Shark-Human Interaction and Body Language of Sharks

Most TV shows on sharks keep portraying the rather well-known whites, tigers, makos, and a few more of the larger shark species. This biased viewpoint gives the impression that only a handful of shark species, led by these large ones, and not over 500 species. Discovery’s SharkWeek is a prime example of such a biased presentation. Why not go back to the roots and present knowledge instead of same o’, same o’?

Outside the EEZ of Galapagos, a massive fleet of 340 Chinese longliners currently fishes in international waters. According to the law, nothing can be done against it, meaning that the law must be changed to prevent such fishing concentrations. The Galapagos will be depleted by life just because many of the animals migrate and eventually leave the Galapagos’ EEZ sanctuary.

Another week of shark invested waters, aggressive sharks, human bait, and anything else that comes to mind when describing sharks the wrong way. Why not finally create the opposite, a shark plight week. Use the same famous people that appear in this year’s shows and let them carry the torch for a better world for these animals.

Whenever white sharks are involved in an incident, the first reason it happened was that a mistake was most likely. The only mistake most likely is that the consulted expert does not know what he is talking about. We have to get beyond this lame assumption when it comes to white sharks and learn to accept that one cannot just be in the field with sharks, and automatically assume that one is an expert too when it comes to bites. Two different pairs of shoes!

The only danger for a swimmer out there is the shark, and the only protector for the swimmer is the dolphin. Why has no dolphin ever helped who was drowning, drifting off, or being shipwrecked? The answer is simple: dolphins are not humans’ protectors out there and do not rush to the rescue.

Sharks are hard to read, but their approach patterns give them away. Once you understand the connection between an approach pattern, the shark’s motivation, its intensity, and the influence of the surrounding, a shark turns more into an open book than remaining an enigma.

Once several shark bites occur within weeks or months in a particular area, the louder the voices get that there must be a rogue shark. Rogue sharks are a fantasy and do not exist. Still, as long as the public is not convinced, these sharks roam the oceans, and nobody seems safe. Chief Brody and Matt Hooper came to the rescue in JAWS; who else could we call?

The less we give in in our feelings in a situation that scares us, the more we can focus on controlling the situation. The same is true when dealing with sharks.

Drone footage floods the internet and news media with sharks being in the vicinity of people, and nothing happens. However, the headlines try to create stories about what could happen. So why not use this footage and educate what not to do in the vicinity of sharks? Because debunking a seemingly monster is not a good salesmanship.

The seemingly best response for an approaching shark ist to withdraw, hence turning out to be the worst. Sharks give off so many signs about their intentions, the moods there are in, they are like an open book, but one has to learn to read it.

As long as the news feels it worthy of twisting facts to make sharks look bad, their survival will get more and more uncertain.

Shark bites are always downgraded to the seemingly most apparent reason why it happened, ignored the mind of a shark. It is essential to try to understand each incident from the viewpoint of the shark in question and compare it to the complexity of the wound caused the animal.

Could it be possible that the media dropped so low that there was a need to interview a lifeguard about the increased stress that will come from upholding social-distancing while looking for sharks? Yes, the media can drop that low.

Sometimes it is worth imagining situations without the leading player and see what would have happened for all the involved parties. When it comes to white sharks, we would still be in the very same situation we are now, with or without them.

Once in a while, people tell that the shark came out of nowhere, rushed in, and bit. Such explanations only show that those scenarios may appear that way but do not exist.

Whenever facing a shark, it is crucial to get a first impression of the shark and its eagerness to investigate. Determining angle, speed, and level of the approaching shark, together with the surrounding and its potential limitations when it comes to escape routes, offers a well-rounded idea.

There is only one rule when it comes to facing a shark. The only problem with that rule is however, that it goes against human nature not to follow the urge to do what feels best but follow a rule that goes against it.

The interpretation of a situation between a shark and a human being is strongly affected by a person’s biased emotions. Although nature shows us more often than not that our way of thinking is erroneous, we keep giving our opinion more weight than nature’s contradiction.

When disasters strike, the media solely focuses on those events, leaving otherwise newsworthy events untouched, and that includes shark bites. All of a sudden, shark bites do not seem to happen anymore. Finally, sharks get a break. At least something positive can be linked to the pandemic.

Sailors seemingly died due to sharks after the sinking of the warship USS Indianapolis. But there are many arguments against that killing by a shark was then the main reason that about 600 sailors died during their four-day ordeal on the water.

Facing unfamiliar animals can be a worrisome task and should always be handled with the unconditional acceptance of nature’s laws and one’s position in it. Ignorance or arrogance to comprehend or accept this position inhibits any interaction success with any inhabitant.

Dusky sharks are among the largest Carcharhinus species with the most prolonged gestation period of them all: 2 years. Due to that long period, reproduction is slow, and mating occurs only every three years, and should it not happen, a female can fertilize her eggs due to sperm storage. Insight into the life of this remarkable species is given.

If it has a saw, it is either a sawfish or a sawshark. But is a sawfish a bony fish? Then there is the guitarfish, the same problem, what is that? As with most animal species, knowing a few features makes it easy to understand what is what.

Rumor has it that shark bites occur more often around power plants, seemingly because of the release of warm cooling waters. Although the idea is tempting that this brings in more sharks during colder water temperatures, the connection between a higher water temperature around the plants and an increase of bites cannot be made.

Sharks have a palette of bacteria in their mouths, which can get transferred into a wound during a bite. Still, with over the counter antibiotics, an infection can likely be controlled. Still, a medical doctor should be consulted. But then there is also MRSA, how about those bacteria?

