Today myself & a mate went to the Shark & Ray Centre. I would like to make it clear that no sharks here posed any real threat to us and the purpose of it was to get comfortable with these marine animals. We went as of the moment I am protesting against Shark Fishing and am trying to educate people about how Sharks really are. I thought this would be hypocritical of me if I did not at least spend some time with them in their world. I've however decided to do this in steps, first in captivity with small sharks, then I shall cage dive and lastly hopefully if possible free dive with some of these great and interesting creatures.
It was a terrific experience and really helped educate ourselves about what Shark's are really like. We had mentally pumped ourselves up for a few weeks for this and thought that these little sharks would be nothing as we wanted to dive with the big Great Whites of the ocean. We were quickly put in our place. I have no problem with handling reptiles which I have done in the past,(snakes,lizards,crocodiles) but this has always been on land, in MY element. In the water YOU are out of your element and in the SHARKS. If you think you can move around quickly in the water, your wrong you can't. They swiftly and effortlessly move about and they almost seem to be able to cut through the water like a sword!
At $42 this was rather a cheap experience, as an individual is allowed to stay with the animals for as long as they wish. This price allowed us to hire a pair wet suit as well as a serve of food. This serve of food was a mixture of squid, prawns and fish served in a cup . However you can't hand feed the shark s& rays as they have teeth, this meant we would put the food on a stick which had a peg on the end which was dunk in the water and attracted the sharks to come and bite.
As we walked into the ice cold water we then realised this was not going to be like we thought it would be. Suddenly our movements were impaired and we had dozens of Port Jackson sharks swimming up towards us. Suddenly we felt very frightened and very alone. These sharks however did not want us, merely the food. But despite their hunger they seemed to genuinely care for our interactions. They would swim besides us and up against us begging for food just like puppies. I realise these sharks are very much conditioned to people now but I found them delightful .It would be very interesting to see one in the wild, I suspect it would want nothing to do with us. One of the more friendly sharks would swim around me and as I sat down on an "island" there this particular one even swam next to me and lay down on part of my leg, despite me clearly not having any food.
In the second pool of sharks there was a mix of two breeds, Tawny Nurse Sharks& White Spotted Sharks. These sharks were slightly bigger than their Port Jackson counterparts and some sized up over a metre and a bit. We did not fall under any illusions with these guys, they very much looked the part of sharks that you have nightmares of! Mini Jaws! These sharks were smart and as soon as the stick dangling food came over the water these critters would swarm around. This could only highlight the intelligence of these sharks, they would only come to us when the stick appeared , otherwise they swam around as they usually would. The adults didn't mind a "pet" but the juveniles would speed away as soon as you came close. This highlighted they were most definitely more frightened of us than we were of them. Though it was interesting as time passed some of those adults became more comfortable and curious of our presence and had no problem bumping us, which cause my friend & I a bit of an unsuspected fright! However I remembered this meant the sharks were merely curious at us and probably a bit hungry as not all of them were being fed by us !
The Centre also played home to a Juvenile to sub-adult Leopard shark. This guy was much bigger than they other little sharks , measuring nearly 2 metres long. However we were told no more than two people at a time could be in the pool with him. At first he avoided us but soon after much coaxing with food he soon became acquainted with us. Coming close for pets and even showing off for us by swimming right out of the surface. This animal clearly knew we meant no harm and would swim amongst us freely and seemed to lavish the attention we gave the shark.
I fully believe the only reason we were hesitant in the first place about entering the water with these animals was due solely to the fact of what the media has portrayed these animals to us as. I am under no illusions some of their bigger counterparts can cause us serious damage though I feel after today , sharks aren't designed to eat us and that they usually attack when on cues.
These are ;
1.Sight- The black dive suits however it is proven that yellow& red attract sharks even more.
2.Smell- If we are bleeding sharks are very much attracted to this.
3.Sound -Vibrations we make in the water
I would also like to note there were a great variety of rays there including one big 300 kilo one which was 4 foot wide. He was happy to almost hop over the edge of the pool just to grab a bite! This big bugger was very friendly and more than happy to consume our left overs from the sharks!
Yes I know to some who don't approve of captivity these were not wild conditions , but it's a good centre where the Sharks are spoilt rotten and will probably grow & live to much longer lives & bigger sizes than they would achieve in the wild. Plus it's a great educational experience for people, it teaches them that sharks are not the man eaters we see on the movies, they are very curious and intelligent creatures who play an important part in the ecosystem The future of conservation is through education and this place is helping lead the way for future generations. If we lose them now, we will lose one of life’s greats.
Next week I shall also be posting an article on Shark intelligence and going in on more depth on why Sharks on the rare occasion attack us & how to avoid it, and more importantly how sharks have managed to survive since the age of the dinosaurs.
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