Hello I’m here to talk about sharks
Okay, so when you think of sharks, you probably think of a massive man-eating monster from prehistoric times or Jaws. It’s just a thing that everyone has grown up with - the media and the entire world in general portrays sharks as evil and soulless.
So, I, a shark fanatic, am here to teach you the real side of sharks.
Sharks have a bad rep. It’s just a fact. I think the sharks that have it the worst off are tiger sharks, bronze whalers, oceanic white tips, makos, bull sharks, hammerheads and great whites.
Let’s start with tigers - these sharks are one of the largest in the ocean, and the reason for the famous attack on Bethany Hamilton, a professional surfer who came out with one of her arms missing. They’re known as the garbage cans of the ocean, because they eat literally anything they come across. Their teeth are shaped like can openers for piercing through flesh and getting through the shells of turtles. Despite the fear, here are some things that you probably didn’t know about tiger sharks. They’re mellow creatures, and people dive with them all the time. They’re very curious and usually come up and swim around the diver, and although this might look menacing they’re actually just taking a look. The babies have long spots all over their bodies, and these fade overtime to look a bit like stripes.
Time for bronze whalers. These sharks aren’t very well known since they’re a lot shyer than other species, but they are known to attack humans if threatened. They get their name from the beautiful bronze hue to their scales that make them shine, and are known as whaler sharks because they are frequently seen around whale corpses and used to hang around whalers boats in the nineteenth century. Honestly, these sharks are some of the most beautiful in the world, and are also called copper sharks from the beautiful colour of their scales.
Oceanic white tips aren’t seen very often, since they live out away from the shores of the world - hence the name. Their fins, although with the same markings as their relatives white tipped reef sharks, are rounded and much larger for better propulsion through the water. They can grow up to 4 metres (13 feet for all you weirdass Americans) and are incredibly shy, but usually cause panic when seen because of how rare and large they are. They’ve actually been the reason of more shark attacks than the great white shark and the tiger shark. It’s one of the most hunted sharks in the world because of its large fins, oil, hide and meat. They can be docile when divers swim alongside them though, and there have been many instances where divers have swam with them and not suffered any injuries at all. These sharks are totally fine unless you actually approach them, which is a bad idea because they’ll get scared and attack.
Mako sharks are honestly one of the least threatening sharks on this lovely little list I’m making. They can grow up to 3.8 metres (12 feet) and are very thin and light. This is because makos are the fastest species of shark recorded, their maximum speed being 32 kilometres (19 miles) per hour, and are known as migratory sharks. They also breach, observed to jump 9 metres (29 feet) into the air. They eat pretty much anything they can get their jaws around, including bluefish (their main food source), dolphins, turtles, squid, octopus, and even other sharks. It’s overfished for its teeth, skin and fins, and is considered vulnerable. People are also afraid of this shark due to it accidentally jumping into boats and attacking people when realising it didn’t land back in the water.
Then there are the bull sharks. Up with tigers and great whites, this shark is considered one of the top three man eating sharks, and with good reason. It’s one of the only sharks known to travel into fresh water, and can be found in tropical rivers (especially around Australia, coz we got all the good animals). They’ve been found in the Amazon river, thousands of kilometres away from the ocean, and also jumping up the waterfalls to get to Lake Nicaragua. It’s absolutely massive, and not just in length. This shark is super stocky, and because of this and its aggressive attitude it gets its name. Because of these factors, bull sharks are probably one of the most dangerous in the world, above great whites and tigers even.
Hammerheads are a family of sharks, the largest - The Great Hammerhead - sometimes growing over 6 metres (19 feet) long. The Great Hammerhead - which I’m going to be focusing on because I know the most about them out of all the hammerheads - are endangered from over fishing for their strange heads and their fins. Hammerheads have massive fins, since they need to propel their enormous bodies through the water fast enough to be able to catch the small fish they prey on, and illegal poachers love this. They look terrifying, but hammerheads are usually quite docile. Their mouth is too small to do any real damage, but if it gets its jaws around you it’ll probably sever a limb if it wanted to. They can get aggressive if threatened, or if they’re in a frenzy and a human is in the way. They use their strangely shaped snout to find their prey, usually squid and octopus that they hold down with their snout as they bite into them, not unlike what sperm whales do when hunting giant squid.
Then, of course, the most infamous shark of all. The Great White Shark is one of the largest sharks in the oceans, the spitting image of its much larger ancestor the Megalodon. The great white has starred in some of the greatest horror movies, such as Jaws, Open Water, Shark and The Shallows, and has always struck fear into the watchers. These sharks I have personally swam with, and they’re one of the most stunning creatures I’ve ever seen. The largest I’ve seen was about 3.5 metres (11 feet) long, but the largest found was almost 7 metres (22 feet) long.
Let me tell you about my experience with great white sharks. It was last year, and I had just turned 14. My dad decided to take me on a holiday to the Neptune Islands in South Australia, one of the best places for great white shark diving. We ended up going twice - the first time we didn’t see any sharks, but it was an incredible experience nonetheless. We swam with seals, went into the cage to look for sharks, and trevalli were everywhere. The second time was a few months later. This time the ocean was swarming with sharks - between all twelve of us, we saw seven different sharks over the span of four days on the boat. My two personal favourite sharks were ones the team hadn’t seen before, and I got to name them.
Let’s start with the male first. I called him Buddy, and he was only about 2.5 metres (8 feet) long. He was obviously a juvenile, and he was recognizable by the slashes across his gills. The younger and smaller sharks are always the ones that are more violent and dangerous, and he had obviously picked a fight with a much larger shark, seal or albatross. He wasn’t paying much attention to us, and managed to snag the bait off its tether, slamming into the cage in the process. Even though he wasn’t very big, he was absolutely stunning.
And then there was the female, Sweetheart. She was the largest we saw, at 3.5 metres (11 feet) long. She was easily distinguished by the white spot on the tip of her snout, and the fact that she was probably one of the largest sharks around at that time. Just like her name suggests, she was very gentle and curious, nudging at the cage just next to my hand. When she looked at me I could see the deep blue colour of her eyes. Unlike popular opinion that shark’s eyes are black and lifeless, if you get close enough you can see their eyes are a brilliant blue colour, and you can see the emotions in their eyes.
With Sweetheart, we were about to take the cages out of the water for the day when she appeared out of nowhere. I’d already taken off my wet suit and there wasn’t enough time to put it back on, so I stripped down to my underwear and jumped in the cage. It was freezing, but thankfully I went numb after a couple of minutes so it was fine altogether. She circled the cage a bit, not seeming interested in the bait but more curious of us. They’re such beautiful and misunderstood creatures, and it’s honestly sickening what people do to them. They shouldn’t be feared, they should be respected and loved.
If you want more facts about these beautiful creatures and more rants about how they deserve so much better, hit me up
