encounter a mako shark, 99.98% of the time bait is
required to bring them in. I can only assume that when one takes bait and
consciously attracts a mako, the feeling is different, one is somehow
'ready', but well, to have a mako suddenly show up from the sea .. less than
50cm from my face ... the only thing I can say is that I felt the greatness
of the sea, of course it also made me feel very small too ... I guess this
is what people who are heavily devoted to their church must feel like ...
because today out in the ocean, I was in my church!
Rafa and I came into the boat screaming and laughing, the other two
photographers that had run through all their memory cards and batteries had
been waiting in the boat, couldn't understand what had just happened. we
had sailed about 25 miles out, but the second I had any coverage on my cell
phone I posted something on the net.
The response came immediately from friends and fellow divers... a mako in
warm Caribbean waters! close friends where diving with the local bulls in
Playa del Carmen and couldn't believe what I was saying. later
on that day I processed my photos, selecting the few good ones and posting
them on the net, a couple of minutes after they where up, the feed back
started coming; first was Eli Martinez,
then Lalo Martinez-Vertiz,
Amanda Cotton and other good
friends who said the same words: long fin mako, a species never captured on
photographs before!. the
buzz was crazy! I received multiple messages, mails and inboxes from
renowned divers and photographers, helping out with the research and giving
professional opinions, the good vibes where amazing and I'm truly thankful
to everyone who contacted me and helped out on deciding whether this was or
was not a long fin.
Final word came from Eli, who contacted an expert in Europe, he requested
high-res images and some time to analyze them and his statement was that,
although the images where non-conclusive (due mainly to my inability to stay
calm enough during the encounter as to stick my face through the
viewfinder), this are the first images of a free swimming long fin mako. After
the buzz had settled and the story was talked about, I'm still sure that the
important thing was not the long fin or not-long fin photos... it was the
type of encounter that matters, the absolute unexpected nature of it, the
beauty of the animal, how she came to us by free will, no bait, no chum, no
lures... she just came up to check us out the way we go into the ocean to
check them out."
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