An Afternoon with the Blues...

This film is a tribute to those times when everything comes together to make a magical moment. I shot this film on one perfect, cloudless, windless afternoon with clean water off Anacapa Island and at least six blue sharks under our boat. The largest was 8 feet long and the others were between 5-7 feet.

Shark populations have declined worldwide, including blue sharks, and seeing this many blue sharks at once was like a dream come true. I remember frequently seeing blue sharks swimming on the surface of the water during the late 80s while crossing the channel to the northern California Channel Islands. Nowadays, you are not likely to see any.

I shot this with a Teledyne DBM9-1 16mm camera with a 400-foot load. I edited this film with as many of the shots as I could from the 10 minute reel.

I was with a small group of people on Jeff Maassen's boat, along with his 11 year old son Morgan, who is now a professional surf photographer, his 13 and 14 year old friends, my friend Mavees Ahlborn and Matt Ferraro, who held the underwater film light for me and who is now a director of photography. All of us dived with the sharks. Jeff Maassen is the one who hand fed the shark -- a spontaneous moment caught on film.

I particularly like this video because the surface was calm and you can see the reflection of the shark on the underside of the surface of the water. And, the yellow reflection of the suns rays shimmer on the back of the blue sharks. And because we were blessed with these awesome blue sharks that let us film and photograph them for hours until we finally climbed on board and sped away.

Blue sharks prowl the open ocean looking for dead animals or for squid or fish, their main diet. They get their name due to the beautiful cobalt blue coloring of the upper part of their bodies. They are slow, graceful swimmers that rarely come near shore and us divers had nothing to fear of them as long as we keep them in front of us and we keep moving.

Sharks really need us to give them a break. Its estimated that 100 million sharks are killed annually and that many populations have been reduced by 90%. Shark fishing needs to be dramatically reduced or stopped altogether world-wide to allow shark populations to recover.

Music by Baka Beyond, a collaboration of Celtic and Pygmy music:

"Soiridh Leis"
Baka Beyond
Written by Martin Cradick
Published by BMG Gold Songs
http://www.bakabeyond.net/

For more information about Jim Knowlton and Blue Ocean Productions:
http://www.blueoceanproductions.com/

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Baka Beyond
• blue shark
• shark sharks
• underwater video
• California Channel Islands
• Anacapa Island
• diving
• SCUBA
• Scuba Diving
• Shark

[MooJoo5555]

people says sharks eyes are lifeless. i don't get it. i see lots of personality in a sharks eyes. i like this video very much. this was soothing to watch.

[Vincesalvati1]

Great footage and music, very mesmerizing. Loved the way the light reflected off their backs. Nicely done Jim!

[jonser2008]

Beautiful video. Looks like so much fun!

[Frankpro1]

Truly a dream come true! Hope to see them myself one day :)

[sngrmnsthsm]

~Yay this one is my favorite! :D :) Thank you so much for uploading this FINtastic Video here too Jim!! I love these peaceful and inquisitive cute little blue sharks! They swim with such beauty and elegant grace.. would love to swim with them all day long!