Most people will be reminded of the scene in Jaws where the classic phrase “you’ll need a bigger boat” was stated. When a team of divers saw the world’s largest white shark, they only waited to grab the camera before diving into the sea.
Deep Blue, the huge predator, may live for up to 50 years, weighs 2.5 tons, and measures 20 feet long. It was towed down to the water near Hawaii to provide a “all you can eat buffet” of a dead sperm whale, according to one diver.
Deep Blue was last discovered in Mexico in 2013, where it was fitted with a tracking device; this is how divers identified it this time. One of the divers that joined marine biologist Ocean Ramsey was conservation photographer Juan Oliphant.
Oliphant’s incredible images show him and Ramsey swimming right up to the gigantic monster.
‘Facing the world’s largest magnificent white ever recorded ‘Deep Blue’ with @oceanramsey,’ Oliphant said on Instagram immediately after the swim.
‘I’m still in disbelief that we spent virtually the entire day with this incredible animal in my backyard.’
‘I hope that my conservation photographs like this help people examine their perceptions of sharks and appreciate their beauty and value, and that they inspire hearts.’ ‘Compassion and the connection we need to nature and sharks in order to help protect and coexist with them.’
Deep Blue was joined by another diver. ‘If you had asked me a few days ago what was the most spectacular thing I’d seen in Hawaiian waters, the response would probably have been quite different,’ writes Kimberly Jeffries.
‘If you had asked me yesterday, the answer would have been Deep Blue, the largest great white ever recorded, last sighted in Mexico in 2013.’
‘If you asked me now, it would be free to live, interact with, and shoot a variety of gorgeous white people AND Dark Blue.’
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