Dive Pacific Iss 171 Oct- Nov 2019

Reef sharks in Tahiti
Photo Anthony Berberian
Great White about to breach
Staying confident
Maintaining eye contact, showing confidence without
aggression, and projecting awareness is a big part
of staying safe in the water with large sharks, as is
becoming more attuned to their body language.
Spending more time in the water with sharks does
help you understand them better, but it is a mistake
to become complacent around any shark, or think you
can always ‘read’ them. Yes, they usually signal their
mood with body language, but sometimes that mood
can change so quickly they are at warp speed before
you can react.
While regularly diving with sharks makes you more
objective about the relatively low risk of most shark
dives it also hones your respect for them. It pays to
recognise that even a small shark can give you a bite
requiring 20 or 30 stitches. This is not to demonise
sharks, just to acknowledge what they are capable of!
Watch your back
Certainly when filming sharks in open water it is
important to have someone you trust watching your
back. It is pretty difficult to see what is going on
behind you when you’re focused on framing a shot,
and that second pair of eyes makes all the difference.
It also pays to remember that when shooting sharks
with a wide-angle lens, ‘filling the frame’ means the
shark is going to be on your camera dome, literally!
400 million years of evolution has honed sharks into
superb predators, and to my mind one of the beautiful
animals on the planet. I count myself very fortunate
to have had so many opportunities to get into the
water to film these amazing creatures; they are intelligent,
intensely aware, often curious, and incredibly
graceful …don’t ever miss a chance to do a shark dive!
Looming out of the darkness - night dive with a Great White
www.dive-pacific.com 35