This is a shot of one of Isla de Guadalupe's more consistent visitors over the last several years. Mau is a male great white shark named after shark researcher Dr. Mauricio Hoyos.

While I've seen Mau on many trips to Guadalupe, he's not the easiest individual to photograph, due to the fact that he doesn't tend to stay around very long and generally moves at fairly fast pace.

Fortunately, Mau was curious enough to come the submersible cage that I was in a few weeks ago. While the lighting wasn't ideal, I was thankful to get a shot of Mau from this angle. Typically, he's swimming away by the time I get a shot lined up on him.

Tags:   underwater shark Great White Shark blue ocean Pacific Baja Mexico Isla de Guadalupe tiburon blanco Weißer Hai grand requin blanc outdoor wildlife

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A left side profile a female great white shark. This individual was new to the island this year, at least in terms of having been documented as part of the photo identification project there. The photo identification project was started in 2001 by researchers and has identified over 200 individual white sharks at Isla de Guadalupe since it started. Several new sharks were identified in 2016, which is hopefully a good sign for the health of the white shark population there.

Tags:   Great White Shark shark black and white profile underwater tiburon blanco

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A female great white shark turns as if to smile at the camera. This particular individual had not been documented at Guadalupe (per the photo identification project there) prior to this year.

Unfortunately, she had a fishing hook stuck in her caudal peduncle (where the tail meets the body) and was pulling a leader and length of fishing line behind her that was about equal to her body length. The leader is virtually invisible, but you can see a bit of the line on the right side of the frame.

Tags:   Great White Shark grand requin blanc tiburon blanco Weißer Hai shark water fish underwater blue smile diving ocean Mexico Baja Pacific outdoor wildlife

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Yellowfin tuna flank a female great white shark off the coast of Mexico's Isla de Guadalupe. While the tuna are a preferred prey item of the shark, their speed and maneuverability allow them to keep a safe distance from their predator. The sharks have to rely on stealth in order to ambush attach the speedy prey.

While it's not uncommon to see yellowfin tuna at Guadalupe, they seem far more abundant around the island in the past couple of years. I'm not sure it's a result of El Nino effects or not, but I definitely saw noticeably more tuna around the sharks than usual on this trip.

Tags:   yellowfin tuna Great White Shark blue predator prey wildlife underwater outdoor fish water ocean Baja diving shark white pointer tiburon blanco Weißer Hai

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A curious female great white shark turns directly toward the camera. Those of you with keen eyes might also spot a second shark in the background.

Tags:   underwater great white shark ocean photobomber wildlife

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