To Touch a Shark

There are moments in life that are unforgettable. As I reminisce, an indelible image appears; the first kiss, the first breath on scuba… the first time to achieve something incredible you have dreamt about for a long time.

Beneath the sea offers the chance for many such memorable moments; it’s a glimpse into a new world filled with wonders, amazing creatures and new feelings. Like a child venturing into the ocean for the first time, you may have to pinch to remind yourself to breathe at times. For me, one of those exhilarating moments was the first time I touched a shark. I remember the Grand Bahamas. No heart beats unimpressed at the thought of white, sandy beaches with palms waving, turquoise waters lapping with a chilled coconut daiquiri glowing in the light of the setting sun, served for the sipping. The world’s third longest barrier reef, the Bahamas is an archipelago of over 700 islands and 2500 cays off the coast of Florida, USA. Beyond it’s seductive terrestrial beauty, it’s crystal clear waters, holds a special treat for the intrepid diver: SHARKS! Lots of them; exhilaration or anxiety it’s a rare experience not to be missed.

The Underwater Explorers Society (UNEXSO), which is really a commercial enterprise on the Grand Bahama Island, offers a very unique reef shark feeding encounter at a shallow site close to the shore. The dive crew donned in $10,000 chainmail suits descend to the sandy bottom with a tube filled with fish to feed the sharks for an audience of enthusiastic divers. Shark feed dives are conducted all over the world from Australia, Fiji, PNG, Micronesia, Tahiti to South Africa but what makes the UNEXSO experience truly exceptional is the chance for one to see sharks in state of tonic immobility. Stimulated by gently touching the snout, shark supposedly enter a state of tranquility, seemingly in a reverie and daze lying calmly in front of the performing dive crew. Silly circus? Unbelievable phenomenon? I was not sure what to think of it, and so I flew to the Bahamas to investigate. This will be my first dive with sharks, so famed as the fearsome and terrorizing man-eaters of the deep!. Leaving Port Lucaya jetty, my feelings were mixed. The only images in my memory of sharks were those in ‘Jaws’ and the bloodstained Great Whites in dive magazines. The knowledge of sharks having five rows of sharp teeth that are replaced continually didn’t help. I doubted my own courage and it was too late to change my mind. Arriving at the site, I took a deep breath, found my mask, fins, scuba gear and plunged in.

Descending, the view of the fine white powdery sand of the ocean floor, the corals and the hues of blue calmed me, as it always does. Soon I was neutrally buoyant, flying weightlessly. Looking ahead, they appeared. A faint shadow at first; then the shark emerged, swimming straight towards me. I hung motionless. My mind frozen in awe, echoing, “oh oh……Wow!” The shark’s sleek silver body moved smoothly through the water; so graceful and effortless, though its unleashed awesome power was apparent. ‘Was he looking at me?’ I thought. As he passed below me, sharks started appearing from all directions; some two meters or more adults, and some juveniles of a meter. ‘News travels extremely fast here’, my mind humoured. Adrenaline was bursting through my veins, just watching these animals cruise and circle, seemingly relaxed with their awesome latent power ever so present. When Cristina Zenato, the dive centre’s manager, descended the sharks immediately switched their attention towards her. They swam across, like a pack of dogs awaiting the “cookies” from their master. When she started feeding, a circling queue of sharks formed as if on cue, with a friendly bump to the feeder now and then, like a shark ‘pat or tap’.

There was no blood, no terror, and no frenzy even with all that ever present awesome power in them. It was fascinating!. What happened next was beyond my mind’s comprehension; she reached out with her hand, ever so gently and touched the snout of the shark nearest to her, stroking it into a trance. It was like magic in fantasy land. When the shark lay calmly in the sand, Cristina turned to signal me over while stroking the snout continuously. Carefully, without “waking” the animal, I moved closer until I was within an arm’s distance. Her eyes signaled yes. And I reached out with my hand to touch a living, breathing shark for the very first time. It was electrifying. An out of dictionary experience; it was just beyond words. There I was, a shark lying next to me, with twenty or more sharks swimming around me. It was bizarre, surreal, an almost ethereal experience. As I sat patting the shark, a zillion thoughts flashed through my mind. The human race has recklessly, branded the shark with the diabolical image of a ferocious and blood thirsty beast preying on the human being to feast. This just happen overnight; it’s a learned behaviour mooting from our beliefs which were cleverly influenced by self-serving perpetrators who preyed on our fears of the unknown. Shark feeds are perhaps unnatural. I’m not suggesting that we lose all caution or that people should go and stroke sharks during their dives hereon. Sharks are at best unpredictable and some species more so than others. However, experiencing a shark feed opens us to a new and interesting dimension of the species. It affirms that sharks are like most wild animals and are not irrational attackers. The proximity and the tonic immobility state, exposes their gentle and almost pet- like disposition. There is a special beauty about them that can only be experienced intimately while being with them, rather than from a distance.

Perhaps we need to go beyond folklore and the yarn of perpetrators with vested interests. The actual number of shark bite incidents is astonishingly minuscule compared to dog bites! Our unfounded fears can be transformed into appreciation in the same way it was first embedded in us. We need to protect sharks. Why? Because each year about 100 million sharks are brutally massacred for an estimated 100,000 tons of shark fins traded around the world. Because we fear them, we dislike them, and care not for their fate, not realizing that their fate is our fate too. Science and many naturalists cite sharks as amazing and fascinating predators who maintain our ocean’s equilibrium. Ignoring and abandoning our responsibility to conserve the diversity of life, we will leave our children a dreadful world barren of its natural beauty. I leave the Grand Bahamas a shark lover and overwhelmed; inspired and determined to undo the unjust image of the shark. We need to save sharks from extinction; we can only protect what we like and value. OceanNEnvironment and members of the Ocean Geographic Society are producing a shark documentary to restore the shark’s true image and nullify the erroneous one of fear and terror.

Tonic Immobility
Tonic immobility, also known as a tonic massage, is a natural state of temporary paralysis sharks experience when inverted or have their snouts gently massaged. Their heart rate and blood pressure slows down during immobility lasting approximately 15 minutes. Shark scientists have used tonic immobility, to study shark behaviour and their biology. Some shark species are more receptive to tonic immobility than others. Smaller species like reef sharks and lemon sharks respond well while larger sharks like the Great White and Tiger sharks are a little more temperamental. Interestingly female sharks respond better to tonic immobility than males. It is inferred that female’s use this state of paralysis during mating periods, to appear ‘dead’ to an amorous male, to avoid an otherwise violent copulation with an undesirable male.