The fastest shark in the sea is also one of our favourites.
Pictures of Mako sharks people have caught, do not do this animal justice. In its live state, which is the way it should be seen, it has a beautiful cobalt blue dorsal surface which rapidly transforms into silvery white flanks making for a very handsome creature indeed.
 Growing to 4.45m (14ft) this is truly the king of the open ocean.
Mako’s typically occur in temperate water with a surface temperature warmer than 15°C although we believe they may well be comfortable in water cooler than this if need be. Females need to be around 2,7m long before they are sexually mature.
The fact that makos are extremely fast allows them to catch fast moving prey such as tuna’s and even swordfish. They have been found with the bills of swordfish still embedded in their sides after what must have been titanic struggles.
Smaller makos in our area tend to feed on smaller species of tuna such as skipjack and also baitfish such as sardines & anchovy.
Before we started diving with makos, stories abounded that they were terrifying creatures that would rip us apart if we entered the water without a shark cage or steel suit. With this in mind we were needless to stay a little apprehensive when we plunged into the water with our first free swimming mako.
Like many other stories with sharks the terrifying tales we were told were without substance and to date we have free dived with many hundreds of makos and never had an incident. Most of the makos we encounter tend to be a bit wary of us and need to be coaxed closer. Even under baited situations we do not feel threatened by them, however we are always respectful of the latent potential they reserve for normal prey items.
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