August 2016.
After interacting with tiger sharks during my record-breaking 12-hour stay without leaving the water in the Bahamas in 2011 and taking my first steps in tonic immobility in 2014 with that same species, last April I continued to do a little more research on the technique of rendering sharks immobile in their natural environment.
Some history about tonic immobility with sharks
In 1998 I had the opportunity to meet Andre Hartman in South Africa, the first person to dive with the great white shark without a cage. In many of his interactions with this species, Hartman had found that by touching them on the snout they would go into a kind of trance.
Although there are many previous studies on animal hypnosis, it can be said that Hartman, with these actions performed in the 1980s, was the forerunner of the principles of tonic immobility with sharks. All of them were performed on the surface where the white shark, after touching him on the snout, remained vertical with its head out of the water, opening and closing its mouth slowly for a few seconds.
The first scientific use of tonic immobility with sharks was in 1993 in Hawaii. Researchers Carl Meyer and Kim Holland had to carry out a project for the Marine Biology Institute of Hawaii to determine whether tiger shark populations could remain resident on different reefs on their islands. To do this, they captured several specimens and, once at the surface, turned them over and induced tonic immobility in order to attach transmitters to them.
In 1994, Alan D. Henningsen conducted a tonic immobility study with 12 species of elasmobranchs, including leopard sharks, whitetip reef sharks, blacktip reef sharks and Caribbean sharks. The average immobility time was 16.7 seconds, although some reef sharks spent 274 seconds. Henningsen stated that these practices could be of great help to sharks in medical procedures.
Later, other researchers such as Dr. Brooks or Dr. Gruber, both residents of the Bahamas, have also carried out these practices for scientific purposes.
Relationship with sharks
At present, a world reference in sharks is the Italian Cristina Zenato. With her experience of more than 20 years with the "Caribbean reef sharks", Cristina has managed to have a very special relationship with this species of sharks to the point of leaving them immobile for 15 minutes.
Last December, after diving with Zenato in Grand Bahama, we were able to exchange different points of view about the tonic immobility and her actions with sharks. Undoubtedly, Cristina commented, "after so much time diving with them in the same area, they already know me, for this very reason I can help them in their own environment without having to take them out of the water, for example, by removing hooks from their mouth", at which point she showed me a box with more than 50 hooks that she herself had removed.
Cristina pointed out that she doesn't really do tonic immobility because there is no manipulation of obligation towards the shark. "After so much time diving with them, the sharks decide what to do. There are times when I touch them on the snout but there are other times when I don't, many times they come on their own and land on me." She is sure that there is a relationship and that for that reason, and because of her loyalty for so many years to the same dive site, she is able to accomplish many of the things she does.
Tonic immobility with tiger sharks (March 2016).
Being able to help the sharks, one of my goals...
Seeing the help Cristina Zenato gives to reef sharks and also seeing how in some cases she does research with them, capturing them and tying them on the side of a boat to induce tonic immobility, I decided to try this technique with tiger sharks in their own habitat.
In 2014, in Bahamas, I had my first experience. The first attempts were made by stroking their snout. The result in this case was not successful, a 4 meter tiger shark apparently does not stop with a simple caress on its nose. The next attempts were made with the "physical inversion" technique, that is, trying to flip him the same way Kim Holland did in Hawaii, but in this case in the water, not on the surface. After several attempts I managed to close his mouth and turn him vertical, but his immobility was very slight.
Last March, also in the Bahamas, I tried again. This time it was much clearer to me how to do the technique: I had to gently close his mouth and then turn him over until he was horizontal. Possibly by staying in this position, the immobility was maintained.
Just to add an aside to my story, and as a curious fact, nature takes advantage of tonic immobility as a rejection tool in the mating process. In some shark species, the females pretend to be dead (voluntary tonic immobility) so that the male is not interested in them and thus go unnoticed. The male will look for another female that shows she is in top form to ensure that his offspring will be strong and healthy.
