Many people think that sharks spend all their time trying to find humans to eat, in reality only 4 sharks out of about 430 (???) are known to have killed humans. The known man killer sharks are the Great White Shark, the Bull Shark, the Tiger Shark and the Oceanic white tip Shark (Carcharhinus longimanus), but then dogs, horses, cows, bees and many other animals have killed humans also, so really how dangerous is these 'dangerous' sharks?.
Again I where at Elphinestone in The Red Sea where I had seen my first hammerhead two years earlier. The dive boat I was on where drifting while we where eating lunch and waiting for the next dive. Then someone called out that they saw a big shark in the water. It was an Oceanic white tip Shark, one of the sharks know to be dangerous to man. The shark was swimming around the boat in very big circles. I of course decided that I had to see this very impressive shark in the water so I went to get my snorkel and fins. No one else was in the water so I was a bit nervous but decided to jump in.
In the water I didn't see the shark and I know that it is very hard to look around when using a mask, your field of vision is very limited and the shark could come from any direction even from below. After some nervous moments I saw it coming towards me, though it didn't seam very interested in me and kept it's distance. It was actually hard to get closer than 5 meters or so. Was this really one of the 4 most dangerous sharks in the world? After a few more passes some more people dared go into the water and the shark soon left.
At the end of the next dive we saw two Oceanic white tip Sharks out in blue water just under the surface. We spent 15 minutes watching them as they did very large circles among the divers. They where out of sight for up to a minute. When they came close they never came closer than 3-5 meters (10-15 feet). The sharks where about 2 meters (6 feet) long.
As with all animals the Oceanic White tipped shark will probably bite you if it feels threatened or in a 'feeding frenzy' situation, but in a normal not stressed situation it showed no aggression at all.
© Stefan Sarin 2000, 2001, accessed