Taking the Bait

The ominous music in your head as you enter the water is the soundtrack of fear, loud and unmistakable.

The first blue shark appears almost immediately, emerging from the murky water off the coast of Santa Catalina Island.

Crouching in a shark-proof cage four feet underwater, chunks of fish dangling nearby, the thoughts come in quick succession: How big is it? Is this cage strong enough?

Fourteen thrill seekers share the cage, bobbing in their wetsuits, breathing through snorkels. The bravest manage to focus their waterproof cameras as the three-foot shark wrenches off a piece of bait and vanishes.

The “Shark Adventure” is sponsored by Learning Tree University in Chatsworth, which offers day and night dives about once a month.

On an early Saturday morning trip, sleepy-eyed adventurers are swallowing medication for seasickness and signing waivers absolving others of responsibility if they are eaten by a shark.

For the uncertain, now is the time to back out.

Yehuda Goldman, owner of Hydrosphere, the firm that operates the underwater sessions, boasts that none of his students have been attacked in hundreds of trips he’s made to a favorite spot, seven miles from the Catalina coast.

This announcement makes the class breathe a little easier.

Kate Salezar, 28, of Westchester says she reassured worried family members, telling them, “I’m in a cage--what could happen?”

It takes a two-hour ride aboard the 64-foot Pacific Explorer from Los Angeles harbor to reach Avalon Banks, where the water is 1,400 feet deep.

There the crew starts chumming. They drop a block of frozen pureed fish over the side along with some fish oil and frozen whole fish and let the boat drift, spreading an appetizing lunch for the sharks.

A light wind and slight current spreads the bait. Everyone watches and waits. The water is clear.

Hoots and hollers start around noon when the first shark is seen.

Goldman, 36, fits the image of a shark hunter. He has dark hair, a beard and a belt buckle in the shape of a shark jaw. He wears a cord around his neck holding two shark teeth.

But he’s a shark lover. He hooks a four-foot blue shark and brings it onto the deck to examine and tag it for research purposes. Goldman gives the fish a quick peck on the mouth before setting it free.

“People have this extreme fear and a lack of education and understanding about these animals,” he said.

Shark populations are rapidly decreasing and they need to be protected, he said.

Today, the group sees no great whites, the sharks made famous by the film “Jaws.” Mostly, they see docile blue sharks, ranging from two to five feet long. Occasionally, classes see the more aggressive mako sharks, cousins of the great white, that range in size from four to five feet.

Goldman warns that sharks are not creatures to tangle with. As hungry five-foot blue sharks make their way toward the cage, students are careful to keep their fingers and feet inside.

Iulia Robinson, 21, of Orange gets plenty close. A blue shark swims toward the aluminum-and-wire-mesh cage. Then human and fish are nose to nose.

Robinson considers herself obsessed with sharks. She collects shark figurines, and her car license plate reads: SHRK FRK.

“It was awesome,” she says.