13 replies to this topic

[echeng]

I just got off the phone with Jim Abernethy -- on their last trip, a tiger shark took a D100 housing from a guy (it had two strobes on it), swam around for a few minutes, and took a picture with it!

They recovered the housing, and report that the photo was perfectly exposed.

[yahsemtough]

Outstanding!

Has the shark registered as a new member yet?

[Andi Voeltz]

Another late April fool? But the story made me laugh like hell...

[echeng]

No -- it's not April Fools day anymore. I spoke with him today, and as far as I know, he wasn't trying to trick me. Jimmy couldn't lie if he tried to.

[laz217]

If it's an April fools joke then he got me too because he told me about the same incident. Frankly, I believe him. Dive with Jimmy just once and he'll make you a believer.

I told Jimmy that they should publish the photo in SharkDiver Mag - First photograph taken by a Tiger Shark!

<thinking out loud>
Hmmm.. Now if I wrap a piece of seaweed to the shutter button on my camera, I bet I can get Darby - the wild spotted dolphin - to take a photograph too!


Who's going to try this with a Great White? Sorry but my PT-015 probably couldn't take the pressure..

[echeng]

I met a guy who had lost a housed VX1000 to a white shark. I'm sure it was still filming when it went bye-bye, but they never got the camera back.

[Andi Voeltz]

I told Jimmy that they should publish the photo in SharkDiver Mag - First photograph taken by a Tiger Shark!

Why Sharkdiver :-) what about a small pre-announcement on wetpixel?
I'd also love to copy that plug onto digideep.com news. It would fit in
smoothly with our April LCD mask!

Better not,... otherwise we will be completely degraded to a gossip online magazine LOL

[james]

The "digideep/drudge report" Our motto: "We are mostly right."

[echeng]

I'm waiting for more details from Jimmy.

Once again, I don't believe that it was an April Fool's joke. Jimmy was too excited for it not to have happened.

[yahsemtough]

I would have to concur with Eric. If that was Jimmy's response then knowing him it would not be embelished.

[NitroLiq]

I take it the housing passed the (jaws) pressure test?

[jimabernethy]

Hello everyone,
I just thought I would clear things up about the tiger shark taking a photo. It is true! One of our regular tiger sharks at tiger beach by the name of "Spot" (Because of a white spot on his dorsal fin) approached professional photographer Manu San Felix from Spain like he has on many times before during the previous two weeks, usually just bumping people in as a friendly kind of way. But this time he opened his mouth wide and took the housed Nikon D-100 with two strobes in his mouth and proceded to swim around with it for about one minute. During this time he moved it around in his mouth and took a perfectly exposed and level image of our tiger shark spot called tiger beach, which is ten feet deep. I was watching this all with my crew from the boat, as the strobes fired. :shock: The water was crystal clear. In the image taken by "Spot" you can see the surface as well as the bottom with some turtle grass, perfectly exposed. There were 7 other tiger sharks in the close vicinity as well as a handful of lemons and bull sharks. The ten divers from Spain that were in the water watching, immediately stampeded for the boat and got out of the water, never to return at that site. I went in to retrieve the victim (Camera) which was not flooded, but the dome is now a total loss due to all the teeth marks. There were also deep scratches in the aluminum housing. Needless to say only the crew did the night dive there that evening. Manu did get back in the water the following morning to enjoy some more time with the tigers.
Although many believe sharks to be dumb eating machines, it is nice to reflect espiacially on this forum how "Spot" did choose to go digital for his first camera. :shock:

[jimabernethy]

I forgot to mention that Eli from Shark Diver Magazine has already requested that the story be published in his magazine in one of the future issues for those of you that want to see it for yourself. Those of you on Eric's trip with us, please bring extra cameras so we can try to see if "Spot" is interested in improving his photography skills. HA HA!

[yahsemtough]

It was probably the smell of the Nikon that attracted him.

Canon divers should be perfectly safe.LOL