Swimming With Sharks, Oh, My!

How would you feel swimming with White Tipped Reef Sharks and Galapagos Black Tipped Sharks? I will share with you how I felt! I looked down and there on the bottom of the ocean floor was a shark! Honestly, I know enough about sharks, that I was ok. I know that in the Galapagos area there are large schools of Hammerhead sharks and they are known to attack people. They can be aggressive and dangerous to humans. If I would have seen any Hammerheads I doubt I would have remained calm. The sharks I saw were not aggressive and showing no signs of aggression. Also, there were plenty of food sources around for them that were much more palatable than I was.
When I tell students in Kansas that I have swam with sharks they always look at me like I am crazy. A good analogy is like saying I pet a dog! There are varieties of sharks just as there are types of dogs. If you pet a poodle you get a visual image. If I say I pet a pit bull you get another image. The same is true with sharks. You can learn about the types of sharks and which are most likely to harm people. Most are not dangerous anymore than dogs are dangerous to people. There are however certain dogs that have been known to attack people. Does that mean all dogs are horrible and should be killed? Or is this a ludicrous statement?

Here's a great shark website http://www.sdnhm.org/kids/sharks/index.html