How would you like to do this for a living? Cristina Zenato is a shark handler. Underwater videographer and conservationist Joe Romeiro captures her interacting with sharks in this lovely video. I found it mesmerizing although I question why anyone would want to balance a shark on their hand.
Link - Via Inspiration Green
Pretty sick stuff here.
The shark is a female, the trance is not sexual.
If you had observed sharks mating in the wild (as I have) you would know the mating is not a gentle act. None of what I do here is sexual, nor exploitative.
The shark comes up to me to be touched, if it did not want to, I would never be able to reach for it.
What I do is trying to make people wonder how we can move and handle sharks in this way, when sharks are known to jut "eat people". I want people to question their so called "knowledge" about sharks and decide to learn a little more and realize there is so much more and so much to protect.
I receive every day 100s of message from people who's perception about sharks has changed thanks to this video.
And what you see falling off the shark fin...well that is just sand that was on the pelvic fins.
Male Sharks have claspers, their sexual organs. I will leave it up to you to google it and see how visible they are.And to compare to this girl.
True knowledge allows to make the right comments.
Best Regards
Cristina Zenato
I found you video beautiful to watch and was amazed at your handling of the shark (lemon?). At first I thought it was just another well done shark video but then was mesmerized to see the creature lying against you while you stroked its back and nose.
I am guessing that rubbing the nose (which is very sensitive to magnetic and electrical impulses I understand) is similar to having an alligator go into a super relaxed state by stroking its belly in one direction?
I've enjoyed interactions with wild rays (cow nosed and Atlantic) while fishing in the surf, but would be extremely nervous doing so with even a small shark. I was glad to see you take nothing for granted with these spectacular creatures and were wearing chain mail to protect yourself.
Awesome video, and thank you for sharing it.