A Lucky Streak with the Ferox Shark in Malpelo

We were on our last dive of my second trip to Malpelo this year.

Richie, the other dive guide and my brother-in-arms, had the idea to start from Altar de Virginia and head towards La Cara de Fantasma. On the other hand, I was still thinking and watching the waters, unsure what I wanted to do. I decided to go from the northeast corner of Malpelo Island, down the wall and into the channel between Monster Reef and Malpelo. The current had to be right in order not to have a crap dive. It looked right, so we entered the water.

Before going in, I said, “Mission Ferox, hammerheads, and whale sharks!” We crossed our fingers for seeing the big ones.

As I was dropping down, I looked around to see if my divers were okay. I took the time to look at my compass, to see how the sun and the wall were aligned with the bearing on the display. Not that I needed to, but just because.

I heard a sound and I saw Scottish diver Gordon as I looked over my shoulder. He was pointing at a whale shark that was slowly passing over me. I totally missed it! This was just two minutes into the dive.

He or she was a slender one with quite a few remoras on its tail. That was nice. I better have my eyes on!

We encountered hammerheads, but not the big schools. We stayed deep, hoping for more hammers and maybe the Ferox.

It's not over until the fat ferox shows up

We passed La Cara de Fantasma with the beautiful cleaning stations. Leatherbass and rainbow runners were getting cleaned at the moment. We played with the barracudas. Some Galapagos sharks made an appearance. A pleasant dive.

We moved on. I liked to keep that deep bottom in sight. And I saw some bubbles. Ah! Richie’s group was a bit closer to land than us. We came together at pretty much the end of the dive. We saluted each other’s group, sharing hugs and handshakes between divers.

While I was doing a Swedish yeah, yeah hug, I looked down slightly and ahead… eh? I reckoned… It was!!!

The stoic, calm Swede screamed his lungs out and went off.

I had my little Sony RX-100 III camera with Fantasea housing in my hand this time. While waiting for the divers to catch up with me, I had her to myself for a short time. My hand was pointing at her as I look around for divers, so the filming was awful. One diver was much higher up, but I saw that everyone was watching her.

I had a few seconds. I just wanted to see her face… and she was so cute!

She moved her eyes looking at this thing on her starboard side… I let her go and met Richie. We laughed and hugged each other. I was actually really moved!

Good vibes from all the divers! I don’t think I’ve ever had a trip ending this beautifully!

It was the last dive and everyone saw her! It made my work complete.

My very first ferox shark sighting

After around 60 trips over 13-14 years of guiding in Malpelo, I finally saw my first Ferox on my previous trip! Thanks to my friend Hector, who spotted it first and gave the hand signal.

My work, first and foremost, was to get the divers to see and experience this moment but after making sure that everyone saw her, I also managed to have my time to admire this strange animal…

My very first Ferox shark! It just took 11,000+ dives… It reminds me of the time when I took a diver on his first open-water dive and the guy sees a damn ornate eagle ray. That was my first sighting and, according to my friend who had been diving and working in the Maldives for 16 years, he had seen it only one time. And this guy saw it on his first real dive!

Do You Ever Get Bored of Diving and Guiding?

People have asked me before. Yes, I do. Not the diving, but more the people… sometimes. But each time I have a mission when I go, I am not bored. I try to read the water, try to understand. I stay extremely focused on what I do, but I also like to get the dive team involved. Even if I’m within just a couple of meters of range to see, I might still miss it or I could be looking in another direction. When we dive together as one team, we have more eyes scanning the water and we also enhance everyone’s experience as a whole.

I thank my dive team for working this way with me.