I just checked into a room on Gili Trawangan. It looked nice. Then, short before I had a shower, I noticed something on the wall. It was a cockroach. Then I noticed another one. And another one. The shower only dribbles, the toilet does not work, the light makes the room look like a brothel. Outside you can hear cats sing their mating song and the door only closes when you actually lock it. I’m back in Asia. It’s good to be home!

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We tend to humanize animals. We give them traits. A dolphin is friendly, constantly smiling at us. A dog is our trusted companion, always loyal. A chimpanzee is almost human, if a little clumsy and not as intelligent, but all the more likeable because of it. And a shark… Well, a shark is just evil. A beast with huge sharp teeth. sharks rouse ancient fears in us and movies like ‘jaws’ or ‘the deep blue’ have just been aggravating the matter. So let’s have a look at the sharks, shall we?

Shark Facts

• Sharks belong to the superorder ‘Selachimorpha’, which is part of the subclass ‘Elasmobranchii’ which in turn belongs to the class ‘Chondrichthyes’.
• In total there are about 370 known shark species living in our oceans.
• They are to be found anywhere from the surface down to 3700m ( like the Portuguese Dogfish or Centroscymnus Coelolepis).
• Sharks range in size from around 20cm (like the Pygmy Ribbontail Catshark or Eridacnis Radcliffei) to probably more than 12m (the largest fish in the ocean, the Whale Shark or Rhincodon Typus).
• Sharks don’t have any table manners. They don’t chew their food, but just swallow it.
• All sharks are cartilaginous, which means that sharks have an internal skeleton made up entirely of cartilage. This is more flexible and lighter than bone. Also cartilaginous fish usually don’t have a swim bladder, so they sink to the bottom if they stop swimming.
• Sharks have 5–7 pairs of gills.
• The oldest found shark fossil dates from about 400 million years ago, so sharks are older than the dinosaurs.
• The brain to body weight ratio is comparable to that of some mammals, so it can be inferred that sharks are not mindless, instinct driven eating machines, but as intelligent as other animals.
• Sharks don’t go to dentists. They have an almost endless supply of new teeth, which normally get replaced every eight days.
• Most fish lay eggs, which then get fertilized by the male. Sharks almost have ‘normal’ sex. The males have claspers, which are not used to hold onto something, but to deposit the sperm inside the female.
• There are up to 12 pups born at one time, with the pups being small, but fully developed versions of their parents.

Are Sharks Dangerous?

Well, there is no doubt that sharks are dangerous animals, as are many other wild animals. But you are more likely to die in a car accident or die from a snake bite than from a shark bite. Quite often attacks are a case of mistaken identity. The attacked person is simply taken for a seal or other type of prey. Most attacks happen on the surface, so swimmers, snorkelers and surfers are more at risk than divers. The five most dangerous sharks are considered to be the White Shark, the Tiger Shark, the Bull Shark, the Short Fin Mako Shark and the Oceanic Whitetip Shark. Of these sharks, only the Bull Shark is a true coastal species. The others may venture close to shore but are more often found offshore. So encounters are very rare. If you should ever encounter a big shark, then it is best not to move around too much, sink down to the bottom (if you’re a diver) to blend into the surroundings and then to move slowly out of the sharks territory. Chances are it’s just passing through.

My Shark Stories

As I said before, I love sharks!! I haven’t had a single dangerous moment with sharks and I have never felt unsafe when in the company of sharks. Most of the times it’s the poor shark that gets scared. You would too, if you had 10 divers swimming furiously at high speed after you to take your picture, when all you want to do is get a quick snack of some tasty Parrotfish.

Manta Point, Gili Trawangan

I had just become manager of Dive Indonesia. It was an exciting time for me. The weather was great, the ocean flat as a mirror every single day. The days were relaxed with a morning dive to a deeper site and a chilled out shallower dive in the afternoon. At this particular day I had four friends book a morning dive with me. They wanted to see sharks, so I decided to go to Manta Point. Funny name that. I don’t think anyone’s ever seen a manta there, but there are sharks. White and black tip reef sharks. I did a current check and because there was none we dropped straight over where the sharks usually hung out. 22 m straight down. At first I couldn’t see any. I told my divers to stay put on the sand, while I had a look under some overhangs and surely there was one resting on the bottom. It seemed a bit startled and started circling around us. The cameras started to take picture after picture. Then another white-tip appeared and shortly after that another three. It was mesmerizing. They came extremely close, as if to pose for a photo, then swam away to give the other sharks a go. Eventually we had to ascend a bit and two of the sharks followed us for a few minutes. A bit later we saw a black-tip shoot past us a couple of times. All in all an absolutely amazing experience. I have never since had so many sharks come so close to me.

My First And Only Whale Shark

I was living and working at the time on Koh Samui, Thailand. There had been rumours going round the diving community that there is a teenage whale shark lurking around Sail Rock, a dive site just off the north-eastern tip of Koh Pha-Ngan. I was having a scuba diver course and having a very hard time. My student was extremely nervous and I was dreading the next day, with two dives on the agenda. When we arrived at Sail Rock the next day, the ocean was calm and the sun was burning down. We geared up and went for our first dive. Everything went uneventful and smoothly, my student having forgotten all his nervousness. And all the time I had half an eye out for my little friend, the whale shark. The second dive went exactly the same as the first. On the way back to our boat we passed another dive boat. The people there were screaming at us that they had just seen the whale shark below their boat. But my student only had about 50 bar left, so it was back to the boat for us. But when my student was safely on the boat, one of the boat boys told me he’d look after him. I took the chance, dumped my air and went down with Laurent, a friend of mine. We found the shark at about 20 meters. He was just beautiful. About 4,5 meters long and swimming calmly through the water. A few remoras and some suckerfish in its wake. At that point we were the only divers in the water. Laurent swam to the sharks right and I stayed on its left. I was so close to him I could have touched the little fella. I moved forward a little bit and looked him straight in the eye and I still think that he was looking straight back at me, trying to figure me out. It was just magical. We swam with him for another 20 minutes, then we were almost out of air and had to ascent and he disappeared below. Here’s a video of the little fella:

So, What Do I Think?

Accidents and attacks will continue to happen as long as we venture into the ocean. We shouldn’t blame the sharks for that, after all it’s their territory. We should treat them with respect, know what they could do to you and remember that they are wild animals. They are the kings of the ocean and they keep the balance in the seas. No sharks in the ocean could have a negative effect on the food chain in the seas. They are truly amazing animals and we know hardly anything about them compared to some land-based animals. Sharks are definitely worth saving. They shouldn’t end up in shark fins soup or as handbags.

Here are some links, which might be of interest:

• Sharktrust
• Wikipedia entry on sharks
• Shark Research Institute
• Global Shark Attack File

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