Sharks maligned or misunderstood
January 1st 2007 06:45
a school of hammerheads
Sharks: Maligned or not understood?
What is it about sharks that are so scary? They bite and can eat you and there is little you can do to protect yourself. They are skilled hunters with millions of years of genes to get them near perfect.
When I swim I do think about sharks in the water. Momentarily only because if I dwell on the subject I would not enter the water. I love swimming and I spent over 40 years as lifesaver but I have not lost my fear for sharks. If I am out there beyond the break and think about them my blood runs cold and every shadow or piece of weed I see on the bottom looks menacing.
I am not a skilled scuba diver but I have done a fair share of diving as well as snorkelling and I have seen lots of sharks in the water. I have also seen lots at sea, in Sydney Harbour and in Lake Macquarie where I live now. If I, as water person have seen so many sharks, how many more have seen me? Scary!
The shark like all manners of fish has a feeding time (generally) and a preferred food scource. Why do they often just take a chew out of someone then spit them back. Because they don’t taste good. They don’t taste like their current preferred food scouce. Just like bream can be caught on many kinds of bait, it will prefer particular bait at a particular time of day to anything else. I feel that is what saves us from many more shark attacks.
Sharks can be brought to a frenzy to attack almost anything. This is something fisherman practice to lure sharks into taking their bait. Buckets of animal blood trailed behind the boat soon work them up to a point where it is hardly fishing but just jagging them with a baited hook.
I love to watch them swim in an aquarium. I love to see them at sea when I am safely on a boat. I love to see them on the bottom of the ocean while I am fifty metres away. I am amazed by documentary footage of people stroking sharks and even hand feeding them. No, I don’t understand why they do that. For my money I need a safe perimeter between me and the man in the grey overcoat.
I have just started thinking about crocodiles now. That really makes me shiver.
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Comment by Ash
Flashes of memories
I went shark diving a couple of years ago and the adrenaline rush was amazing. As they swim past their eyes just watch you the whole time and those jagged teeth point in every direction. It makes you feel very small being in their territory - as you say you do not really stand much of a chance against them.
However, they are fascinating creatures too - amazing how we are fascinated by the things that scare us.
Happy sailing and Happy New year
Ash
Comment by Anonymous