Mauro Barberis, Shortfin Mako (ANIMAL 2023)

Images were taken in Cape Town, South Africa, December 2022. We departed on jetboat from Simon's Town and ventured 30 nautical miles into open ocean, where we waited for 2 hours until a couple blue sharks appeared near the boat, but they were quickly chased off by this female Shortfin Mako. Once the Mako seemed at ease and staying around, we grabbed our freediving gear and jumped in the water. The Mako was extremely curious, to the point where we had to push her and establish boundaries a few times, but it allowed me to get some really nice closeup shots. We dove with her for 1 hour at depths between 5 and 15 metres, truly a once in a lifetime experience. This dive was performed in apnea, cageless.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.