Sharks and More Sharks.

Well, I’ve written about going to the Bahamas to dive with the sharks, and I’ve posted a few photos, but I thought more pictures of the animals would be appreciated.  People have been asking, “Are those great white sharks?” And the answer is, no. They are carribbean reef sharks. MAYBE they are grey reef sharks, but I don’t know if that is the case.

Other people ask, “Are those man eating sharks?” and the answer is, No.  They are reef sharks. There really are no “man eating sharks” if by “man eating” one means a species that regularly makes man part of its diet.  Sharks don’t eat people, though on occasion they do take an exploratory bite, and the bigger the shark the bigger the bite.  Unlike other animals (certain tigers, mosquitoes), sharks rarely attack people. It happens, of course, but rarely.  Dogs attack people too. Hippopotami attack people. People attack people. There is nothing especially dangerous about sharks. People fear them because of media hype. People fear them because when people swim in the ocean, they are no longer the top of the food chain. People fear them because they are hard to see when one is swimming in the water.  And, then, there is Jaws, which ruined the ocean for at least two generations of people!

In any event, the shark is a beautiful animal that has been around for hundreds of millions of years. As the apex predator, it helps keep our oceans healthy.  Sharks are being destroyed, and the harm to the ecosystem cannot be readily predicted, but can easily be imagined. Entire food chains are collapsing. For want of sharks, the ray populations explode. Too many rays, and the population of scallops is destroyed. If you  make yoru living selling scallops, and there are none to be found, you can thank the overfishing of sharks. Of course, you are then probably killing rays and cutting them up into discs and calling them Scallops (yes folks, this does happen), but the point is, messing with an ecosystem is never a good thing.

Enough preaching, and here are some pictures!

Shark and Fish Merry-Go-Round

Staring down the barrel.

Its a Bird! It's a Plane! No, its Super Shark!

Bloody tooth

David Posing While Photographers Shoot the Sharks