THINGS I DO WHEN I AM NOT WRITING #3:
I swim with sharks. That’s me with the yellow fins. The other creature is a whale shark, the biggest fish species in the world. This was in open water off Isla Mujeres in Mexico. I did not always swim with sharks. For one thing, I nearly drowned once and had to be rescued. If I had not been my first book would have been posthumously published. Also, ocean water was never warm enough for me. Then I discovered wetsuits. Up to five years ago, I thought of sharks as swimming hacksaws. I was ignorant. I saw those same movies that ripped fear out of my chest. And now there is another screamer movie that again brings bad PR for sharks. The sharks I have swum with are gentle. Most sharks steer away from humans. They keep their distance. But if you’re lucky and they trust you, they will let you swim near by, saying twelve feet away. The whale sharks let you swim alongside them, and one even slowed down or stopped until I caught up to it and we were again swimming eye to eye. Next week, I will be in the Galapagos and if I’m lucky, I will swim with hammerhead sharks--or rather, simply see them, since they shy away from those dangerous humans. PHOTO: courtesy of Jim Abernethy for WildAid.