There is glaring ignorance of what to do underwater when an incident with a shark happened. How to read the situation, the wound, the victim, and then proceed accordingly? The only answer is to learn how to act in such a case. Without having participated in such a workshop, you are likely doomed.

The latest suggestion to go after sharks is using their livers to produce biodiesel. Proponents talk about that there would be less waste when sharks get finned, but the truth is that more sharks would get killed because of the livers and its demand. One should not try to utilize more parts of a shark but look for solutions to not kill them in the first place.

One of the most underrated shark species out there is the nurse shark. A mighty powerful and intelligent animal to interact with. Hardly any other shark species offer so many intriguing features as this one.

Several years past since the island of Réunion suddenly suffered an increase in shark bites that led to chaos and a massive drop in watersport oriented tourism. The understandable but still rather short-sighted reaction was to shut down beaches and keep them closed. So far, paid research has not given any promising lead to explain what happened. Why not? Because the answer does not lay in migration patterns of the local bull and tiger sharks, and their seasonal increase in numbers.

Buoys, oil platforms, shipwrecks, and other human-built structures attract marine animal life and eventually sharks, as well. Be it for protection, food, or pure curiosity, animals find their niche around and within them for a variety of reasons.

The leopard shark is a very distinctive shark species along the West coast of North America. Although very common, there are still many question marks about their biology and behavior. Once you start researching the internet or observing this species in the water, it gets intriguing very quickly.

As with some other watersport activities, surfing is part of two environments, water, and air. For any shark, this boundary is intriguing and strange at the same time. The more a surfer is aware of the limitations while stuck there, the easier any dealings with sharks will get.

Probably the most difficult surroundings for a diver when dealing with sharks is the surface. An inflated BC makes it challenging to keep the head below the surface and observe or look for sharks, likewise maintaining a vertical position without moving the legs too much. Such a situation can get worse, should there be waves or boat traffic. Having a dedicated diver who stays right below the surface until the dive boat arrives, is the best way to make the waiting period safe.

Spearfishing is the most exposed activity in the ocean when it comes to close encounters with sharks. Although there are pretty straight forward recommendations of what to do during an encounter, or even prevent one, headlines still pop up regularly where sharks and spearfishers had a slight disagreement.

Caribbean reef sharks are unique in many ways, but one thing is mind-boggling, entire groups of those sharks can disappear within a minute form a site and reappear shortly after, maybe one minute or two later, but from different directions.

Sphyrna mokarran, the so called great hammerhead, is a hammerhead species of the superlative, and that in many aspects. Probably unknown to most, it is also the most flexible species by far when it comes to being able to turn in tight spaces.

The first moment during an interaction with a shark offers the most information. Unfortunately, this is also the moment where many people freeze because of the sheer presence of the animal. This moment can get worse, should the shark be a species that has been misrepresented by the media. Following some rules, divided by reference points, helps to get a clear(er) idea about the present moment with the animal, independent of species.

The US is a significant transit hub for shark fins originating from Central and South American countries. Although many regulations are in place, still plenty of those fins made to their Asian destinations. Which are those US ports used for transit, what are the laws, why is it so hard to confiscate these shipments?

Even among some shark scientists, there is the opinion that sustainable shark fishing can work. This erroneous assumption gives commercial fishing fleets carte blanche. In a time where it is more than obvious how nature is mistreated, no scientist should side with damaging parties.

Whenever facing a shark, every little information helps to understand a situation better. Although the OODA-loop was developed for tactical purposes, its meaning can also be applied to shark encounters. Here, a comparison is given between the commonly used system within ADORE-SANE and OODA.

The Brother Islands in the Red Sea had their share of bad publicity when it comes to negative interactions with oceanic whitetip sharks, and the government has not learned to improve the situation. But that does not mean one cannot enjoy hanging out with these beautiful sharks when out there.

Taxonomy has its problems, especially when it comes to sharks. What if some of these shark species out there turn out to be more than one species? Could what we call ‘white sharks’ represent two or even three species? Who knows.

Nurse sharks have so called barbels, and the prevailing opinion is that these appendices are somehow used for smell, or then to pick up vibrations from the ground. Neither makes much sense. Some possible ideas are explored.

How can we be more sensitive to nature? It does not take much, and it can start with just the simple encounter of a scout.

CNN posted that a kid caught a record-sized shark. Is this news worthy? It is if one is outraged against this senseless killing, but that is not the core of the posting. The whole message revolved around the glorification of just killing another shark.

Even today’s scientific papers claim that up to 25% of all shark bites are hunger-related. This assumption is entirely wrong and lacks any understanding of bit motivations.

The problem with any discussion where two opposite parties participate is the proper foundation of one’s opinion. But what if the opposition does not have such and insists without being able to defend its idea? That is what happened in the last podium’s discussion on the pro and cons of shark feeding.

Hurricanes leave misery and destruction. What happens to sharks during such storms? Do they leave before? Where do they go? How can they sense a looming storm? What happens to shallow-water nursery grounds and their shark pups…?

Less and less white sharks show up in Guadalupe. Granted, they are still more abundant than anywhere on this planet, but most of them only show up for a few years and then are gone for good. Where do they go? Are they still alive? With a bit more sophisticated satellite tags, the answer could be found. The Mexican government gets enough park fees from divers who want to see the white sharks. So money should not be a problem. Aren’t we all curious what happens to them once they are not coming back to the island anymore?

What is more important than to get an idea what a shark’s intention is when it first appears? Hardly anything. So it is crucial to get as much out of the first few seconds as possible. Level, angle, and speed are it.

No shark wants to hurt us; they most often merely try to figure us out using their teeth as a holding tool. It is never their intention to cause harm, a fact that is hardly ever discussed when it comes to incidents with them.