• Question: Have you seen a shark in the wild and if so how do they react to humans in their habitat

    Asked by anon-334754 on 22 Nov 2023.
    • Photo: Jenny Shepperson

      Jenny Shepperson answered on 22 Nov 2023:


      I have seen quite a few sharks in the wild yes, when scuba diving! It’s very cool to see them in their natural habitat. I think different shark species react differently, some are more shy, some more bold! I have only really dived with reef sharks, which I’d say seem like pretty chilled sharks.. but we should never try to get too close or pester any animal in the wild, we’re in their environment, we should give them space. My favourite memory of diving with sharks – when you dive really deep, you sometimes experience something called being ‘narked’, which can make you feel a bit drunk and giggly… well it happened to me when we had rather a lot of sharks circling above us, which was very cool, and in my narked state, absolutely hilarious!

    • Photo: Jonathan Teague

      Jonathan Teague answered on 23 Nov 2023:


      I have, the white tip reef shark I saw didn’t seem to bothered as we were not disturbing it.. As long as you are respectful that it is their home and don’t disturb them.

    • Photo: Cristina Steliana Mihailovici

      Cristina Steliana Mihailovici answered on 23 Nov 2023:


      Yes, I was seeing sharks in the Atlantic Ocean. They were swimming very closed to the ship. They were trying to catch some seals.

    • Photo: Stephanie Horn

      Stephanie Horn answered on 23 Nov 2023:


      I’ve seen a few dogsharks (species name: Squalus acanthias) in the Scottish waters where I was working. Sometimes they would swim into the salmon farm and we would need to catch them and put them back into the water away from the farm. They are small and look really cool so I enjoyed seeing them!

    • Photo: Karen Edwards

      Karen Edwards answered on 23 Nov 2023:


      I have seen sharks while scuba diving and generally end up feeling sorry for them. The divers are usually very excited and start following after (or chasing) the shark who generally just wants to be left alone.

    • Photo: Amina Moss

      Amina Moss answered on 28 Nov 2023:


      Yes, so I have seen a wide variety of sharks, including lemon, nurse, reef sharks and they were all quite shy towards humans.

    • Photo: Arlene Ditchfield

      Arlene Ditchfield answered on 1 Dec 2023:


      I have seen a few dogsharks in a local Scottish loch and once saw a fisherman catch a dog shark, nearby where where I work. The fisherman was fishing for fun so after showing my kids and I returned the shark to the water and it swam away happily.

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