Florida - November 2010

24 photos

“You’re more likely to be attacked by lightning or by your own toilet than you are by a shark.”
—Peter Benchley, author of Jaws

Though most sharks are predators, humans are not their natural prey. Of some 400 shark species, only 4 pose a serious risk: Great White, Tiger, Oceanic Whitetip, and Bull. The others generally do their best to avoid people, though several will defend themselves if threatened.

Sharks themselves are threatened by the world’s most prodigious predators: humans. Commercial fishing operations kill about 100 million annually. Shark meat is all too popular, as is shark-fin soup, for which these beautiful animals are “finned” and thrown back into the water to die. Humans have left some 200 shark species at risk and 20 in danger of extinction.

Tiger & Lemon Sharks . 20 miles off the West End of Grand Bahama Island lies "Tiger Beach," a sandy-bottomed area lying in 30 feet of water, roughly a square kilometer in area, inside a fringing reef. Boats anchor here, chum with fish blood & parts, and generally will be rewarded with groups of 30 Lemon Sharks and 3 or 4 Tiger Sharks. Tiger Sharks are justifiably notorious for being the second most dangerous shark for humans – and they are widely thought to have been the culprits in attacks on airmen and sailors shot down in the South Pacific during the Second World War. However, for reasons not yet understood, they seem to be more docile in the Atlantic, and particularly at Tiger Beach.