I'd like to welcome a very special guest this week, photogapher Steve Hinczynski. You can see his great work at the website: www.stevexinfocus.com. Steve it was great swimming with you and please keep the complements coming! Emma "I had heard a lot about her, but it wasn’t until I saw her, that I could believe the hype. I’m talking about Emma the Shark and she lived up to every word of her billing. This was my first encounter with Tiger Sharks and I was completely blown away. These sharks are amazing. OK, all sharks are really amazing when you get down to it. There’s something magical being in the water with a 14-foot Tiger Shark that is as curious about you as you are of her. While there were many Tigers in the water (I believe the count was 11) none have the personality that Emma has. She’s bold, confident, smart and a bit of a camera hound. She’ll swim by you looking you over, and when she’s comfortable with you, she’ll swim right up to your camera for her close-up. If you’re lucky, she’ll give you a dance and maybe even a gentle nudge confirming your relationship. This media “man-eater” clearly hasn’t been paying attention to the headlines. Yes, you have to pay attention to her and give her plenty of respect, but even still, she never once showed signs of aggression towards us or generated that feeling that we should leave. Encounters like this are infrequently ever heard of or experienced except by a few privileged people who are willing to not be blinded by the all to frequent distorted media portrayal as “man-eating monsters of the deep”. Too many shows continually portray these magnificent creatures as mindless killers. Stuffing mannequins with fish and feeding them to the sharks. That’s great for Discovery Channel ratings, but is so far from the truth. If not for a dedicated bunch of shark caretakers such as Jim Abernethy, who know the truth and will gladly show the real story, sharks such as Emma, will always be villains judged guilty before proven innocent. I can only hope that more people get to meet Emma or at least get to hear about how wonderful she is along with the truth about the plight these amazing animals are faced with." .................................Steve
Hinczynski
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