March 2007: My first encounters with tiger sharks.

I can't believe it's only four years since I had my first encounters with the sharks I feel I have dived with all my life. I remember how totally electrified I was when I saw the first tiger shark at Tiger Beach.

Electrified and a bit apprehensive as most shark dive operators in the United States and the Bahamas would not allow freedivers to swim with sharks. Jim Abernethy, for instance, doesn't.

When I first inquired back in 2006 whether Jim would allow me to freedive on his trips, his answer was negative, and very categorically so: He told me that as a snorkeller I would be "lunch for the tigers in no time"... Jim suggested that I should get certified - well, you all know how I feel about SCUBA diving. Thus, I had to say thank you but no thank you.

Scott Smith of the Dolphin Dream was, and still is, more generous with me: I am the only client of his who has his explicit permission to freedive with the tigers and lemons of Tiger Beach.

Anyway, during my first dives with the tigers I had a short stick with me just to have something to "protect" me. Being inexperienced with tigers, I thought about Jim's grim admonition, and did not want to take any chances.

A Wolf and a Tiger - just looking curiously at each other.
Photo: Roger Horrocks
Click to enlarge

Needless to say, I realized very soon that I really didn't need the wand you can see in this picture. A lovely, extremely well composed picture, by the way.

Just watch the reflection of the tiger at the top of the image - doesn't it look as if the shark had its mouth open, "naturally" doing what a "dangerous" shark is supposed to do - having people for "lunch in no time", especially when they are snorkelling at the surface ?...

No hard feelings, Jim!! :-)

The photograph shows a truly majestic large shark, clearly interested in getting close to me, not seeing me as potential food as most people would think but just being curious to see another creature in its blue world.

Grossvatervorfreuden. *)

*) = The joys of becoming a grandfather

Yes, the bad old Wolf will finally become a Grandwolf toward the middle of July, and thanks to the progress in the medical field, the parents, Carmen and Felix, already know that their kid will be a little wolf.

That takes me back 35 years when Karin was pregnant and we had to wait until Felix was born to know it was Felix Alexander, not Ana Catarina, if our baby would have been a girl. I wanted a girl, Karin wished for a boy.

Having been present at the birth, I was the first to know we had a boy, and as I was already then highly adaptable by nature and life experience, I immediately fell passionately in love with the boy I would go fishing with eventually!... As it turned out, we did more diving than fishing.

Felix, 5 weeks old (Nassau / Bahamas, 1976)
Photo: Wolfgang Leander
Click on image

Felix could never really understand that every time I look at him I still think of him as the schnuffelig baby he once was.

His own little boy will make him realize that parental love is more than just a three-dimensional affair - it is that mysterious fourth dimension that is the ever lasting 'bonding agent' between parents and children.

Mazel tov to Carmen and Felix, and to Karin and me!!!

Ethologist Ila France Porcher: Sharks are sensitive and intelligent.

Most people still believe that sharks are "killing machines" and "dumb" animals. Here we have a book that tells you just how little even shark divers like me know about these fantastic creatures.

My multi-talented friend Ila France Porcher is the author of "My Sunset Rendezvous", an unsual and most captivating book about her vast experience studying, and closely interacting with, black fin reef sharks in French Polynesia.

What makes the book so special is Ila's deep passion, and compassion, for animals, and her scientific approach to the subject of shark ethology, coupled with a love for words that is a rare combination in the world of science and literature. Ila also illustrated the book.

Read about the book, and have a look at some of the reviews as posted on amazon.com.

Marine and land biologists, shark lovers, and literary gourmets will hugely enjoy "My Sunset Rendezvous".

Oldie but Goodie.

Caribbean Reef Shark (Green Turtle Cay / Bahamas, 1999)

Photo: Wolfgang Leander

Click to enlarge

I know, this is not a prize winning photo. And yet, I like it very much: It is the type of image Hans Hass took in the late thirties / early forties when he still did breath hold diving. Photographs like this one got me hooked on sharks when I was about six years old.

Since I was strongly impressed by the first shark photographs, I subconsciously still tend to photograph these amazing animals pretty much the way the pioneers of underwater photography did. Thus, I don't use flash; I stick to black and white film; I take my pics while free-diving, and I use only moderate wide angle lenses.

The featured photograph was taken with an ASA 400 film pushed to ASA 1600 - hence the grain. I used a f3,5 28mm wide angle lens, and the available light was too low to have a fast enough shutter speed - it was maybe 1/25th of a second; you can tell by the blurry yellow tail snapper in the foreground.

I still remember vividly the intense way that shark, a young female, observed me, and luckily I was able to capture that piercing look. The eye, however small it is, is the focal point of the photograph. Enlarge the image, and look how the shark looks at YOU.

So, yes, while this pic is just an average one, it is, to me, a goodie that is almost iconographic in a very personal sense.

Project FIN

A friend and colleague from Singapore sent me a link to an article on Channel NewsAsia about the recent campaign that was launched by a local marine conservation group called Project FIN.  More than likely you already have seen the image above, people on Facebook have set their profile pictures to celebrate the Chinese New Year WITH NO shark fins.  Good social media initiative.

Visit the Facebook page here and read the complete article here.

Aging gracefully?....

Maybe others; not me. Getting old ain't easy, and I don't mean the physical and mental decay - unpleasant as that is, it's not the worst part.

What's bad in my case is that I am neither getting wiser nor do I become more patient as I age. But at least I know why:

- How can I get wiser if I was never wise before?... :-)

- Patience? Statistically speaking, and given my medical history, I cannot afford the luxury of toying with the idea of longevity. Thus, If I want to do things, I've gotta do them now or at least as soon as possible.

With that kind of inner mechanism driving me I find it very hard to have to wait another nine months before I can do what keeps my life candle burning: Diving with tiger sharks.

In fact, just looking at this photograph, taken only a little over two months ago, I ache and feel like telling the Shark Baron, aka Jupp Kerckerinck: "C'mon, alter Knabe, let's go back into the water and see whether "Emma" is still around..."

Jupp and Emma (Tiger Beach, November 2010)
Photo: Wolfgang Leander
Click to enlarge

Discovery Channel looking for a CSO...Seriously?!?!?

Discovery Channel is looking for a Chief Shark Officer for this years Shark Week - this is not a joke.


See press release here

Some highlights from the job description / qualifications:

• Must enjoy exotic, waterfront locations, buff bodies in bathing suits
• Look delicious in a wet suit - (this is wrong either way you look at it.  Fat / ugly people are not allowed to apply and skinny models are not appetizing to sharks).
• Benefits - a lot of insurance (Um, why?)

Sure, it is to be taken light hearted - but when will Discovery Channel stop with the "hungry, bloody, man-eating" association to sharks?

I know a few people that would love to have this position...I feel bad for the person that lands this job...it will be...dangerous.