Swimming With Sharks
I have always been fascinated by sharks - blue, mako, thresher, basking, tiger - but none so much as the undeniable ultimate predator: the Great White Shark. There is something about Great Whites that transcends any other type of shark - some of that fueled by “Jaws,” and other mass media, but the Great White Shark truly epitomizes everything that a monster should be: huge, impassive, silent, mysterious, loaded to the gills (no pun intended) with scores of lethal weapons.
Watching shark documentaries always gives me a slightly vicarious thrill - seeing divers swimming with smaller sharks, or secured in cages when the big sharks are around, is spell-binding. But when a Great White appears on-screen, something inside of me goes cold. Some sort of lizard-brain primal fear, I suppose, knowing that this creature could literally bite me in half or nearly swallow me whole.
And then along comes someone who actually swims WITH a Great White Shark - no cage - and actually reaches out to touch the shark. This happened in Hawaii, and the guy that did it, Jimmy Hall, has been raised around and in the ocean (father is a marine biologist). Absolutely incredible.
And the local news interviewed Jimmy and has video of the encounter.
OK, here’s the question: how much money would it take to get you in the water with a Great White Shark?
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February 16th, 2008 at 4:26 am
I don’t think even George W could print enough money for me to do that.
Would you get in the water with one?
February 16th, 2008 at 6:10 am
All of it. No, really ALL of it. And even then, probably not….
February 17th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Dave - there is not enough! Under water, WAY out of our element… and just a couple bites of meat for the shark. Color me a coward here.
gk
February 19th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Randy, there isn’t enough money in the world to get me in the water!!!
Geo, nothing cowardly about it — it’s called “looking out for #1!”
February 28th, 2008 at 5:07 am
[…] RIP, WFB; very annoying commercials and a talk-radio host; some soulful sleestaks; and goats and sharks! And we’ll wrap it up with what Bill O’Reilly might call the Most Ridiculous Item of […]
March 1st, 2008 at 1:00 am
Hummmmmm, guess I will be different per normal!! I watched the hour long show on TV & saw how they did this. Slowly & calculating. I would do it in a heartbeat the way they did it.
I learned to scuba dive when I found out that sharks attack *up*. That made me want to be in the water with them in the first place, not splashing around on the surface.
When it is your time, its your time I guess - God’s plan. {shrug}