Returning to my new attempt, which took place with females, which did not play dead voluntarily..., I can say that finally, after several attempts, I managed to put a 4 meter tiger shark completely horizontally. The technique was 100% effective. The time that the shark remained motionless in horizontal position was still short, no more than 6 seconds, although it could have possibly stayed longer but when I perceived that the shark was not too comfortable, I let it go.
There are animals, invertebrates and vertebrates, that provoke this cataleptic state of paralysis, tonic immobility, as a defense against an attacker. There are also "smarter" ones that provoke themselves this "pseudo paralysis", not to avoid being hunted but to become stealthy hunters. It is clear then that if they provoke this state themselves, it should not do them much harm. Finally, there is the case of provoked tonic immobility, that is, provoked by researchers as a work tool or for research.
After my experiences in this field, trying to provoke a tiger shark into tonic immobility underwater can certainly be very positive for the scientific community, but if it is not done correctly, the action seems to be more uncomfortable for the shark than anything else.
It is proven, and I have cited several examples above, that using these techniques can help sharks, but in the case of tigers, and more so trying it underwater, it takes a lot more dedication, which I hope to have in the very near future, to find the best way to do it, perhaps getting to the point of looking for a relationship, not simply a technique, as Cristina Zenato does with her reef sharks.
Touching and feeding sharks
Spreading the world of sharks, another of my goals.
The more and better people get to know them, the more they will protect them and realize their importance. Jacques Cousteau already said: "we only love what we know". But... what are the ways to achieve this?
Without any doubt, the best thing we have been able to do for decades is to dive with them, demonstrating from the beginning that they do not eat divers. Even so, the figure of the shark continues to cause terror in most of the world. Dozens of movies and misguided news have been and will continue to be the protagonists of the panic to these animals, so it is not enough that many divers "observe" sharks on dives.
What can change this? Prove with facts that we are not really their food, that is to say, that they are not "man-eaters", how? By diving with bait. There is no better proof than "giving them a choice" between the diver and the box with fish, speaking in a "metaphorical" way.
Several dive centers in the world have been doing this type of dives for many years. The guide goes down with a box with bait and in some cases, feeds the sharks. In other cases the bait only serves to attract the sharks so that they can be observed much more closely. When there is direct feeding, you can clearly see the shark's interest in the bait and when the fish remains in the box, you can observe how they sniff around them without paying much attention to the guide and even less to the divers who are watching.
Dive centers such as Stella Maris in Long Island and Stuart Cove in Nassau, were pioneers in shark feeding. Cristina Zenato, for example, not only feeds sharks on conventional dives with clients but also gives courses on how to do it, proving without a doubt that sharks are interested in the bait, not the divers.
Some people label these dives as "circus acts". The major difference is that we go to their natural habitat where the animals are free, instead of being returned to cages, in a circus enclosure, right after the performance. So it is categorically not a circus act. With these actions there are many people who change their ideas about sharks, one of my main objectives in my relationship with sharks.
There is no doubt that it is necessary to inform where the limits are and who can cross them. "Children, don't do this on your dives" would be a "typical" phrase that all of us who feed or touch sharks could add to photos or videos. At least in my case, whenever I give a course, give a lecture or have the opportunity to talk about sharks, I always point out that to dive with them you have to know how to do it and that undoubtedly feeding or any practice such as tonic immobility should be done only by experts, although the practice of touching or stroking some sharks, with a good previous information on how to do it and supervised by expert guides, can be done by any diver. I will not forget the words of Leandro Blanco when in one of the editions of the Valladolid underwater film festival to which we were both invited, he said: "I encourage all divers to respectfully caress what the seabed provides us, it would be a shame not to feel the touch of an octopus or the skin of a shark".
About feeding sharks, there is an "argument" that if we feed sharks on a regular basis and always in the same place, it alters their behavior by associating the diver's activity with the food, which impacts the environment. It could be true, but very insignificant in the grand schemes of how things happen in the oceans. In addition, the food offered to them can be found naturally in their hunting grounds so there is little reason to raise a red flag for such practices.
