• Question: Have ever been attacked by sharks or seen a shark eat anything that you were studying

    Asked by elmocho to Clare, Dave, Glo, Ozge, Sean on 15 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Ozge Ozkaya

      Ozge Ozkaya answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      I’m afraid I havent, wouldn’t that have been cool-if I managed to escape unharmed of course. The biggest predator of what I am studying (i.e. krill) are whales though 🙂

    • Photo: Dave Sproson

      Dave Sproson answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Short answer: No. Long answer: Erm, no 🙂

      As a physicist I’m only ever likely to come into contact with sharks when diving for fun – and I’ve only ever seen tiddlers!

    • Photo: Sean Clement

      Sean Clement answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Never seen one in the wild I’m afraid! The local fishermen were incredibly good at catching sharks where I lived in Madagascar… To the point that there were none left on local coral reefs 🙁

    • Photo: Clare Woulds

      Clare Woulds answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Thankfully not. However the risk of sharks is the reason that I have never been allowed to go swimming from a research ship in the Indian ocean (I’ve spent 4.5 months there in total). Very frustrating!

    • Photo: Gloeta Massie

      Gloeta Massie answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Ozge, Dave, and Sean – you really need to come and visit me. (You’re invited, too, Elmocho. Never seen sharks! Sad. Yes, I have been ‘attacked’ by a shark. It was my own fault though. I was a dingbat. I had been working with squid and had squid gut goo all over my hands, and, not thinking wiped it down my legs (you know – that wipe your hands on your legs to dry them off thing – except – in this case – I was under water). So anyway – I see this BEAUTIFUL leopard shark (e.g. ) swimming by – so I swim a little closer – and it swims a little closer – and I swim a little closer – and then it swam a little closer and bit my leg – right where I had wiped off the squid guts. Luckily, I was wearing a 7mm dive suit at the time; unluckily, all that neoprene got stuck in the sharks teeth – and so it got stuck. To my thigh. So – there I am – swimming – with a meter long shark attached to my left thigh. What I wouldn’t do for a photo of that moment! Eventually – it wriggled it’s way off – and I went to the surface, laughing at my own silliness.

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