The History of Swimming with Sharks – And Why it Matters

While cage-free diving with sharks is a fast-growing industry, with many saying it’s a must to experience in aggregation zones all over the world, it’s a new concept—considering cage diving hadn’t even been attempted until the 1960s. 

Ron and Valerie Taylor, Alf Dean, and Rodney Fox are credited by scubaverse.com as the first to attempt a cage dive around Dangerous Reef and other places along the South Australian Spencer Gulf. 

The idea came from a great white shark attack, reports adventure.com. As Fox was competing to keep his title as South Australian Spear Fishing Champion in 1964, he became the first recorded white shark victim to live to tell the tale. 

“I thought I’d been hit by a train,” Fox writes in his book, Sharks, the Sea, and Me. “My chest was clamped, like in a vice. I was a bone in a dog’s mouth.” 

southaustralia.com

A year later, Fox had the idea: what if people could pay to see white sharks from a cage the same way they would lions and tigers in a zoo? In starting this journey, he also became the first to film great whites underwater, which earned him the job of filming footage used in the 1975 film Jaws. 

“At this time, we had no idea that this movie would give the shark such a bad image,” he said.
In the late 70s, Fox started the first-ever shark cage tours open to the public. 

A decade later, cage diving was practiced sporadically around South Africa’s Struis and False bays, which eventually launched a prominent and competitive touring industry there. 

The first crew to attempt the dive without a cage did so for the National Geographic documentary Blue Wilderness in 1992 off Gansbaai, South Africa. Over a period of six hours, four scuba divers made the plunge among at least seven great whites without the protection of bars. Among these divers were Ron and Valerie Taylor, two of the first cage divers in history. Each of these divers took from this experience, if they didn’t already know, that white sharks had been mischaracterized by media and weren’t as dangerous as they seemed. 

Juan Oliphant and Ocean Ramsey had been diving cage free on their own through the early 2000s, getting to know the sharks off O‘ahu’s North Shore. In 2014, they launched One Ocean Diving, the first educational cage free snorkel program in the United States. 

It was a different climate back then, Ramsey writes in her book, What You Should Know About Sharks. In the early days, it was difficult to get people to want to join them outside of a cage with sharks. 

“When I was growing up, sharks were regularly portrayed as monsters (as sometimes they still are), but it was shocking and very unpopular at the time to hear anyone saying otherwise,” she writes. “There were very few people on the planet purposefully diving with them, especially white sharks.”

Today it’s a different story. People travel from all over the world to experience what the divers at One Ocean do. 

Untwining the narrative that sharks are dangerous and should be killed is valuable not just for the ecotourism industry but for the health of our oceans, Ramsey writes in her book My Shark Teachers.

“If I hadn’t learned from sharks that I can coexist and that I can share a different perspective for them, then we wouldn’t have been able to gain so many supporters that resulted in getting the law passed in Hawaii to legally fully protect sharks,” she writes. “Recently we were also able to be part of getting over 1.3 million votes, within a short period of time, to require parliament to consider banding shark finning in European Union.” 

Like all apex predators in their respective environments, sharks have a keystone role in the ocean. By preventing prey fish from populations from proliferating, they maintain reef health. This benefits not only marine animals but land animals too. 

Cage-free shark diving, with proper education and safety protocol, is not only safe, but it’s even saving lives—the lives of sharks. In this way, it creates a path for healthier oceans. 




What Sharks Do We See?

Did you know there are 40 species of sharks found around the Hawaiian islands?

You have the chance to see so many different species of sharks when you come on a dive with us! This could include Galapagos, Sandbar, Tiger, Oceanic Whitetip, Oceanic Blacktip, Blue, Silky, Whale, or even a Great White! We haven’t seen a Great White since 2005, so we’re always on the lookout for another one. Whale sharks are more commonly seen on the west side of the island due to the very deep water. The most commonly seen sharks we get are Galapagos and Sandbar. Galapagos sharks average 6-12 feet in length and have distinct countershading. This means they are dark on the top half of their body (dorsal side) and lighter on the bottom half (ventral side). Sandbars average 4-6 feet in length and are a tannish color with white tips on their pectoral fins. We also get Tiger sharks fairly often, even when it isn’t Tiger shark season! Tiger sharks average 10-14 feet and have dark stripes running down the sides of their bodies. Recently, we’ve had an Oceanic Blacktip hanging around during our dives as well! Blacktips average around 6-8 feet and are bronze in color.

If you want the chance to see different species of sharks in their natural habitat, book a dive with us at oneoceandiving.com.

Meet Kevin, the barracuda we see often as any shark

Photo by Tyler Flott @beach_ty

Hawai‘i hosts two species of barracuda: the great barracuda or kaku (Sphyraena barracuda) and Heller’s barracuda or kawelea (Sphyraena helleri). Kaku can grow to about six feet long and 100 pounds. Kawelea are active at night, forming schools near the reef during the day. This smaller species grows to about two feet long.

According to a 1997 entry of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s Ocean Watch column by Susan Scott, Barracuda eat both large and small fish, striking with lightning bursts of speed. Unlike some fish predators, barracuda can’t expand their mouths to swallow large fish whole. To eat big prey, barracuda slash them to pieces with remarkably sharp teeth. A large barracuda can cut a mature parrotfish in two pieces with a single bite.

“The one time I did see a barracuda catch a fish, it happened with such swiftness that I couldn’t make out any of the details,” Scott writes. “A little fish was there; the barracuda jerked; the little fish was gone.” 

A kaku has frequented the One Ocean dive site for over a decade so, like many sharks we have come to know, he has been given a name—fondly referred to by guests and captains as Kevin. Over the years, Kevin has become a fan favorite, rivaling even some of our famous sharks. Each time Kevin is mentioned on social media, guests’ comments reminisce on times they saw the barracuda among a school of Galapagos or sandbar sharks. 


According to the Star-Advertiser, kaku are active during the day and camouflage to catch fish. Juvenile kaku typically shelter in reefs and harbors. While adults are sometimes spotted in these types of places as well, they head offshore to hunt in the open ocean when they grow too big to fit. 

Barracuda, like sharks, can appear menacing to the inexperienced. Should the average diver be afraid of barracuda? 

“Like sharks, the answer is usually no,” Scott writes. “Of the twenty-two barracuda species found throughout the world, the great barracuda is the only one known to attack humans. The risk of being bitten by this fish, however, appears extremely low.”

Between 1873 and 1963, there have been only nineteen confirmed cases of barracuda attacks globally, the column reports. Four of these took place in Hawai‘i.

Also like sharks, most theorize that barracuda attacks only occur by mistake. Barracuda may view the flash of jewelry or camera equipment as a silvery fish. In most cases, barracuda keep their distance from people. 

Kevin is no exception. While he is sometimes affectionately called a grump from his demeanor and lack of playfulness, he tends to linger on his own among the sharks and people. 

Photo by Tyler Flott @beach_ty

Kevin was named after One Ocean’s Captain Kevin Chadick some fifteen years ago, so unfortunately the story behind it has been lost to lore. While this timeframe makes up the whole of a barracuda’s lifespan, it’s possible “Kevin” is multi-generational, or (at the risk of spoiling a Santa Claus-esque myth) perhaps even a moniker of any kaku who hangs out in our waters. 

Photo by Tyler Flott @beach_ty

Whatever the case, if you happen to see a lone barracuda among the flurry of sharks at our dive site, make sure and give a warm aloha.