The law in the US still prohibits tourist travel to Cuba, but a dozen other categories of travel are permitted, including family visits, official business, journalist visits, professional meetings and educational and religious activities. The Obama administration has eased rules to the point where travelers are now free to design their own “people-to-people” cultural exchanges with little oversight.

It was not until eight years later, in November, 1984, that another one was found, in a deep-sea net off California. It too, was a male 4.5 metres in length. The third, also male, was a metre longer, and washed up on the shore of Australia, on August 18, 1988. In the following years, megamouth sharks appeared more frequently in a variety of places around the globe.

The sale will take place on Wednesday 15th June 2016 at St Edmund's Court, Okehampton Street, Exeter, Devon, England, EX4 1DU.

This collection is well known to historic diving societies and collectors around the world. The collection comprises many examples of diving helmets, pumps, suits, knives and accessories from makers such as Siebe Gorman, Heinke, Draeger, Morse, Schrader and may others.

So shark dive clubs usually bring some fishy scraps—in most cases the remains left over after big fish have been cut up for sale. The scent attracts the sharks into view and provides a bit of excitement as the animals investigate and try to get a piece. But little actual food or nourishment is given. The sharks circle far and wide through the vast volume of the visible ocean, in a memorable and dramatic display, as they look over the scene, zoom in for a closer look, try for a scrap, and socialize.