Ever since Jaws hit theatres back in 1975, we’ve had a collective fascination and fear of sharks.
It’s hard to think of another animal that inspires a reaction quite like a shark, and perhaps its the fact that they lurk in the unknown of the deep water that makes them so intriguing.
If you’ve ever been away to somewhere like Australia, you’ve probably spotted the signs at the beach warning of nearby sharks and perhaps you wondered what it would be like to see them in their natural habit and not just in an aquarium.
Well, you can, in a way. It’s not like swimming with dolphins and you don’t have to rely on the good nature of the friendly old sharks. Instead you are submerged into the water in a cage, where you can observe from a distance like some sort of reverse zoo.
While it is apparently perfectly safe, the last week hasn’t exactly been a stellar one for the “shark cage” industry. First we brought you the story of a great white making its way into a cage with a diver inside.
And now footage has emerged of another incident of a similar situation happening – this time with four people trapped inside the cage.
It starts when the shark bites the air supply hose feeding oxygen to the four divers. As the dive master swims up to switch to an alternate supply, the shark enters through the top of the cage.
Photographer Peter Maguire, who captured the footage, explains how the four divers escaped without harm:
‘The cage is raised and the divers have to exit next to the shark. The captain and crew decide to tie a rope around the sharks tail and lower the cage, essentially holding the shark in place and popping the shark out! The shark swims away. Luckily no one was hurt, including the shark. If it wasn’t for the training and quick thinking of the crew, this could have ended a lot differently.’
One of the divers inside the cage at the time, Katie Yonker, was able to record footage from her view of things, which gives an idea of how terrifying it must have been.
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