The Shark Whisperer

Every time I prep for a dive, I mentally rehearse every aspect of my dive plan, from the splash to the decompression. I do this several times to remove any uncertainty and to insure that my responses in difficult situations are as close to habitual instinct as I can get them. The same is very true for a video or photo shoot. I formulate a list of shots that I want to get, and I always prepare a planned method of obtaining them.

When shooting wildlife, typically the goal is to capture the behavior of the creature in an activity that is rarely seen and ideally exhibits an intrinsic or natural beauty. Conversely, when a need arises to "pose" a creature for a picture, the standard solution is to hire an animal trainer or wrangler who specializes in the species you seek to capture on film. So, when Gates Underwater Products specified that for their print advertising they wanted a shark going nose-to-nose with a diver pointing a Gates housing into its face, my first thought was, "Why not use Sand Tiger sharks? They look menacing!

My second thought was, "I have more access to Sand Tiger sharks than Sand Tiger shark wranglers," so I set out to see for myself if I could teach the sharks to pose for a photographer. After all, it's not like I'd be asking them to jump through hoops or anything! Admittedly, some have called me crazy for thinking I could do this, but after having spent countless hours in the water with these marvelous creatures, I intuitively sensed I could get them to work with me.My first order of business was to see if I could actually train a few sharks. Now, to say I was intending to train them is a bit of a stretch. I was more focused on desensitizing them to my presence, and getting them comfortable in accepting my "head-on" approach. You see, most sharks are very wary of humans. In fact, they are natural skeptics, cowards, and panic-aholics!

Sand Sharks school overhead as David Ulloa tries to persuade another shark to get up close and personal. (Will Allen)

They are also born with lightning-fast responses primarily centered on awesome acceleration and a supernatural ability to achieve high speed. Most often, these attributes are used to escape rather than to attack. Despite being categorized as predators, in general I have found that sharks are very much cautious opportunists and will always look for the "easy meal" first. Even the Great White shark, when going after the easy meal, will close its lids to protect its delicate eyes from damage that might come from a panicked seal or thrashing fish. (Can you imagine how messy and clumsy humans would be if we ate like that?)One other quick note about sharks: they are naturally curious, and it is often this curiosity which gets sharks into trouble with us when we confuse it with aggression. My plan was to work with the Sand Tigers' natural instincts and behavioral traits to accomplish the goal of getting nose-to-nose. One other thing worth mentioning here is that by nature, sharks interpret "nose-to-nose" as an aggressive posture. Knowing this going in, I did not take the work cut out for me nonchalantly. My first challenge would be to see if I could desensitize a Sand Tiger shark to the point where it would allow me into that delicate zone around its face.

In June 2007, I was scheduled to be on North Carolina's Outer Banks supervising the underwater video production of an expedition to the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor. I arrived in Hatteras a week early to do my work up and gear check out dives aboard the O.C. Diver with Capt. Ted Green and Dan Crowell. On this series of work up dives I planned to spend every possible moment with as many Sand Tigers as I could locate. With the huge number of Sand Tigers that frequent the shoals of the Outer Banks, I knew that finding them would be easy. My uncertainty rested with the training desensitization.

David Ulloa uses his experience of working with large animals, such as horses, to try to assimilate into the school of sharks. (Will Allen)

On the first dive, I located a small pack of ten adult females followed by several of their young. However, whenever I approached to get close-up shots, they moved away or swam right past me. In searching for ways to build their confidence and trust in me, I called on my abilities and background in horse training. You see, horses are also born skeptics, cowards and panic-aholics! By nature horses, too, are flight animals with fantastic speed. I wondered as I yet again swam toward the pack of sharks, "Would the equine method of approach and retreat allow me to build rapport with them?" I suspected the answer was yes, and I was about to find out.It didn't take long before I discovered that only two of the large females were interested in playing that game with me. The others quickly dispersed (except for the young who were so curious they never left me alone.) By using approach and retreat techniques, the two remaining adults allowed me to get closer and closer. It worked so well, in fact, that I was actually scooting alongside and stroking them.

This was still a long way from nose-to-nose, but I felt assured that I could use my calming horsemanship methods to achieve my ultimate goal.And that's just what happened on subsequent dives. I was repeatedly able to get nose-to-nose with these breathtaking creatures in almost no time at all! The next step was to introduce the Gates housing and a photographer.It's long been a joke of underwater photographers that the best form of shark repellant is the camera lens - and now my ambition was to not only take two cameras with me, but to point both of them at a shark!Fast forward to August 2007. I'd wrapped production on my new documentary about the USS Monitor expedition, and I'd completed shoots on the USS Oriskany and the USS Murphy for the final episodes of "Quest For Sunken Warships." I was ready for something easy and relaxing.

Photographer Will Allen worked with David Ulloa to capture the moment when David was nose-to-nose with the sand shark.

So, good friend and award-winning shark photographer Will Allen and I met in Hatteras Village where we planned to set out with our small support crew aboard the Flying Fish with Captain John Pieno to get the "nose-to-nose" shot we were after. With the end of tourist season in late August, Hatteras Island is like a ghost town, quiet and peaceful, a perfect place to unwind. Weather was playing touch-and-go with us though, and as I looked out over the ocean, I hoped we'd get our chance to make this happen.The next day, we got a break and headed out on our first of three scheduled dives. The plan: for me to splash first and go to work with several of the sharks.

After 30 minutes, Will was to join me and together we'd work with the sharks to get the shot. As I descended down into the maze of sharks surrounding the Proteus' bow, all was going as planned except one thing: there were literally dozens of sharks in the field. There were so many, in fact, that I was forced to weave my way through and around the curious youngsters to get to my target -- the older more cautious females. Furthermore, there were so many females that I couldn't keep track of which ones I had already worked with and who I was just meeting for the first time!

David Ulloa, aka Shark Whisperer, gets into position to pose for the money shot. Will Allen, the photographer, captured the final image that was used in the Gates ad. (Will Allen)

I finally zeroed in on three of the larger females who tended to not flee as far as the others. Trouble was, when they did swim away, I found myself having to wait up to 10 minutes before they returned. At 120 feet deep, even on a rebreather, I did not have that kind of time. The alternative was to weave my way over, under and around other sharks to find them. At one point while I was doing just that, I signaled over to Will with a wave of my hand and spooked the shark just below me. The cascading chain reaction of fleeing sharks sounded like fireworks going off all around us, and in a flash Will and I were left sitting alone in the sand.Our persistence and quiet methods paid off however, and in the end, we got the shot. My equine techniques worked masterfully, and Will did an incredible job capturing the ultimate nose-to-nose moment.

John and Pam at Gates Underwater were very excited and pleased with their new advertisement. As for me, I was so impressed with how well the equine technique worked that I plan to recreate the photo shoot and produce a documentary about the steps I employed to desensitize the sharks.

David Ulloa goes nose to nose with a sand shark in an advertisement for Gates Camera Housings. (Will Allen)

Overall, the experience was fantastic and magical; best of all, it went even better than I had planned, due in no small part to my surface support crew, the boat crew, Capt. John and his wife Amy who runs the Outer Banks Dive Center.

I always marvel in wonderment at the beauty of the shark, and can't wait to get back in the waters of the Outer Banks and play with my newfound aquatic friends. I hope that after reading this, all of you will look at sharks with a bit more fascination. And, the next time you see a shark underwater, keep in mind in most cases it's likely to be the first time that shark has seen a human, so please represent our race well.

All the best!!

~ David