"Nature knows no mercy, but there is no hatred in it": the photographer has been shooting for 4 years how a pack of sharks hunts

Initially, the mission of photographer and diver Laurent Ballesta was only to capture how sea bass gather to mate off one of the islands of French Polynesia.

It would seem that what is difficult here? And the fact that sea bass mate only once a year on a full moon, and the whole action lasts no longer than 30 minutes. So it was not easy to catch this event from the life of marine fauna — it took a photographer from France 4 years to properly shoot all the shots for his new book.

In addition, every time sea bass swam out of the sea deposits to mate, hundreds of gray sharks raided them. Laurent told how he and his team managed to shoot one of the most elusive phenomena underwater and not lose limbs at the same time.

First of all, it was necessary to find a way to supply yourself with oxygen for such an amount of time to stay under water for a long time and not miss the moment of mating. Ballesta puzzled over this problem for many years, and in 2014 he was able to solve it.

Together with his friend Jean Marc, he developed a diving protocol that allowed them to stay under water for 24 hours at a depth of 20 meters. At the same time, they managed to reduce the time for decompression — pressure stabilization — from 20 to 6 hours. At that time it was a record — the first dive of this kind.

The solution to this problem lay in careful calculations — it was necessary to calculate the exact composition of gases in an oxygen cylinder in order to be under water for the right amount of time. This made it possible to realize the long—standing dream of all divers - to ensure uninterrupted observation of marine life.

Members of Laurent Ballesta's underwater mission, resisting the undercurrent, keep afloat the lighting necessary for the photographer to take pictures of what is happening on the reef

When the time came for the first dive in 2014, the photographer was accompanied by a team of divers who helped him with the replacement of oxygen cylinders and illuminated the reefs after sunset. The strategy developed by Laurent worked — he managed not only to reach the habitat of thousands of sea bass, but also to find hundreds of gray sharks swimming out on a night hunt.

In such a situation, it was necessary to feel confident so as not to freak out when sharks accidentally bump into you — it sometimes came to bruises. It was necessary to remain calm — after all, we are just a physical obstacle for them, not prey."

Laurent Ballesta

At night, reef sharks hunt in packs — Laurent and his team counted 700 individuals.

Sea bass caught in the jaws of a shark

It is commonly thought that if you meet one of the sharks, your fate is sealed. But, according to Laurent's observations, sharks surprisingly often lost to perches in the fight for life — they simply could not catch them and in the end no longer gave the impression of a "killing machine".

Laurent was so fascinated by the underwater drama — how sea bass suffering from the bites of hungry predators managed to escape and leave offspring — that he began to return to this place over the next four years.

It remained to come up with a technical solution for shooting — how to capture all this drama, played out in poor lighting and strong currents.Together with the team, Laurent made a semicircular installation, on which he fixed a set of strobe lights and stationary high-power lights, and his partner Sadrik Zhental, holding on to this hand-assembled device, floated a few meters above the photographer, following his instructions and illuminating the right places.

At the crucial moment, the female perch shoots from the bottom of the reef, spraying caviar behind her. The male following her will fertilize the eggs first, and others will fly after him. This desperate couple will be eaten a few seconds after the picture. The remaining relatives — within an hour.

Nature knows no mercy, but there is no hatred in it."

Laurent Ballesta