2min chapter

The Infinite Monkey Cage cover image

The Secret Life of Sharks

The Infinite Monkey Cage

CHAPTER

How to Swim With a Great White Shark

Steve has dived with a huge number of species, haven't you? I read a hundred different species or something like that. It varies so tremendously, because they all fulfill such different niches in very, very different environments. You know, wandering around in the mangroves in the Bahamas with tiny lemon-sharp pups kind of nuzzling around your knees. It's a very different experience to swimming in blue water alongside a great white shark. And believe it or not, you can actually assess the body language of individual sharks. So if you spend a little while watching them, if you see a shark that drops its petrel fins, then it's getting ready to make a

00:00
Speaker 3
Can
Speaker 4
I just check, by the way, how many of these are you making
Speaker 7
up? Just on the hoop. All
Speaker 5
of them. But that's a beautiful
Speaker 4
idea that it kind of creates its own far work, so the
Speaker 5
predator goes, oh, it's gone. It's amazing,
Speaker 4
it's so cool, and this little thing. Steve, you've dived with a huge number of species, haven't you? I read a hundred different species or something like that. Could you give us a sense of those experiences you've had with the different sharks, the big sharks, little sharks? Brian wants to go out again, so if you could tell, every single one of the hundred ones, an anecdote on each. It
Speaker 2
varies so tremendously, because they all fulfill such different niches in very, very different environments. You know, wandering around in the mangroves in the Bahamas with tiny lemon-sharp pups kind of nuzzling around your knees. It's a very different experience to swimming in blue water alongside a
Speaker 4
great white shark. You know, the two things could not be more different. So you've swum with a great white, not a cage, just swum, because very, very few people. You said there were few sharks you wouldn't swim with. Is a great white on the list of things? I
Speaker 1
would definitely get in the water with a great white. And I went cage snorkeling with blue sharks off the North Cornish Coast once, and the sharks were fascinated by the cage, because you kind of get this, you know, slight current flow between the metal bars. But I was so frustrated that I couldn't get out of the cage, because I wanted to be with the sharks looking at the cage. I just wanted to get out, and I'm quite confident that it wasn't a dangerous thing to do. They were fascinated in
Speaker 2
what was going on, really. Yeah. It needs to be done at the right time, in the right situation, with the right water quality and the right animals. And believe it or not, you can actually assess the body language of individual sharks. So if you spend a little while watching them, if you see a shark that drops its petrel fins, then it's getting ready to make a tight turn. If it arches its back and opens its mouth and its gills are billowing, those could be leading towards signs of a territorial aggression, particularly then if it starts twitching its body in aggressive movements. But if they're just cruising with their petrel fins spread wide like wings, then they will completely ignore you. And in blue water where you can see the sharks and they can see you and they know that you're not there, chosen prey, they will swim straight past you to get the food that's behind you.

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