The ‘crazy’ photographer who swims with sharks

Posted by Anita Froneman on 22 October 2019

Nature photographer Euan Rannachan is obsessed with sharks. Rannachan, 34, has encountered countless sharks throughout his career but claims they don’t scare him at all. This London-born photographer travels the world in search of these powerful predators, dives with them and is known for taking magnificent photos of them.

 

The Daily Mail.

 

Rannachan has been dubbed the ‘crazy’ shark diver and happily claims it. According to The Daily Mail, his aim is to inform and educate people about these much-feared creatures. ‘I hope my images convey just how beautiful white sharks can be. I always tell people it’s an experience of a lifetime and I feel really honoured and blessed to be able to do it each year.’ The shark enthusiast hopes to communicate that while fear is understandable and necessary, it’s still possible to interact with sharks safely with the right training.

He and others like Ocean Ramsay are passionate about these feared fish and swim freely with sharks in the open ocean.

The Daily Mail.

 

Sharks have between five and 15 rows of teeth in each jaw, with most having five rows, and one bite can snap a human in half.  However, humans are a greater threat to sharks than sharks are to us. Many shark species are threatened by fishing and hunting, which lead to the deaths of millions of sharks each year, according to ThoughtCo.com. Compare that to shark attack statistics—while a shark attack is a horrifying thing, there are roughly only about 10 fatalities worldwide each year due to sharks.

The Daily Mail.

Since they are long-lived species and only have a few young at once, sharks are vulnerable to overfishing. Many are caught incidentally in fisheries targeting tuna and other fish, and a growing market for shark fins and meat for restaurants is also impacting different species. One threat is shark-finning, a cruel practice in which the shark’s fins are cut off while the rest of the shark is thrown back in the sea. Sharks should be respected and protected, not hunted.

Images: Euan Rannachan






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