“In a performance protest against the Australian shark cull and the global slaughter of sharks, a woman risks it all to dance on the sea floor with swarms of tiger sharks up to 17 feet long without any dive or protective gear.” (x)
(Source: arcadiuswild, via cthulhu-with-a-fez)
Y u pet me
Keep pet me
This always makes me happy, because the source video shows that the shark actually wanted this. It experienced it once and then kept coming back for more petting.
(also, because i’ve seen comments about this: the shark is able to breathe while still, not all species need to be in motion to pass water through their gills. If you look closely, you can see its gills pumping)
I would very much like if more people would pet sharks and be good to them instead of trying to hurt them please
Sharks are very lovely and should get pettings like these more :)
MythBusters did an episode on how to survive a shark attack and a shark’s nose is so sensitive that a gentle tap is all you need to drive it away. The guy sat on the ocean floor with a bucket of chum and didn’t get attacked once, when hungry sharks swam up he’d give them a boop on the nose and they’d swim away. So if the shark is friendly, pet the snoot. If the shark is dangerous, boop the snoot. Either way, no one dies.
Boop the snoot
Reblogging for adorable shark and ‘boop the snoot.’
(via adelindschade)
notactuallycute this concerns me for some reason, is this okay?
Hello, shorter-url.
Your concern is very much understandable! Many people are taught that a shark cannot swim when still, which is partially true.Sharks mainly breathe via two methods– buccal pumping, in which the shark actively draws water in through its mouth to pass over its gills, and ram ventilation, in which the shark must constantly move to force water over their gills. Buccal pumping is more prevalent in ancient sharks, and while some sharks adapted for bottom-feeding still use it, many modern sharks – like the great white shark – have lost that ability altogether and instead can only breathe via ram ventilation. These are called obligate ram ventilators and they have to keep moving in order to breathe.
This particular shark is an adult S. fasciatum, a Zebra or Leopard Shark, depending on the region. Fortunately, they aren’t obligate ram ventilators and, in fact, have very strong buccal muscles. You can even see them working in the first two gifs. When it starts moving to swim away, the diver lets it go, and there’s no harm for either party.
All the best,
FatanyerosAlso, in my work with nurse sharks (same branch as S. fasciatum) I found them to actually enjoy scritches and petting. They would actively seek them out on their own terms.
My life is infinitely better for knowing some sharks like scritches.
(Source: sizvideos, via yea-lets-do-this-shit)
Vodka Tia Moran