Categories: Uncategorized

SHARKS

After the movie Jaws came out in the 1970s, it was a big joke that no diver wanted to see a shark underwater. Today it’s just the opposite. Sharks are vital to the health of the oceans and are also incredible creatures that have been swimming since before dinosaurs emerged. They are a miracle of evolution. Yet the world is killing 100 million sharks a year, largely just to put their fins in a soup. When an animal is villainized, it’s an easy stretch to kill them. That needs a makeover.
As much as they’re the biggest, baddest guys in the ocean, life can be hard – they’re affected by climate change, overfishing and pollution. Yet you can get into the water in the Bahamas with tiger sharks that could easily tear you up, but they don’t. Whereas lions would be all over you if you stepped outside your vehicle in the Serengeti, tiger sharks are certainly predators but you can dive near them without a problem. It’s a testament that these animals are not really out to get us.
In the summer of 2016, National Geographic looked at three shark species with notorious reputations: tiger sharks, great whites, and oceanic whitetips. They met scientists who are shedding new light on these enigmatic creatures that are vital to the seas — and not as scary as you might think. The series continued in 2017 with shortfin mako sharks.

SHARKS & HEALTY ECOSYSTEMS
GREAT WHITE SHARKS
TIGER SHARKS
OCEANIC WHITETIP SHARKS
SHORTFIN MAKO SHARKS

Scared of sharks? This photographer aims to turn shark fear into fascination

A lifelong passion for these ocean predators sparked a career in conservation photography and a mission to share the love.

Blacktip sharks circle in the depths of South Africa’s Aliwal Shoal.

Story and photographs byThomas P. Peschak

May 31, 2022 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

On a miserable day in the middle of winter, I push my then 60-year-old mother into the icy waters of the Atlantic. As a nearby great white shark comes to investigate, my mother faces it, then disappears under the water for what feels like an eternity. She returns to the surface, gasping for breath but smiling. I suppose the galvanized steel cage separating her and the shark had something to do with that.

(How to Become a Nat Geo Photographer)

For as long as I can remember, I have loved sharks and wanted to share that passion with everyone, including my initially reluctant parents. I saw my first shark when I was 16, off Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. A trio of blacktips weaved among barracuda circling above a coral reef. I tried to get closer, finning hard into the open water, but a fierce current held me to the reef. When I showed my underwater photographs of this not-so-close encounter, explaining that the small specks were sharks, I was met with the dubious response: “Of course they are.” From then on, all I wanted was to get closer to sharks.

Light shines into the lagoon of Bassas da India, a remote atoll west of Madagascar, revealing a gathering of juvenile Galápagos sharks. As Peschak descended, the sharks followed him to the coral reef, waltzing in and out of the light.

A whale shark vacuums up a patch of plankton just below snorkeling tourists who come from all over the globe to the Maldives to observe in the wild the world’s largest fish.

A blacktip reef shark traverses a mangrove forest as the rising tide submerges low-hanging branches. For many shark species, the mangroves of Aldabra Atoll in the Seychelles serve as both nursery and hunting ground. The island hosts one of the healthiest inshore shark populations in the Indian Ocean.

After I made the switch from marine biologist to photographer, sharks were my first muses. I have now spent more than two decades documenting their complex and somewhat secretive lives. People often ask me what the most dangerous part of my job is—it’s not swimming with sharks. Statistically the most dangerous things I do are crossing the road, driving my car, and toasting bread. Sharks are not as fearsome as they’re made out to be, but some are formidable predators. Encountering wild sharks in their element is a rare privilege that I treat with equal parts respect, humility, and devotion.

A whale shark feeds on plankton blooms, which are spawned by fierce desert winds and cold-water upwelling. Each winter, great numbers of whale sharks gather in the Gulf of Tadjoura off the Horn of Africa.

Swimming in inches of warm water off Aldabra Atoll, blacktip reef sharks wait for the tide to refill the lagoon. With their bellies touching the sand, they point their snouts into the current to keep water flowing over their gills.

Bold Galápagos sharks investigate Peschak’s camera as he explores coral reefs inside Bassas da India’s vast lagoon in the Mozambique Channel.

The National Geographic Society has funded Thomas Peschak’s storytelling around biodiversity since 2017. The images and words here are drawn from Peschak’s 2021 book, Wild Seas, published by National Geographic and available wherever books are sold. Learn more about the Society’s support of Explorers.

This story appears in the July 2022 issue of National Geographic magazine.

admin

I would like to think of myself as a full time traveler. I have been retired since 2006 and in that time have traveled every winter for four to seven months. The months that I am "home", are often also spent on the road, hiking or kayaking. I hope to present a website that describes my travel along with my hiking and sea kayaking experiences.