The divemaster gave the usual pre-dive briefing about this beautiful
Catalina dive spot and added one more thing - soupfin sharks have
been spotted here. I always thought that soupfin shark was a word
used for a broad description of various sharks used in making "shark
fin soup." So when we entered the water, I had no clue what to look
for. I didn't know if they were 10 feet long or 2 feet long. Most
importantly, I didn't know if they had teeth or not.
Dale and I dropped down into the kelp and settled on the reef at about 35 feet. We headed in the direction that the sharks were last seen. The kelp was extremely thick and showed no signs that El Niño ever existed. Within two minutes Dale turned to me and gestured to his right that there was a shark. I moved around him and saw a large fin moving toward us but still behind kelp fronds. As the shark cleared the kelp and cruised within three feet of us, I was startled, almost a little scared. My first thought was, "What was a blue shark doing cruising the kelp?" Your mind does not always process information correctly or quickly. Within a split second the shark flicked its fin and off it went. I could hear Dale laughing at me.
I turned to him and gestured the question, "Was that a soupfin?" (the gesture was of me pushing a spoon through a bowl of soup and bringing it to my mouth). He nodded yes. My next question was, "Will it eat me?" Now I know I heard him laugh. He answered no just as another cruised within eyesight.
This was a very large shark, at least six feet in length. The color was bluish gray with a lighter, almost white underbelly. The eyes looked just like those of a blue shark, hence my error at the first sighting. Armed with the knowledge that I would not be eaten, off I went. I followed the shark through the kelp, pausing only to make sure I didn't get tangled.
I abruptly dropped into a clearing in the kelp and found myself surrounded by five of these beautiful creatures. It was like something out of a movie. Here I was surrounded by these sharks, just circling me and, of course, I was alone without a camera (much unlike me, I had outswam Dale). The sharks were all large, over five feet in length. It seemed like forever as I watched them swim so effortlessly, but in reality it must have only been a few seconds for my presence scared them off.
They moved very quickly in unison out of the clearing and back into the kelp, almost single file. It wasn't until after the dive that we were able to compare notes and I found out that the quick retreat of the sharks sent them head first into Dale. He described it like a cartoon with them shooting out of the kelp straight at his head and then veering off at the last second.
Judging from their size and from what I learned once back at the office, these were probably females. The females tend to be a little larger and are found in shallower waters. Nursery areas are known to be in shallow sheltered bays, south of Point Conception. Though males can be found in deep waters they, too, tend to remain shallower. Soupfins have been described as benthic (bottom dweller) blue sharks (blue sharks are pelagic, or open water dwelling). So I shouldn't have been laughed at too much in mistaking them for blues at first.
It is during the warm water months of July, August, and September that they move into shallow water kelp forests for reasons not entirely understood. It is speculated that the females could be nursing their young within their bodies. To the best of anyone's recollection, last year is the first time these beauties have been spotted and dived with at Catalina Island.
Though they typically don't pose a threat to humans, they do have teeth. They are known to feed on squid, sardines, and anchovies, as well as flat fish like sand-dabs and halibut.
We occasionally caught sight of them throughout the dive, though found that they were sighted more frequently if we settled into one spot and waited for them to cruise by. I never saw one less than five feet in length and they probably weighed about 100 pounds. Dale said he saw one that was seven feet long. These are very sleek, muscular fish.
I hope to dive with them again, though they may move to a different cove. The dive boats in Southern California have great crews and keep abreast of all the information on where to find unusual things. Captain Bob Kennedy put the King Neptune right over the soupfins. I don't know who had the bigger grin - the divers coming out of the water after seeing the sharks or Bob Kennedy listening to the divers talk about the soupfins they just saw.
Return to Cover Page/Contents for September 2000 issue