Since my South-African bath with the great white sharks and the sandtiger sharks, I developed a certain fascination for this often extraordinary-sized cartilaginous fish. The animal which stands at the apex of the food chain reached such a level of perfection for predation that it has hardly evolved for the last 200 millions years.
After a fruitless attempt a week ago, I go back to Pacific Harbour where two dive centers offer the shark-feeding, an activity we can condemn on one side since it interacts with animal kingdom but respectful on another side because it serves to promote the protection of this sensitive fish which often finishes in the too tight-meshed nets or hooked up a rod of a stupid fishing game.
On the boat, we receive strict orders because no protective cage will surround us. We'll stay behind a rope flanked by two stick-equipped divers who will move aside a possible oncoming shark. 2 other divers will be in charge of feeding the sharks, opening two big dustbins full of tuna leftovers. And the festival begins. A lot of opportunistic fish such as big-eyed jacks or remoras swim around and try to pick up a chunk on the way. But these fish give way when the cartilaginous predators arrive, among them the two most aggressive ones in the world, the tiger shark and the bull shark. Lemon-, tawny nurse- and reef sharks will complete this great diversity.
One of the crew members approaches me, seizes my arm and pulls me to the stage. A tawny nurse shark lays down on the bottom when my hand holds out towards the animal and gently strokes its rough skin. Because the skin of a shark is not smooth; it's dotted of countless mini-teeth and was formerly sold as tool to sand the hulls of the boats. These bumps serve to break out the vortex of the water which forms when the shark swims and improve its hydrodynamism. I take back my position behind the rope and keep my eyes wide-open in front of the show. A dive not as the other ones among the kingdom of the predators.

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