Swimming with an Oceanic White Tip Shark

   The oceanic white tip shark, (Carcharhinus longimanus) can often be encountered swimming with pods of short fin pilot whales off the Kona coast of the Big Island of Hawaii. They are present in all tropical seas and responsible for most of the injuries and deaths during big shipwreck and airwreck disasters, like that of the USS Indianapolis in 1945 made famous in the retelling in the movies Jaws. 
     I have swam with these sharks on two different occasions and both times the curiousity of the shark was evident. You can see in the video how the shark is not scared at all, and swims right towards me. This is how it checks to see just how easy a meal this new creature might be. I take solace in the fact that I also appear as a predator, with my eyes facing forward and swimming with confidence, in the crystal clear Hawaiian waters.
  There are often small pilot fish that hover around these sharks, picking up morsels of food that the sharks discards. One such fish can be seen swimming with this 7ft oceanic white tip. It is always a pleasure getting to have such an encounter with one of the oceans top predators. Sharks are considered sacred guardian spirits, or amakua, here in Hawaii. After this encounter I can see why.

  Check out my first encounter with an Oceanic White Tip Shark back in 2012 here: http://daimarsadventures.blogspot.com/2012/02/oceanic-white-tip-shark-swimming-with.html