SHARKS IN THE OCEAN STATE
Exotic predators can be seen close to home – if you know where to look
If you’ve been watching the Discovery Channel’s shark week programming and thinking about what it would really be like to swim with sharks in the safety of a shark cage, you don’t have to travel all the way to the Bahamas or the coast of California or the Baja to find out. You can put on a wet suit, don your snorkeling or dive gear, and take a plunge with Rhode Island’s veteran shark experience operator, Captain Charlie Donilon of Snappa Charters. Donilon has been captaining shark experience charters for more than 25 years, and has fitted out his boat with all of the hardware needed to get his passengers safely in the water, and viewing sharks from a floating shark cage. His time on the water is something he cherishes, whether it for the special shark trips, regular fishing charters, or sightseeing excursions out to Block Island and other Ocean State highlights like the new offshore wind farm. Every day he goes out brings a chance to see something he hasn’t encountered before or show someone else the remarkable sea and wildlife that abounds around Rhode Island’s waters and shores. “I love it. And you have to because it can be a long day and it can also be frustrating some days when things don’t go as they are supposed to go,” he said.
A change in weather can end a charter early, or keep one from going out, and there is always the chance that Donilon may not find what he is taking passengers out see on any particular trip.
In case of a shark dive or snorkel trip, Donilon has tried and true methods for luring the star attractions into close proximity with the boat, but there are times when the sharks just don’t want to cooperate and a miss is recorded.
“I can’t guarantee we will see anything because it is not an exact science,” he said. As a humorous way to look at the factor of uncertainty in finding sharks, Donilon said he sometimes proposes a customer could forgo the charter fee in the event of miss, “but only if they agree to double it if we do see something.” No one ever takes the offer, he added.
A shark dive or snorkeling run with Snappa’s shark cage can run $2,000 or $2,200 for a group of eight, or about $250 to $275 person, so Donilon is making a commitment to provide his customers with a memorable experience none- theless. Nature does cooperate frequently of course, or the Snappa would not have stayed in business so long. In addition to sharks, Donilon’s customers have seen fin back and humpback whales on their way to the dive site, sea turtles and porpoises, and even smaller minke whales swimming by the cage to see what is going on.
Contacted while the Discovery Channel was celebrating the 30th anniversary of its shark week programming, Donilon, a viewer himself, said he actually became interested in shark fishing and shark viewing thanks to another bit of shark-related media, Steven Spielberg’s 1975 shark saga, “Jaws,” based on the novel by Peter Benchley.
Retiring from a 20-year career as a Warwick Fire Department firefighter and EMT in 2006, Donilon has been captaining fishing charters out of Point Judith since he got his first boat, a 26-foot Bonito in 1976. He holds a master captain’s license for 100 ton vessels and up to 100 miles offshore as well as an associates degree in commercial fisheries and marine technology from the University of Rhode Island and a bachelor degree in industrial arts education from Rhode Island College.
When “Jaws” came around, Donilon got to thinking that rather than fishing for the then-plentiful sport fishing staples of tuna and marlins, some people might want to take a crack at bringing in a shark, then considered a nuisance more than a prize.
And it was when a friend and diver, Bill Campbell, asked him about deploying a shark cage off the Rhode Island coast that his shark charter future was established.
At first the shark cages were pretty rudimentary affairs made of conduit piping and the like. But the group wanting to use them had some expertise in such things, Wes Pratt, a National Marine Fisheries researcher and underwater photographer, and Campbell who was also a noted wreck diver.
“We sat around one night and look all the different ideas we had and came up with cage that was fairly light, had two exits and round corners for easy access and was made of strong anodized aluminum,” he said.
The cage ended up getting built and today it can be seen stored on Snappa’s back deck as it heads out through channel between Galilee and Jerusalem for another shark voyage.
With a busy schedule of fishing, sightseeing, and special event trips running through the season in addition to shark excursions, Donilon has set on taking out the cage for three separate weeks of trips, the first in June, the second at the end of July and earlier August, and last at the end of August and September just before the fall weather arrives.
A typical trip will leave from the fishing charter piers at 33 State St. in Galilee at between 6 and 7 a.m. and after about a two-hour trip offshore and several hours at the shark site, return around 4 to 4:30 p.m.
Donilon and his crew put out a chum slick, usually a mix of ground up blue fish, menhaden or mackerel, and hopefully that will draw in the target of the day, blue sharks, sandbars, or the fast moving Makos.
Blue sharks are the best breed for Donilon’s charters given they are more docile than the Makos, and if they get too nosy can be bumped away if a diver has a willingness to swim free of the cage for a closer view.
Makos are more unpredictable and faster moving and as result, Donilon recommends the doors of the cage remain shut when they are around.
At the end of shark view trip, Donilon also does a little shark tagging work that helps researchers discover where the sharks end up. Donilon has tagged over 2,500 sharks over the years and even in some case attached the expensive satellite-linked tags, that allow regular updates on the sharks travels just like those tagged during Shark Week shows. The Snappa’s website www.snappacharters.com has a page showing where several sharks tagged on Donilon’s trips ended up.
As for the big ones, the Great Whites that get so much attention during shark week, Donilon said he hasn’t encountered one on a shark dive trip. That’s not to say they don’t inhabit the waters off Rhode Island, however.
“I have come across four of them while fishing,” Donilon said. The largest, an estimated 21 footer, came up close to his boat in 1983 and he and the crew got photographs of it that ended up being published by the Hartford Courant. The photo even made it on to the Associated Press wire feed.
There have even been sightings of white sharks around entrances to the Harbor of Refuge breakwaters off Galilee, and a few have even been caught in the offshore fish traps in the area, one as recently as a couple of weeks ago, Donilon noted.
Great whites follow the seals they hunt for food and at the moment seals usually only show up in local waters during the winter months. Donilon said some have been arriving earlier than in the past of late and also staying later, even to June, he noted.
For his charters, Donilon said blues and makos are shark enough for those who want to experience a moment of adrenaline in the waters of Rhode Island Sound.
“Most of the time it is the first time people use a mask and snorkel so I am quite content to see blue sharks out there, that is OK with me,” Donilon said.