by Roger Blum
Meet the Bull Sharks
The real reason I went to Mexico was actually to photograph the fauna and flora in freshwater cavern areas far away from the ocean. Here in the jungle, there are colorful cichlids, tooth carp, catfish and tetrasa, all of which we know from our native aquariums, as well as blind cave fish and turtles. But I was drawn to the ocean when I was given the opportunity by a small group of adventurous divers to swim with bull sharks.
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On the way to the dive site hardly anyone spoke. We wanted to swim with the stacky sharks without cages or a bait box. Bull sharks are considered one the most dangerous species of sharks, along with tiger sharks and great whites. They top the statistics for shark attack. The well-known shark researcher Dr. Erich Ritter lost a part of his leg due a bull shark attack. It wasn't too late to back down yet.
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I dropped from the boat backwards into the water. Immediately I looked down and could see already the first sharks circling under the boat. My heart was pounding. They weren't just any little reef sharks, but really big ones. The distance from the surface to the seabed was about 20 meters. I was following our diving guide Geraldine. The 25-year-old Frenchwoman was accompanied by a Mexican guide who was supposed to give us back-up so that we could fully concentrate on the sharks. His job was to make sure that no shark could to sneak on behind us.
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The bull sharks swam leisurely and occasionally disappeared in the blue of the sea. There was no need for them to rush down here. That was their territory. Suddenly a "bull" swam right at me. I held still and felt like a rabbit caught in the headlights. My heart was pounding. Once again. The shark slipped right by me. I had the feeling that I could almost stroke him, he had come so close.
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I never experienced such spectacular diving encounters as I did here on the Mexican Caribbean coast near Playa del Carmen. It was much more natural than the Great White Shark Diving in South Africa, where I was protected in a cage among fish litter in cold, murky water as I waited for the sharks.
After an hour, our diminishing oxygen supplies forced us to surface.
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Meet The Gigantic Ocean Sunfish
"I recently saw a puffer fish." Nothing too special about that, some might think. "But this particular pufferfish was as tall as a small building." The usual reaction to this statement is wide-eyed disbelief. Or people think, maybe after inhaling too much nitrogen, that I’ve lost my mind... But this is a true story. In mid-November I went diving south of Bali on the island of Nusa Penida and met one of the most fascinating and mystical creatures on earth - the gigantic ocean sunfish.
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Shark 'n Surf in South Africa
Ever since Steven Spielberg’s underwater blockbuster ‘Jaws’ hit cinemas in 1975, people who swim in the sea have been divided into two camps: those who hope that they’ll never come face-to-face with a shark, and those who actively seek them out. I am one of the latter. Inspired by the celebrated film and its anti-hero, the great white shark, I try to dive with the elegant hunters whenever and wherever I can. On this occasion, I was in the coastal town of Gansbaai, two hours south of Cape Town.
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