Expert says man is not on sharks’ menu

(Published Nov. 21, PDI-Entertainment)

By Oliver M. Pulumbarit

Contributor

“I think there’s this morbid fascination with animals that can potentially eat us,” opined shark expert Dr. Vic Peddemors, who is featured in Discovery’s Shark Week’s “Summer of the Shark 2” and “Great White Invasion.” As head of the shark research section of the New South Wales Department of Primary Industry, the scientist initially studied seaweed and eventually ended up working on dolphins and whales before focusing on sharks.

“I probably spent about 15 years studying dolphins and whales,” Peddemors said in a recent phone interview. “When I first came to Australia after being based in South Africa, 50 percent of my time was spent studying sharks and 50 percent, studying dolphins. Now that I’m working at New South Wales Fisheries, it’s all sharks. I also deal with investigating shark attacks that occur in New South Wales.”

Peddemors also advises on additional protocols that should be put in place to protect people within the proximity of shark attacks. He stated that sharks don’t really know what humans are. “We are not on the shark’s menu,” Peddemors said. “A shark has evolved over 400 million years to feed on fish, crustaceans or dolphins. They don’t know what we are. We live on land. They don’t encounter us.”

Still, sharks sometimes mistake humans for prey. Peddemors added that the Shark Week programs intend to shed light on some species’ feeding and hunting habits. “Before the ‘Jaws’ series of films, the amount of fear was far less than what it is since the ’70s,” he said. “So these new films being developed by the various agencies such as Discovery Channel are really going a long way to dispel some of the fears and myths around sharks and shark attacks.”

Peddemors said there are approximately 400 species of sharks; some live deep in certain bodies of water, while some live near the surface. After years of studying them, however, the scientist has yet to see anything that’s particularly unusual.

“We notice that when I put cameras onto sharks, fish will often come and they’ll almost run themselves on the shark. It looks like it’s using the rough skin of the shark as sandpaper to get rid of parasites. That was really interesting because you sort of think that fish is going to get eaten by the shark.”

Peddemors has important advice for those who might find themselves near sharks. “I’ve noticed that if you can see the shark, it’s highly unlikely that it’s going to come to bite you,” he said. “So if you can see the shark, you’re probably in a good position. If a shark does come too close to you, swim at it. It turns around and it swims away. I know it’s a strange thought to most people, but it definitely works. If nothing else, hit it on the nose. The nose of a shark is full of very sensitive organs. And so you bang it on its nose hard enough, it’s probably going to turn around and leave you alone!”

Among the many kinds that Peddemors observes, his favorite species is the “timid” tiger shark, even after one unforgettable encounter. “My personal, more frightening encounter with sharks was seeing a tiger shark coming straight at me with its mouth open,” he recounted. “[It’s] a little bit disconcerting. But basically you’re in the water, you’re in their domain and you have to stay cool, calm and collected. And in that case I was able to push the shark out of the way and leapfrog over its back! That’s probably one of the scariest things I’ve encountered!”

Shark Week programs start airing tonight at 10 on Discovery Channel. Specials include “Jaws Come Home” (Monday), “Summer of the Shark 2” (Tuesday) “Rogue Sharks (November 23), “How Sharks Hunt” (November 24), “Great White Appetite” (November 25), “Great White Invasion” (November 26) and “Killer Sharks” (November 27).