Tonic Immobility

About a month or so ago The Discovery Channel was doing their annual Shark Week. Normally I don't like shark week very much because they dramatize everything around the sharks and make them out to be these nasty man eaters. I am a diver myself and am always in search of sharks underwater. I have had a few experiences with the creatures that I would call spiritual, they have this dark energy to them that I really respect. In my experience they are just as curious about humans as we are about them. Certainly accidents happen where a shark or a human ends up dead, but it is rare.

Anyways, I came across this show on shark week about this guy called "Sharkman." He is a hardcore shark lover and seeks to spread awareness of sharks in order to save them from you know who. Well, in all his diving he discovered that the nose of sharks is very sensitive and if you rub their nose they can fall into a sort of trance called tonic immobility.

In this video you can see shark man massaging a reef shark into such relaxation that he is able to balance the shark, motionless, in the palm of his hand. Incredible! Also, at one point he lets the shark float backards away from his hand then gives the shark a choice: food or more massage. The shark clearly chose more massage. Although you can't see the food very well, thats how it was narrated when it was on TV. So the shark was interacting with the human in positive way.

I was simply blown away by this when I saw it on TV. Later in the show he goes on to do it on a tiger shark and get this, a GREAT WHITE. He swims without a cage with a great white and at one point he actually gets the great white to tow him along by her dorsal fin (after the massage of course). The whole point is that sharks and humans can live in harmony if people would just learn to respect them. They aren't these vicious man eaters that people make them out to be, not really even close to that actually.

In this video Sharkman is on scuba but usually sharks are scared away by the vibrations caused by scuba bubbles. When he swims with the great white he is just snorkeling to calm her down as much as possible. Sharkman is also a great free diver, which enables him to swim around for minutes at a time on a single breath. Its not the most safe thing to do and I should know. I have passed out underwater on two occasions. Your dear author is lucky to be here blogging!

The music in that incredible video is performed by one of my favorite bands, moe.. I am still trying to figure out the name of that song, will get back to you on that.