A windless dawn rises over Isla Guadalupe, 150 miles west of the Baja California coast. Rolling slightly in a gentle Pacific swell, our 80-foot trawler Horizon motors toward the island’s north end. The skipper, Greg Grivetto, is standing the final watch of a 20-hour passage from San Diego. He glances down through the bridge windows at the dozen or so passengers gathered on Horizon’s foredeck. We’re shaking off sleep, gabbing, sipping coffee, eager to catch sight of our first landfall on this remote volcanic rock. In the distance, sunlight outlines the arc of Guadalupe’s northeast inlet. There, deep in flat, dark water, something is also stirring, and everyone onboard is thinking about it.

It is Carcharodon carcharias, the great white shark.

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