Somewhere, off the coast of South Africa, a privately chartered vessel cut through the ocean. It had taken them months of work, trying to cut through the bureaucratic red tape in order to get their permits, but the crew had persevered. Finally, after all of their hard work, they would be able to dive into the waters of the South Atlantic and (hopefully) document the never-before-seen mating rituals of great white sharks.
"So," said Dr. Jeremy Williams, ichthyologist and head of the current expedition, asked the captain, "Are you certain that this was the spot where you had seen the sharks congregating?"
"Absolutely," the captain said, "I've been at sea my whole life, and seen things that even a man of science like you wouldn't believe."
"I wouldn't be so sure of that," the professor responded, "I've learned to be very open minded. There is more out there in the ocean than mankind could ever hope to fully document. You know, we still know very little about sharks even today."
"Maybe that's because they don't want you to know," the captain replied, laughing just a little.
"Could be," Dr. Williams chuckled, "You never know..."
Eventually, small ship reached it location, stopping at the seemingly random coordinates that the captain had marked. He dropped anchor and swore that this was the site where had seen the great whites congregating en masse around this same time last year. Dr. Williams had suggested that it might have been a feeding frenzy of some type, but the captain had brushed it off. There seemed to be nothing in the water to draw them in; perhaps it truly was part of the great white's mating ritual. Either way, Dr. Williams intended to find out.
Going up on the deck, he looked around and tried to take in his bearings. Nothing but open ocean stretched out as far as the eye could see in either direction. They were quite literally in the middle of nowhere. The sun had just peaked over the horizon and was beginning its descent, so they didn't have a lot of time to work with before nightfall. Still, Dr. Williams at least hoped that he could make a cursory dive and check it out. It never hurt to look.
Dr. Williams told the captain that he was going to take a dive for about an hour or so, just to see what was down there. He then quickly slipped out of his khakis and into a wetsuit. He'd done this so many times before that it was almost natural. He unloaded his equipment, checked the oxygen supply in his tank, and then satisfied that he was good to go, he suited up. Once he was complete, he turned around to the captain, gave him the thumbs up, and then jumped overboard into the warm waters of the southern Atlantic.
There was a loud slapping noise as he hit the water, followed by a splash, and then an all too eerie silence. It didn't matter how many times he did dives. The underwater world always seemed so surreal and hauntingly beautiful.
Unfortunately, there was also relatively low visibility, as precious little sunlight penetrates into the depths after a certain point. As far around as he could see, there was nothing but a seemingly infinite stretch of blue-green waves, broken only by the occasional silvery glitter spark of a passing fish darting by out of the corner of his eyes. Unfazed by this, Dr. Williams continued to swim, exploring the vast empty spaces of the open ocean and hoping that he would find something of interest down here in the depths.
He knew that he had to be careful, not only because of the possibility of sharks, but also because of the chance he could move too far from his boat and become lost or disoriented. Dr. Williams was far less concerned with the possibility of shark attacks. He was absolutely fascinated by sharks, in fact, he loved them. That was his whole reason for becoming a marine biologist, after all. In fact, Dr. Williams was even one of the rare few scientists who would do free dives amongst wild sharks without the precaution of a shark cage. He quickly found that he could collect better footage of them that way, and it was what had attracted the TV shows to him in the first place. If only he could collect footage of great white mating rituals... he would become one of the most famous scientists of the 21st century!
Dr. Williams cautiously explored the depths, searching for anything that could tell him about this stretch of the ocean. Being so vast, some parts of the open ocean are nearly devoid of large species altogether. One could swim for hours without seeing anything much larger than a minnow. Dr. Williams, however, held out hope that he would run into something larger... a sea turtle, tuna or just about anything. Anything that would potentially be prey items for larger pelagic shark species...
Checking his oxygen supply, Dr. Williams saw that he still had plenty of time. He glanced back over towards the surface, making certain that the boat was still above him, and then proceeded to dive even deeper into the murky depths of the sea. He slowly descended, hoping that perhaps there would be something more interesting there. Being miles away from shore, the bottom had dropped off considerably. Instead, there was simply more open ocean beneath him. It stretched out for as far as the eye could see.
However, that's when Dr. Williams caught a tantalizing sight just out of the corner of his eyes. Movement! And something fairly large too! Perhaps it was even a shark, though it seemed to be moving surprisingly fast. Dr. Williams was excited by this possibility anyway, and began to swim in the direction of whatever sea creature he had just seen.
Unfortunately, by the time that Dr. Williams managed to swim over towards it general direction, whatever it was had vanished. He turned around, straining his eyes to peer through the murk, but nothing. Almost completely motionless, he waited, until finally he saw it once again dart from the corner of his eyes. So he wasn't imagining this! Dr. Williams turned back around and swam towards the creature, hoping just a little that perhaps his movements would grab its attention.
They did...
The creature, whatever it was, made a sharp turn and then darted over him. It was going too fast to follow. Dr. Williams really didn't want to give up, but he didn't have much of a choice either. This creature was just too damned fast for him, and it didn't want to be near him. Just as he was about to give up hope, he turned around, and was face to face with the creature. Only it wasn't quite what he was expecting... He almost jumped at the sight of it, in fact.