18.9.08

Diving in the Canyons

Report from Sept. 17th Canyon Trip: Went to Hydrographer Canyon about 100 miles off Nantucket Island. Left at 8 pm yesturday steamed all night to get to the canyon wall at 5 am. Windy and grey for most of the day with pockets of sunshine and rain, 5 ft. chop, blue gulfstream water moving real quick. Jumped in and filmed some big schools of mahi in over 1,000 feet of water. Saw a pod of sperm whales on top but they dove before we could get to them, messed around with some dolphin (mammales) tough to get them to stick around us though. Set up for shark at about 10 am right on the canyon wall which goes from 600 to 2000 feet. Plan was to drift over the canyon which is about 8 miles wide coming in off the gulfstream. 2 buckets, baitline with bluefish baits. After an hour a tiger shark pops of up surfing on the waves 30 ft from boat. Long story short had 2 mabye 3 different tigers taking baits and finning on the surface, one was about 15 Ft. Was in the water waiting for them but they wouldn't come near the boat for a camera shot. Thought it could have been the strong current and typical tiger behavior of hanging back in the slick, especially in swift current. The sharks were acting very timid. Most likely the combination of large sharks that come into very little contact with humans and the crashing affect of the boat in heavy seas keep them at distance. Never the less we had great surface activity and were suprised by a large 400 pound hammerhead that swam around the boat. What a day spent 100 miles offshore with sharks, mahi mahi, turtles, whales, and dolphins. Six hour ride home from the edge