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?
.
I don’t think even George W could print enough money for me to do that.
Would you get in the water with one?
All of it. No, really ALL of it. And even then, probably not….
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
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!”
[…] 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 […]
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}