"I have been in the water (no cage) many times with makos, and they generally make very bold and fast approaches to the photographer," notes nature photographer Richard Herrmann. "This one was no different."

Here's the story behind Herrmann's stunning photo of this 175-200 pound mako shark he encountered about 8 miles off La Jolla in August in the area where the team from NOAA was putting satellite tags on makos and blues. "To get this close to a mako, you have to bait one," notes Herrmann. "I have seen them without baiting and they stay away and generally don't linger. I have baited makos for photography many times in the last 20 years. Twenty years ago however, we would see 1 mako for every 100 blue sharks. Sadly, the blue shark has been decimated by the shark-fin soup commercial industry. So now, when baiting off southern California, you are as likely to get a mako as a blue!!

"They appear aggressive and perhaps dangerous, but this is just the way they check out their environment. I know many other photographers who have been in the water with makos and none (including myself) has been bitten.

"However, these animals deserve the ultimate respect. Flashes, cameras, boat out drives and other metal objects have been bitten. Especially those that emit an electronic signal like the flash. My sample size includes makos up to 8 feet long and 300 pounds. If a truly big mako -- one more than 500 pounds -- swims up the chum line, you will see me exit the water immediately. I use tuna and other oily fishes as chum.

"In the photo, the objects trailing the fin are parasitic copepods. Most makos that we see in the southern California Bight have these. To take the photo, I used a Canon 5D with a 17-40 mm zoom lens in a Sea & Sea housing, with some flash fill."

For more of his stunning photographs, check out Herrmann's Web site.