Here we see 'Jimmy' the diver get more than he bargained for during his encounter with great white sharks. He was in a clear, Plexiglass cage at the surface and has attracted the attention of several sharks. They are swimming up from the depths and butting the cage with their snouts.
Suddenly, a large shark (around 16 feet in length) launches at the cage and breaks it in half leaving Jimmy completely exposed. In the clip below, we get to see how he somehow survived to tell the tale.
These sharks had clearly found out that Jimmy was in the water. How did they do that?
Great white sharks have excellent hearing. Sound travels faster and farther underwater than they do in air. So from a distance, the sharks will have heard the disturbance that Jimmy made moving around in the water.
They also have excellent smell. Their two nostrils (nares) are not connected to their throat. Water enters one side of the nostril, goes through a nasal sac, and out of the other side. Inside the sac are highly sensitive olfactory receptors allowing sharks to detect animals several hundred yards away.
Added to this is the lateral line system (that detects water movement) and its ability to detect electric fields.
A shark expert from the Shark Research Committee explains that this great white was showing normal behavior. The big fish gave a number of warning signs. In the beginning, it is very cautious and swims around assessing the situation. Then, as it becomes bolder, it bumps the box. This is one of the ways in which they explore new objects.
Also, sharks will aggressively go after things that they perceive to be a threat. The ramming action was the shark's way of driving the threat away.
There is a misconception that when a shark attacks a human it is predatory. Actually, experts now suspect that some attacks are exploratory or displacement attacks because they are defending their territory. Jimmy describes it as a day that will stay with him for the rest of his life.
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