On the other hand, there are additional benefits in organizing this type of feeding activities, some aimed at the diving industry business itself and others aimed at scientists and researchers. The ocean is a laboratory where it is difficult to obtain the necessary elements to carry out different types of research, so these practices can undoubtedly help to learn more about sharks.
Who do you really have to fight against?
The ultimate goal of my actions with sharks is to protect them.
Cómo dato curioso: España es la cuarta potencia mundial en la pesca de tiburones…
Otro dato aún más curioso y dramático: Al año se matan más de 100 millones de tiburones en el mundo, sobre todo para quitarles las aletas. Si seguimos a este ritmo, los Océanos se quedarán sin vida.
Sharks are essential to marine ecosystems. They achieve population balance in their food species and maintain the "health" of the ocean by removing diseased animals. However, their vulnerability due to the small number of young, slow sexual maturation and reproductive cycles that can reach up to 22 months, increases with the scarcity of prey, pollution, habitat destruction and the cruel practice of "finning" (cutting off the fins of a shark and returning the specimen to the sea... alive).
According to scientists, the exploitation of large sharks worldwide in recent decades is mainly due to the growing demand for shark fin and shark meat, but also because the sharks become 'by-catch' during other catches (tuna and swordfish). In fact, according to a report by the environmental organization OCEANA, every year about 100 million sharks fall into the nets of fishing boats, either intentionally or accidentally.
For example, the gradual disappearance of large sharks in the northwest Atlantic Ocean has caused a decline in the populations of oysters, clams, oysters and other mollusks, according to a study by American scientists. In their study, the experts explain that the disappearance of the large sharks has in turn led to an increase in the population of medium-sized sharks and rays (which serve as food for the larger species that have disappeared). Since small shark species feed on bivalves and shellfish, the populations of these species are seriously affected by the depletion of large sharks.
Although it is clear that this can significantly affect the trade of seafood businesses, jeopardizing their economy, the exact consequences of these factors are currently unknown. The irreversible depletion or disappearance of a vital species of the oceans such as the shark does not bode well, and fatal domino effects can be predicted with the destabilization and irreparable deterioration in the functions of the marine ecosystem.
We must stop the indiscriminate shark fishing by many governments (including the Spanish government, which after Taiwan, is the world's fourth largest supplier of shark fins) that is destroying shark populations, as well as stop the cruel business of "finning", controlled by mafias as powerful and atrocious as arms trafficking or drug trafficking.
If we do not stop this trail of crimes, very soon, perhaps in decades, we will lose the shark, a creature that has survived for more than 400 million years, resisting the climatic impact that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs and that today, because of human greed, we are bringing to the brink of extinction.
How can we help protect them?
Although it is not an easy task, we can all contribute our "grain of sand" by taking the following actions:
- Do not order shark fin soup. It is totally uncertain that it gives more sexual vigor besides being a totally tasteless soup.
- Do not eat shark meat. There are other fishes that are of equal or better taste than sharks.
- Do not buy products or ornaments derived from sharks.
- Promote among our community that endangered sharks are being fished in many countries.
- Encourage divers to get to know sharks and to dive with them. This will make governments detect an increase of income in the tourism sector and think about protecting instead of killing sharks.
- Once we already know the world of sharks, inform the general public that the shark is not a killer of humans.
As a final thought and answering the last question of my article "who should we really fight against", we should fight against the people who kill sharks, not against those of us who try to help them.
Any of my actions with sharks, those of Cristina Zenato, Michael Rutzen, Eli Martinez or anyone else who is an activist for these animals, even if we touch and feed them on occasion, will be infinitely more beneficial than killing a shark, no matter how much it bothers some people.
"Leave sharks alone" is a phrase I have heard sometime in forums and RRSS. If we really all left sharks alone and just watched them, nothing more would be learned about them. To simply say that they are not as bad as they are painted, without facts, is not enough. To help them, protect them and spread their world, you have to take action, action that sometimes annoys them, maybe, but as Zenato and I have commented several times, "better a live shark fed artificially than a dead shark".
