Close encounter ...
... of the best kind! As a diver, a shark encounter is among the most exciting and thrilling. Their seemingly effortless glide through the water is mesmerizing. But most surprising may be their curiosity. Their eyes are expressionless, suggesting that they are mere machines. Nevertheless, they certainly conveyed a sense in their close passes that they were wondering what we were doing in their domain. We weren't stirring up fish for them to eat and they lingered well past the point of realizing that we were not food. (Nor were we chumming.) So maybe we were just a distraction from their mundane activities. Don't we all need that!
This is a caribbean reef shark (Carcharhinus perezi), estimated to be about 1.5m, so probably a young one. (Mature ones are 2-2.5m.) They are listed as near-threatened by IUCN. Why anyone would intentionally harvest sharks from the ocean is beyond me.
The earlier image I posted from the dive provided a better sense of the reef terrain. This shot, looking slightly up, includes the wave patterns from the surface (we are in about 8m of water).
Close encounter ...
... of the best kind! As a diver, a shark encounter is among the most exciting and thrilling. Their seemingly effortless glide through the water is mesmerizing. But most surprising may be their curiosity. Their eyes are expressionless, suggesting that they are mere machines. Nevertheless, they certainly conveyed a sense in their close passes that they were wondering what we were doing in their domain. We weren't stirring up fish for them to eat and they lingered well past the point of realizing that we were not food. (Nor were we chumming.) So maybe we were just a distraction from their mundane activities. Don't we all need that!
This is a caribbean reef shark (Carcharhinus perezi), estimated to be about 1.5m, so probably a young one. (Mature ones are 2-2.5m.) They are listed as near-threatened by IUCN. Why anyone would intentionally harvest sharks from the ocean is beyond me.
The earlier image I posted from the dive provided a better sense of the reef terrain. This shot, looking slightly up, includes the wave patterns from the surface (we are in about 8m of water).