This is probably investigatory behavior! As we talked about a couple years ago on the blog, sharks have lots of little sensory organs around their nose and mouth called Ampullae of Lorenzini.
They’re basically little gel-filled pores that sense electric current, and they’re why sharks investigate everything with their faces. Sharks bump things with their nose to put their ampullae near them in an attempt to learn about them – like finding out if you’re animal, vegetable or mineral, and if you could potentially be edible.
From the video linked, we can see the shark is swimming around checking out the divers (who appear to be hanging out at a decompression stop), before coming over closer to the guy who is filming. This isn’t aggressive behavior – it looks like simply curiosity. It’s not a shark kiss, it’s a shark question: what are you?
Another example of why sharks don’t deserve bad media representation…
They are not the only animals to use their faces and mouths to explore and understand the world. Yes, they have sharp teeth. And yes, there have been cases where sharks attack people. But most of the time, sharks just want to be allowed to do what it is sharks do. They’re clever and curious, and we go into their world–so of course they want to investigate.
I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have a healthy fear of sharks. They’ve been around for millions of years because they’re excellent predators, and they can definitely cause a lot of harm. So yes, respect the fact that there are many sharks out there capable of doing serious damage to you.
But don’t think of sharks as mindless, evil killing machines. There is so much more to sharks than their teeth.
ifesbob 