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The Inertia

Back in 2016, something pretty horrifying happened. It occurred on a shark cage diving trip to Guadalupe Island, a place famous for its sharks. A diver was in the cage, watching in rapt fascination as a great white lunged at chunks of bait thrown out on ropes by the crew. Suddenly, the shark rammed the cage — likely by accident — and broke a rail. Unable to swim backward and temporarily blinded from the lunge, the shark panicked and, with a powerful thrust of its tail, pushed itself inside the cage.

The diver inside the cage crammed himself down on the bottom, as far down from the thrashing shark as he could get. “The diver is a very experienced dive instructor,” reads the description under the video, which appears on the Gabe and Garrett YouTube channel that boasts nearly two million subscribers. “[He] remained calm, and when the shark thrashed back outside the cage, the diver calmly swam back up and climbed out completely uninjured.”

While the guests on the boat seemed to be unaware that a diver was in the cage, the crew certainly knew and were forced to look on in horror as the shark forced its way out. According to Gabe and Garrett, the shark had a few minor injuries but it was confirmed they were not life threatening.

Learn how to minimize chances of an adverse shark encounter as well as critical information about shark behavior, shark personalities, shark language, what to do in the unlikely event a shark bites you, and more in 20-plus video lessons in Ocean Ramsey’s Guide to Sharks and Safety.

 
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