Nature’s behaviour surprises us every day...
Alimatha reef, which is famous for the large number of sharks that live in the area, was a must-see during our liveaboard cruise in the central Maldives. We wrote about it in one of our previous blogs (see here), however, in this blog, I want to tell you about an exciting day that recently took place there.
After our afternoon dive, we had returned to the liveaboard. It was late afternoon and the sun was setting slowly. We decided to switch tanks quickly and make another shallow dive while the light was still there. After some time in the water, we noticed that 5 or 6 nurse sharks were gathering around. We tried to put ourselves in a position to photograph them, but without success. They simply weren’t in the mood.
At one point, I noticed that the movements of two sharks were a little nervous. The male’s teeth grabbed the female by the fins, entwining bodies. In this article, you can see the images that I managed to capture of this event. In a couple of seconds, they separated and everything was peaceful again. It was a mating attempt for this species of shark. To be more precise, during mating, the male grabs the female by one of the fins and holds her in a grip until mating is complete.
The couple in love disappeared in to the blue and we received the signal that it was time to end our dive.
Text and photos by Janez Kranjc
To discover more about the behaviour of sharks, check out the Shark Ecology course from our friends at SSI.
Ivana and Janez
10th February 2022
