Tiger sharks have a bad rep. They are called trash eaters, garbage eaters and other less flattering names, they considered of low intelligence, have a bite first–check out later mentality and on, and on. Nothing of that is true. Tiger sharks are not what the general public makes them out to be. The only reason why this wrongful image still lingers on TV and in the books is because no one really wants to hang out with them, study them, and be willing to swim the extra mile with them.

A lot has been written about the sinking of the USS Indianapolis on July 30, 1945 and its aftermath when it comes to sharks. Many of the sailors who went overboard and floated for days on the open ocean seemed to have been killed by these animals. Although reports of survivors mentioned the involvement of sharks, their likely role in causing deaths among the sailors is exaggerated. Some ideas are given what role these animals more likely played during these horrific days at sea.

Every lifeguard asked himself / herself: what to do when a person gets bitten by a large (white) shark, the visibility is very low, the shark remains close to the victim, and it is up to you to swim out there and get the victim. Although those scenarios are rather rare, they happened in the past, and not always with the best outcome. Here I talk about the “how to…” and why this procedure is to be preferred over any other one, and how to familiarize yourself with it, even without you (!) having tested it with and among sharks.

Although shark sanctuaries start to pop up all over the world, their number is still too few and they only cover about 3% of our oceans' surface. But even if many more are created down the road, what happens when the sharks leave these catch-free heavens? Controllers are needed that follow these fishing fleets and have the authority to interfere should a targeted population originate from one of the sanctuaries. But then what...

One of the more controversial issues when it comes to an animal's mind is its likelihood of having a conscious mind, or not. Would we follow the rather narrow definition what a conscious mind must entail or be capable of, most animal species would fall short, so would the sharks. But does that mean because they fail the ultimate test, they are just not conscious and that's that, or is there more to it? This podcast sheds some lights how to look at sharks, and rethink the use of the definition for consciousness.

Whenever a shark gouges, its upper jaw is everted to get an optimized grip onto the targeted object. During retraction it can happen that the tendons and ligaments–connecting the upper jaw with the brain capsule–are not properly repositioned, leading to a very much slowed down simulated biting act, called "yawning," to enhance the probability of a correct repositioning. Different, interesting aspects are discussed and highlighted.

Within the shark-human interaction concept there are two forms of experience (E), one is the experience with the actual activity (A), the other is the one with sharks, theoretically and practically. Both forms of the latter are helpful, as long as one remains critical how to use them. Here, we talk about the pros and cons of experience, how to weigh it but also where to be critical. We also briefly touch the issue of how to choose an operator since they are most often closely connected to a diver's practical experience.

Sharksuckers often irritate sharks when attached to them, hence the sharks try to either get rid of them or at least force these teleosts to reposition themselves to other less irritating spots on the shark's body. A seemingly prerequisite for a successful attempt by the shark to relocate a sharksucker or get rid of it alltogether is body awareness. Beside the latter, we talk about the different ways a shark tries to get rid of a sharksucker and what it entails, as well as the potential advantage of having those sharksuckers attached.

When talking about the devastation of sharks, the movie "JAWS" is mostly made responsible. But if the author of the book or the producer of the movie are to blame–which should not be the case–, another group of men needed to be mentioned: the shark scientists of that time. Their lack of inwater experience with sharks, due to their own fear of them, prevented these scientists from understanding a shark's true behavior, thus recommendations and suggestions of how to behave should one have to face a shark were not just ridiculous but even dangerous.