Feb 7, 2014

Shark....

I don't know how people get eaten by sharks.
I mean how do you not hear the music...?

Look what I came across in the news a few days ago!

Simon Pierce was diving off Isla Murjeres in Mexico when he happened to find himself
 in the right place at the right time to capture an image of a whale shark about to consume 
another diver, swimming near the surface with a snorkel. Or at least that’s what appears
 to be unfolding in the photo below.


Pierce is a marine biologist from New Zealand who does research and 
conservation work on threatened marine species with his main focus being the 
whale shark, the biggest fish on Earth.  Whale sharks are harmless to humans.
The largest known aggregation of whale sharks in the world are these waters 
off Cancun, and on this day there were 100 whale sharks swimming in the area.

“I was trying to capture the shark’s wide-open mouth, which was rather successful 
in this case, Pierce told GrindTV in an email. “Having the swimmer there gives
 some great perspective of the sheer size, too: This shark was about 26 feet in length.
 I had a ‘fisheye’ lens on for this shot, which gives an extreme wide-angle view, 
so the shark was probably only about a foot away from me as it passed.”
With the number of whale sharks in the area, it wasn’t a shock to see 
a giant mouth appear, Pierce added. Whale sharks feed on plankton filtered 
through large mouths that feature 300 to 350 tiny teeth and 10 filter pads, 
and stretch 5 feet wide.


OK so we live in Florida where there are tons of sharks and where a shark
attack is not that unusual to read about.  We also now frequent Mexico where it seems
this is also a common happening.  Well we never go in the waters in Fort Lauderdale beach,
guess we will also skip the waters in Mexico...for us not so difficult.

Have a safe day all and watch out for the sharks!  But if you had
to encounter one, let's hope it a whale shark.  Then you can both have some
playtime in the water.  Best of both worlds.  You live and you get to tell about it and be a hero.


But as they say about sharks, it's not the ones you see 
that you have to worry about, it's the ones you don't see.

~Nadiya~