68 | July⢠2018
SWIMMING WITH SHARKS
grassecosystemshabitattomarine
wildlife.
Furthermoretheirroleinocean
ecosystems is likely to increase if the
planet and its oceans continue to
warm. Tiger sharks love warm water
they eat almost anything and they
havelargelittersofpupsmakingti-
gersoneofthehardiestsharkspecies.
hey are also among the largest: ma-
ture females can exceed 5.5 metres
and weigh more than 540 kilograms.
Onlygreatwhitesandafew other
sharkspeciesarelarger.
TIGER BEACH IS NOTactually a
beach. Itâs a shallow bank about
40 kilometres from Grand Bahama
Islandapatchworkofsandsea
grassandcoralreefthatbeganat-
tracting divers about a decade ago.
Itâs prime habitat for tiger sharks
andhasidealconditionsforviewing
them.hewaterissixto13.5metres
deep and usually crystal clear. You
straponweightssinktothebottom
andwatchthesharksgoby.
Ontheboatridetothesiteourdive
operatorsVincentandDebraCana-
bal started tossing bloody chunks of
ish overboard. Almost immediately
the water illed with Caribbean reef
sharksandlemonsharks.AtlastVin-
cent spotted a huge dark silhouette.
âTiger!â he yelled pointing.
He jumped in with a crate of mack-
ereltobeginfeedingthesharkonthe
sealoorâinparttooccupyitwhile
the rest of us entered the water and
I
sawJawstheyearitcameout
1975.IwasnineandIstill
remember how the theatre
erupted when Brody finally
killed the monster shark. I
loved the movie and that
nightIdreamedofashark
swimming up through the toilet and
comingaftermedownthehall.
So when I got this assignment I
decidedtodowhatIâdneverwanted
todo:swimwithsharks.Iwouldgo
to a place in the Bahamas known as
TigerBeachwhereIâddivewithtiger
sharksthespeciesresponsiblefor
more recorded attacks on humans
than any shark except the great
white. Most people who got wind of
this plan thought I was either very
braveorverystupid.
ButIjustwantedtopunctureanil-
lusion.hepeoplewhoknowsharks
intimately tend to be the least afraid
ofthemandnoonegetscloserto
sharks than divers. The divers who
runoperationsatTigerBeachgive
themnicknamesandlightupwhen
they talk about their personality
quirks. In their eyes these sharks
arenât man-eaters. (In 2017 there were
justivefatalitiesfromsharkattacks
worldwide.)
Buttigersharksarenotrelevant
justbecauseofhowmanypeople
they bite. As apex predators they
actasacrucialbalancingforcein
ocean ecosystems constraining the
behaviourofotheranimals.Assuch
they are essential to the health of sea
