Neil Hammerschlag’s first dive with sharks was at the age of 16, during a family vacation in the Bahamas. This dive consumed his thoughts for the entire holiday and turned out to be more than just a one-time experience.
In a dive shop, an advertisement for shark watching caught Hammerschlag’s eye, setting the direction for his future career: studying shark behavior and delving into the peculiar reasons why great white sharks now breed in abundance near the coast of Nova Scotia.
The journey eventually led to his camera being bitten by a great white shark – and he has the footage to prove it.
But when reminiscing about his first diving experience, he described it as magical and completely unexpected.
“I thought I would see sharks swimming in the distance near the reefs,” said the 45-year-old Hammerschlag in an interview with The Epoch Times, “but as soon as I went underwater, I was surrounded by sharks swirling and gathering below. There were at least 25, and I instantly felt a sense of panic.”
He tugged at his dive guide’s fins, but the guide reassured him that “everything was fine.”
These sharks turned out to be tiger sharks, each about nine feet long, with no interest in humans as their target was the bait being periodically dropped. Hammerschlag noted that they were curious but not aggressive.
The dive group, almost like a dream, knelt on the dappled seafloor watching these snake-like sharks circling above and around them for a full 40 minutes, truly awe-inspiring.
“That was a ‘wow’ moment,” he said, even though at that time, he “hadn’t thought of making it a profession.”
Hammerschlag moved from South Africa to Toronto at the age of 7 and later pursued marine biology, earning a Ph.D. and conducting research on sharks at the University of Miami for 13 years. He now owns a shark tour company in Nova Scotia called “Atlantic Shark Expeditions,” where visitors can cage dive with the massive great white sharks.
For his group of non-professional clients, using a cage is a standard safety measure, as he explained, “Sharks cannot see the people inside the cage, they only see the outline of the cage.” This is crucial as “great white sharks are among the few that eat mammals, and mammals look similar to us. They would eat something like a seal.”
The cage also protects the sharks from harm. “It restrains people,” he said, preventing them from “grabbing the shark’s fin or reaching their hand towards the shark’s mouth.”
Once accidentally glimpsing inside the mouth of a great white shark, Hammerschlag found a precious insight. He was trailing a camera equipped with bait behind the boat when a huge shark mistook the shiny gear for fish scales and bit down. The video he recorded showed a close-up of the teeth and gills.
Years ago, Hammerschlag frequently dove to install or retrieve underwater transmitters, studying shark reactions to hurricanes or whether they would avoid cities. While also engaging in cage dives and shark tagging, it was all part of his research. For fun, he would free dive and swim with sharks.
However, he began to notice strange new data about the global population of great white sharks. In one region near Cape Town, South Africa, great white sharks had nearly disappeared, while an unprecedented surge occurred along the Atlantic coast of Canada.
To some extent, he was particularly concerned about the plight of South African sharks, having conducted his master’s research on great white sharks near Cape Town. “The great white sharks in South Africa have indeed disappeared,” Hammerschlag noted.
But in Nova Scotia, the situation was entirely different. Great white sharks were once nearly non-existent there. “If someone said they saw a great white shark here ten years ago, nobody would have believed it,” he said, “but now they are frequently seen.”
So in 2020, while still conducting shark research in Miami, a new mission called him back to Canada. The mysterious surge of sharks prompted him to return, saying, “Florida during the pandemic got a bit weird. I just wanted to do something different, you know?”
Upon returning to Canada, he lacked funds to start new research in Nova Scotia. Recalling his days selling boat tickets to tourists to fund his sea adventures while studying for his master’s at age 23 in Cape Town, he attempted a similar business model for “Atlantic Shark Expeditions” in 2022.
Although current data is insufficient to draw definitive conclusions, he speculated that the surge in great white sharks might be related to an increase in seal populations, providing extra food in the oceans. Hammerschlag also suggested that climate change could be a factor.
He highlighted the global decline in shark populations due to overfishing, particularly citing the infamous shark fin trade as a major culprit. He hopes his expeditions will inspire people to become advocates for sharks.
Today, Hammerschlag still finds time for recreational diving. He harbors a particular fondness for tiger sharks, admiring their large, brown eyes. He has developed a connection with this species that he has studied the most.
In the Bahamas in 2022, on “Tiger Beach,” he nearly collided with the mouths of two tiger sharks. Underwater with bait, he became the center of attention for the sharks. Two 15-foot tiger sharks followed the scent and nearly bumped into him.
“Sometimes they touch objects with their mouths to figure out what it is,” he said.
He gently directed the sharks by pressing on their large noses, guiding them away to search for food elsewhere. “I just told them, I am not someone you want to mess with,” he said.
Despite hundreds of dives over 34 years, Hammerschlag claimed he has never been bitten by a shark. Once, the largest incident was unintentionally injuring himself while tagging a young tiger shark on a boat. Taking a misjudged plunge into the water to observe the shark swimming away, he got injured.
“It was a bit confused at that moment, swimming towards me with its mouth open, and I pushed its head away,” he recalled, “but during the push, one of its teeth grazed my finger, cutting it to the bone and requiring 16 stitches.”
The diver, however, holds no grudge. “After all, I put some stress on it.”
The original article, “Nova Scotia Diver Swims With Sharks, Captures Footage Inside Jaws of Great White—Here’s The Video,” was published on the English version of The Epoch Times website.