You thing that immediately strikes everyone is when they see sharks in the same frame as snowcapped mountains. There just isn’t any other shark out there when you can capture a dorsal fin and mountainous white landscape. But this image gives the viewer instant knowledge as to the temperature that these sharks inhabit. Heck even humans could only stand to be in these waters for a few minutes before losing consciences. Salmon Sharks can often be found circling at the surface. But these sharks relish in the top water column at the surface. What are they doing you might ask? Sleeping or perhaps resting before going on the hunt. It is my belief that sharks swimming at the surface are taking advantage of the warm water difference from the surface to the colder temps that start only 12” below. The water is very deceiving at the surface. You can stick your hand in and think, wow, this isn’t half bad. But stick your whole body in and its quickly a different story.
Even seeing shark’s dorsal fins break the surface is not something normally seen be sharks, with just a handful of species doing this. The most famous being the White (Great White) shark. It’s amazing just how much is going on with that dorsal sticking up in the air, cleaving the water. I’ve seen temps change or wind direction change and watch fins drop down just out of sight all in succession.
These sharks also seem to cluster at times while on the surface. There was a time before starting this dive venture that I fished for a few sharks. During that time, I learned that for every shark you saw on the surface, there were 3-4 below. And when I mean below, I mean 400-500 below. Although that was before the shark culling that happened here in the state. I don’t necessarily think that is the case now.
Another interesting characteristic is salmon shark breaching. Again, before the shark culling that happened between 2007-2010 we use to see sharks breach on a daily occurrence. Sadly, with numbers greatly declined, we don’t see that any more. I attribute that simply to a larger population of sharks and competition for a food source. Now with a smaller population, these sharks catch food as they please during the salmon migration. I will say, when they did breach it was something epic for sure.