About Shark Diver - The Company

Shark Diver is...You.

Most of our shark divers are regular folks who just love sharks. Many have held an ongoing fascination with sharks and cage diving since childhood but until now did not realize that they could travel easily from the “office to the ocean” to meet the sharks of their dreams.

We created Shark Diver just for you. Twelve years and 5600 newly minted shark divers later, we’re still going strong. From specially designed cage systems that allow divers and non-divers the luxury of white shark encounters, to specialized benthic cage systems in the Bahamas, our goal has always been to open the amazing world of sharks to the general public.

Shark Diver Managing Director

There's two types of shark people in the world today. Those who dream about sharks and shark diving, the others who live it. Meet Martin Graf, Shark Divers Managing Director. When it comes to sharks there are few people on the planet who have spent as much time face to face with these magnificent creatures.

Martin lives and breathes sharks and has overseen our Isla Guadalupe white shark dive site for eleven shark seasons. Want to know why a particular shark has a scar? Martin was there the day Bite Face actually became Bite Face in 2004 with a three foot ragged tear on his jaw.

Don't worry, white sharks heal up quickly, but there are more stories every year at Guadalupe and Martin is the keeper of Guadalupe's shark secrets, and he's always more than willing to share them with you over a cup of coffee in the morning at Guadalupe Island.

When not running shark operations Martin is on shore working with our lucky divers for this and next season to prepare them for shark adventures to come. You can call him anytime with questions or to book your next shark dive. Martin lives in California full time and speaks fluent European. For some of you that's Swiss German, German and very accented English.

Martin has also been on the front lines for shark conservation working with the Guadalupe Photo ID Project now in it's thirteenth year having identified over 125 unique animals at this site. Martin has collaborated with the main shark research team at the island (CICIMAR) and has appeared in numerous shark conservation film and television productions over the years.

He's also a seasoned dive instuctor with over 8000 dives to his credit, and has logged over 40,000 nautical miles to Guadalupe and back.

We're pretty friendly around here, after all we get to play with sharks for a living, join us!

Shark Divers Special Operations - Film and TV

Every shark diving company has a special operations guy and ours is always on the move.

Meet our founder Patric Douglas.

As a twenty year veteran of the global tourism industry with his humble beginnings leading 21 day tours around the planet, Patric has spent the last twelve years with Shark Diver discovering new shark sites and developing conservation initiatives for sharks.

One of his first phone calls in 2002 from Isla Guadalupe, after coming back from a cage dive featuring seven different animals, was to Dr. Peter Klimley at U.C Davis. That remarkable phone call and many years of logistic support later, lead to the first ever U.S and Mexican cooperative tagging programs at Isla Guadalupe. Patric went on to create the Isla Guadalupe Conservation Fund website and was soon traveling to Alaska to cage dive with Salmon sharks and Honduras to be the first commercial shark diving industry member to encounter giant Sixgill sharks at 2000’ - in a private submarine.

He has been a staunch advocate for the global shark diving industry, and for sharks. In 2007 and again in 2008 adult Tiger sharks were killed by sport fishermen in the Bahamas for a few pictures and a set of jaws. The animals were gravid (pregnant) and from this disaster sprang The Shark-Free Marinas Initiative concept. The initiative started with and was the brainchild of Shark Diver and today, under the remarkable guidance of marine biologist Luke Tipple, and a few early supporters within the industry, enjoys wide acceptance saving sharks from Fiji to Florida.

The Shark-Free Marinas Initiative is supported by Guy Harvey, Slash, The Humane Society, Nigel Barker and a host of celebrities and conservation groups. In 2011 the initiative launched a series of PSA's that quickly went viral helping spread the word about shark conservation. Patric's involvement with shark conservation has always stressed long term metrics for success. Saving sharks is a marathon event, and if these magnificent animals are to survive the next 40 years it will be through long term and successful programs that change, educate, and ultimately slow the take of sharks down.

Patric developed Shark Divers in 2003 as the film and television arm of Shark Diver. Shark Divers features a talented in house shark production crew that has worked with MythBusters, CNN, AT and T, SPIKE TV, National Geographic, BBDO and many others. Consulting for productions with rare Alaskan Salmon Sharks and providing the first look at New Zealand white sharks in 3D are just a few of Shark Divers ongoing projects. Although film and television productions with sharks are exciting Patric understands that negative shark productions do great harm to the perception of sharks.

Today Patric heads up our growing film and television division with his unique dive team and crew, all seasoned underwater production folks with recent award winning commercial credits in the Bahamas with Gillette and Volkswagen. Yes, they took a Volkswagen and turned it into a submarine.

Join the Shark Diver crew for the dive experience of a lifetime and come face to face with your favorite big water shark this year. The only thing you have to lose is another amazing vacation. As a commercial shark diving company we believe industry leadership begins by leading. Shark Diver is dedicated to that idea.

When you book your shark diving adventure with us you help us make the necessary industry changes to shark research and shark conservation.

Thank you.