The Terrifying Moment a Shark Breaches an Underwater Photographer's Cage

The camera was rolling when a shark breached a diver's cage on a photography trip, leaving the diver trapped with the massive creature inside the small steel enclosure. 

Coming to you from Gabe and Garrett, this terrifying video captures the moment a Great White shark breached a diver's cage during an expedition in 2016. The crew was throwing bait to the shark to bring it closer for photographers to shoot it, when it moved for a piece of bait and hit the side of the cage, wedging itself in the bars. After that, it began trying to extricate itself, but since sharks cannot swim backwards, all it could do was flail and attempt to swim forwards, at which point it broke through and into the cage where Ming Chan was. Luckily, Chan was able to drop through the bottom of the cage while the shark escaped through the top. Although the shark was bleeding, the crew was able to find it again later in the day and confirmed that it had not been permanently injured, thankfully. Chan was also uninjured by the incident and was even back in the water the next day. Nonetheless, the encounter made for quite the heart-stopping video! 

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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26 Comments

All I'm thinking now is... I want to see the footage from his camera!

Just "high Five" and smile

"Although the shark was bleeding, the crew was able to find it again later in the day and confirmed that it had not been permanently injured" ... we are making a large assumption there. Gill damage can lead to a long and slow death.

I sincerely hope not.

My thoughts exactly

Hi Gene. The crew knows every single shark by name. So do the other licensed dive boats in the area. They are out there for months every season. Not only was it spotted healthy and fine later in the day and that trip, but also since then. Great White Sharks are very tough, most of them are scarred, there were also biologists on the boat as they were filming a documentary, plus there's a biologist that is stationed out there. The shark is totally fine.

2016 timestamp and it's just making the rounds in 2019. Odd.
Poor creature anyway.

"Ming Chang was. Luckily, Chan". Who checks for mistakes before hitting "post"? You call this person "Chan" twice immediately after calling him "Chang". Subpar journalism.

We all make mistakes. :)

Cool, injuring animals for amusement. Well worth the cel phone facebook post.

"injuring animals for amusement" as you put it, assumes ill intent and some sort of plan to capture this shark in the cage. Are you serious? If you are, just... wow. The nature of the video shows that even if there had been ill intent, there is clearly no evidence that what happened was anything but an accident. If the shark had not broken through the enclosure, it simply would have swam away with a free meal (yeah, cause that's super abusive, right?). No one on that boat was attempting to injure the animal and they certainly weren't doing it for amusement. Anyone other than a troll would be able to deduce the obvious truth of this situation on a single viewing.

Yeah cause using food to draw sharks towards a metal cage in the middle of the ocean is nature. They see them all the time I'm sure. Nope it's chum up the water so some tourist can get a cel pic of a shark up close. Troll? Kind of like joining a photography site and posting no photos you've taken.

I looked at your stuff. Your formidable technical ability is matched only by your lack of originality. I posted a few shots just for you to have a chance to judge me as well. Brutality doesn't bother me, so feel free to be as petty as you'd like when you judge me.

But to the point at hand, clearly those people are not on the boat and getting in a shark cage in order to take photo with their cel phones. Again, another disingenuous statement on your part. Your entire is premise is disingenuous and ill-conceived, that is why I called you a troll.

Like I said troll. Originality to you must be showing up at a club and just snapping whatever the band does using their lights, their show and their moves. I'd be worried that these guys might get bored of taking cel pics with sharks and go after your job. The bonus to this is they won't be in the ocean to injure sharks and you'll be too busy looking for something else to take pics of, you won't have time to write idiotic statements here. Win win.

Your characterization of my work is literally just a fundamental explanation of photography. You could switch out your nouns with those related to the outdoors and wildlife, and it's still applicable. Was that intended to be a critique? That I take photos of people in light?

Your entire aesthetic is taking photos of the most popular characters in popular culture as sexy versions of themselves (the lowest hanging fruit in photography) because those are these easiest with which to get Instagram likes. Those Marvel hashtags can really drive the traffic. Somewhat ironic considering the implied disdain asserted by your "cel pics" comments.

Your work is technically adequate, paint-by-numbers compositing of fake characters in fake poses promoting a fake sense of accomplishment... the accomplishment of re-creating the work of your betters.

You're funny. Here's me doing what you do, now you do what I do and show me how easy it is with the paint by numbers. People pay me to create cosplay and modeling shots so doing that popular thing seems to be working out. Have fun with the happy hour shoots.

You can't do what I do. You'd pull out a light meter and say there isn't enough light, and then put your camera away. I suspected as much, but you provided the proof. If this is supposed to represent your band shooting skills... well, good thing you have the cosplay gig. #amateurhour #weak By the way, I never criticized your technical ability in creating what you create. I said it lacked originality. What can you do when you have no control over anything your camera is pointing at, and you can't doctor the image into something that is no longer actually photography? Can you still create compelling images in-camera? You're right in your profile to state this is not the site for you. Allegedly this is a site for photographers.

You're funny. So blurry slow shutter is the trick to being a photographer? lol

Saw that on "Shark Week" a year or two ago. It's a true classic!

Just as well that cameraman was already wet

My take is how sloppy the crew was that they did not know if anybody was in the cage. Also and more importantly, that looked like a large shark. So how large an opening was there in the cage for the shark to swim into? Bad cage design?

Hi, I'm the one who shot this video. The people you hear asking if anybody was in the cage were the guests, not the crew. The crew knew exactly who was in there and for how long. Many of us heard the commotion and had just walked up on the second deck from where I was shooting.

Wow these things are great, crunchy on the outside, chewy inside.

They baited wild life and tried to keep them on the line just so that a rich asshole can get a closer look...

I'm on the side of the shark on this one...

If they at least NOT had the bait on a line it would have been much less dangerous for the shark.

Yeah I tend to agree. Poor sharks have not done well by us and they are truly magnificent animals. Then there's the practice shark finning, an abomination.

I've just done a whale shark dive and I felt like just another entitled tourist taking selfies 'look at me with the big animal'.

I must say though, the dive operators took great pains over the protocols that we were not to interfere with the animals in any way.

I dunno, before we went I thought this would be a bucket list experience, but now I feel a bit unclean, not what I imagined, wouldn't do it again.