Swimming in an Uncertain Sea

The underwater filmmaker Ron Elliott describes what he’s learned from his encounters with sharks near the Farallon Islands.

By Bonnie Tsui

Sept. 29, 2021

"In the muffled quiet, a steady inhale-exhale. A shadow, then a flash of silver. Then the elusive subject of fascination makes its silent, gliding approach, emerging in full: the great white shark.

When the underwater filmmaker Ron Elliott dives beneath the surface, this suspended moment of magic is what he’s after.

I first met Ron more than a decade ago, several years after he had begun documenting the undersea world of the Farallon Islands, the remote, saw-toothed crags some 30 miles off the coast of San Francisco. The Ohlone people called them the Islands of the Dead; 19th-century sailors called them the Devil’s Teeth. The Farallones sit at the western point of Northern California’s “Red Triangle,” where large numbers of great white sharks come to feed on seals and sea lions in the fall and winter months."


Link edited:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/29/travel/farallon-islands-great-white-sharks.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuonUktbfqohkQVUZCibJR9E5oxnBi_HVybg4gXm7LTORQDBO1KEaGYWJ5wLSZat_ap4o3z2BR8QHMKMqQLY66N5jCHFXalvipIqYytNCKj8pqIm3UyRu0pzAVu1pqXqyMGe0bbomm-T6tUvfYH2-DaDe13EiLAtho5V1ZBr9jyxzs6TBE-5_3NB03-5wRcwpAGddO1TZ-qXgGB58O92ZbxHD6ABQWOlRWjnbn9_0-KtXOUwJSgqAFCUjlD56vNBMO9oXPLL8Lgojfaf-gbYRCm9pJeS5FveBPTlKqHlo5axGjtxvqJU&smid=url-share

Would love to read it, but I would love more not to pay the NYT for it.  Thanks for sharing. 

Would love to read it, but I would love more not to pay the NYT for it.  Thanks for sharing.

+1

I have a subscription, honestly I find it worth it. NYT has a nice system where you can share a link w/pals and it stays good for like 10 days I think. Let me see if I can post one here for y'all to read. Lemme know if it works.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/29/travel/farallon-islands-great-white-sharks.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuonUktbfqohkQVUZCibJR9E5oxnBi_HVybg4gXm7LTORQDBO1KEaGYWJ5wLSZat_ap4o3z2BR8QHMKMqQLY66N5jCHFXalvipIqYytNCKj8pqIm3UyRu0pzAVu1pqXqyMGe0bbomm-T6tUvfYH2-DaDe13EiLAtho5V1ZBr9jyxzs6TBE-5_3NB03-5wRcwpAGddO1TZ-qXgGB58O92ZbxHD6ABQWOlRWjnbn9_0-KtXOUwJSgqAFCUjlD56vNBMO9oXPLL8Lgojfaf-gbYRCm9pJeS5FveBPTlKqHlo5axGjtxvqJU&smid=url-share

Hmm, not sure what happened there - I do not have a subscription, but it let me read it. If I knew it was gonna paywall, I wouldn't have put it up.

Hmm, not sure what happened there - I do not have a subscription, but it let me read it. If I knew it was gonna paywall, I wouldn't have put it up.

You get a few free articles, so when you viewed it was probably before you used up all of your free articles. 

My library (and probably yours) has free digital access to NYT...

I have a subscription, honestly I find it worth it. NYT has a nice system where you can share a link w/pals and it stays good for like 10 days I think. Let me see if I can post one here for y'all to read. Lemme know if it works.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/29/travel/farallon-islands-great-white-sharks.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuonUktbfqohkQVUZCibJR9E5oxnBi_HVybg4gXm7LTORQDBO1KEaGYWJ5wLSZat_ap4o3z2BR8QHMKMqQLY66N5jCHFXalvipIqYytNCKj8pqIm3UyRu0pzAVu1pqXqyMGe0bbomm-T6tUvfYH2-DaDe13EiLAtho5V1ZBr9jyxzs6TBE-5_3NB03-5wRcwpAGddO1TZ-qXgGB58O92ZbxHD6ABQWOlRWjnbn9_0-KtXOUwJSgqAFCUjlD56vNBMO9oXPLL8Lgojfaf-gbYRCm9pJeS5FveBPTlKqHlo5axGjtxvqJU&smid=url-share

Cool thanks.  It worked for me.  Appreciate it!   

Very welcome! Hope y'all get a chance to look at it within the next 10 days or so...  I've only skimmed it so far (still working) but it looks pretty interesting.

FishermanX - feel free to edit your original post using the link I added if you want. Should be good for a while anyway.

Very welcome! Hope y'all get a chance to look at it within the next 10 days or so...  I've only skimmed it so far (still working) but it looks pretty interesting.

FishermanX - feel free to edit your original post using the link I added if you want. Should be good for a while anyway.

Thanks, I did as you suggested.