Sharks!

Sharks can sense fear. Anyone who is afraid of sharks will fear them even more after hearing that. I use to consider myself deathly afraid of sharks. I would still go in the water, surf, swim and just waddle, but the thought of encountering a shark- any shark- really freaked me out. The only thing I could do was to try to not think about it.

But if you ever find yourself in the South Pass of Fakarava (a 200m wide gap in the fringing coral reef used by boats and sea life alike to enter and exit the atoll) and want to snorkel, you have to do it alongside hundreds of sharks…literally.  You can do what is called a drift dive where you start snorkeling outside of the pass on a rising tide and the current pulls you gently (sometimes quickly) into the pass as a spectator to the amazingly diverse and beautiful underwater life that has made this area a Unesco-protected site.   All you have to do is stick your arms out like Superman and look down.

It took less than a minute to spot the first shark … my heart rate instantly increases and I try to relax by saying “they can sense fear, they can sense fear”…this makes my heart rate increase even more! But then, I notice more sharks- so much more than I first saw- in deeper water. My heart rate was about to go off the charts until I realized that they were not interested in me at all. They were going about their shark business as if I wasn’t there (even with my pounding heart). I was surprised to see that their shark business consisted of swimming around pretty slowly, not really going anywhere in particular. I even noticed that the other fish around them didn’t seem afraid. I suppose my idea of a shark was the product of terrible Hollywood films: mean old things that ate anything and everything and caused terror wherever they went. Water bullies. 

But the sharks I saw (mainly black tip and grey reef sharks) looked like they could be water pets. They swam around minding their own business and were extremely graceful and beautiful and even got out of our way as we drifted by.

Although I developed a healthier relationship with sharks during our stay there, I am still not prepared to throw myself in a shark infested water hole smothered with fish guts all over my body. I respect their strength and their very sharp teeth and understand that they can beat me in any type of underwater wrestle or race. Hopefully as long as I don’t bother them, they won’t be interested in me and in return, I’ll be able to control my heart rate.