Not Too Close

I have told my mother about wanting to dive with sharks, and it worries her. I understand that it will worry her, but I don't want her to get so worried that she won't let me dive. I have explained to her that I will not get too close or be stupid like a man on an Animal Planet show who nearly got his lips bit off by a nurse shark after kissing it. I am not planning on getting up in sharks' faces and hugging them or anything like that. I may stroke them gently if they swim by me, but I will not get too close for comfort. I don't think they are dangerous, but I do know that they are very capable of hurting you if you harass or frighten them. I will not treat them like puppies or dogs but respect them as creatures whom environment I am invading and as creatures who could rip my leg off if they wanted to. They are not monsters but they can turn into them very quickly, and for that reason I will not be stupid and not get too close.

Recent Shark Attacks

Every time a new shark show premieres, I just have to watch it. So of course, when Nat Geo Wild made "Shark Attack Experiment Live", I watched it. A team of scientists are doing tests in the water with sharks to separate fact from myth, to see if sharks are out to get us. The reason is because they stated that in 2011, there have been more shark attacks and fatalities than any year in decades. Does this surprise me? A little. But does it scare me? No. I think that the reason for these attacks may be because of the growing human population. The global population recently hit 7 billion, and the more people there are on the globe, the more often beaches are visited. WE are invading their territory, they are not maliciously killing more people on purpose. Therefore, the fact of more shark attacks doesn't frighten me one bit.