Isla de Guadalupe Scuba Diving

Attention on South Africa and Australia as shark diving capitals of the world has been shifting fast since 1999 with the rising popularity of Isla de Guadalupe.

Volcanic Guadalupe Island lies 160 miles west of Mexico's Baja California peninsula in the Pacific Ocean, with 100ft visibility the local White Shark populations are truly vast in number. The island is also a very popular destination for big game fishing. The sharks are known to astonish with their prowess by snatching game fish away before fisherman's eyes.

Guadalupe is by no means a tropical island with palm-fringed shores. Its southern areas are rugged and desolate although northern parts are a bit more fertile. On the southwestern end is Tuna Alley, separating the main island from its two smaller counterparts. Virtually the entire southern area was wiped out by goats brought over by Russian whalers and seal poachers, and though their numbers declined steadily until the Mexican government employed a complete round-up in 2005. The island was proclaimed a nature reserve as long ago as 1928.

The Discovery

A spate of shark attacks near California in the 70's lead researchers to the Farallon Island and Ano Nuevo Islands where they discovered large numbers of great whites drawn to the juicy local populations of Northern Elephant Seals, California and Stellar Sea Lions.

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