Shark-rescuers, or How predators helped people survive

When it comes to the animal kingdom, not one of its representatives seems so terrible as a shark. So, how many people kill these monsters annually? Do not believe me, statistics show that five thousand.

And yet, sharks are sometimes very friendly to a person and even benefit him.

Shark therapists

For a group of war veterans, these fish provide treatment. Fox News explains that the Point Defiance Aquarium in Tacoma, Washington, helps depressed soldiers to find peace when swimming with sharks.

This program, known as Operation Shark Dive, allows veterans to immerse themselves in a deep aquarium along with 16 useful predators. Swimming allows people to show natural emotions that arise when they meet these impressive animals. These emotions are similar to those that arise on the battlefield, but are caused in a safe environment.

In addition, snorkeling equipment makes veterans use diaphragmatic breathing. This practice calms emotions, stabilizes the heart rhythm.

A man discovered cancer by attacking a shark

For most people, a shark bite would be one of the worst moments in life. But for Eugene Finney, perhaps this was the best thing that ever happened to him. Back in 2015, Finney enjoyed a vacation on the beach of California with his daughter when he felt something in his back something stuck. The wound was the result of a bite of a large white shark.

When Finney went to the hospital to get treatment, the scan found something unexpected. No, it was not the fish's tooth stuck in his spine, but a tumor in the kidney. Correctly, Finney had cancer, and he would never have known about it, had it not been for a meeting with one very useful shark. Now he is fully recovered. Finney says: "If I found this shark, I would embrace it."

Swimming with sharks saved a small town

For the people of Donsol, a small coastal city in the Philippines, survival because of poverty has become a big problem. This continued until Dave Duran, an environmentalist and photographer, arrived in the city in the late 90s and took pictures of rare whale sharks that lived near the shore.

Soon after, the Philippines declared the whaling of whale sharks outlawed, and Donsol became a world famous place for people hoping to swim with majestic animals. As a result, the economy has revived, as swimming with sharks has become a profitable business.

Guide Alan Amance worked for many years as a taxi driver and played guitar in bars. Thanks to the massive animals that can grow to 65 feet in length, this man multiplied his income by six times, so he was able to send his children to school.

While most people escape when they hear that there are sharks in the water, for almost two decades people from all over the world come to this tiny fishing village to admire predators.

Sharks saved the life of a diver

Most people will panic, being 40 meters from a pack of sharks. Diver Caroline Spence talked about her experience of scuba diving with The Guardian. By her own admission, she was not an expert in this matter when she decided to immerse herself in the Elfin stone in the Red Sea. Knowing how worried she was, her diving instructor promised that they would not go deeper than 30 meters. And yet, halfway through, she found herself at a depth of 40 meters. This plunged her into shock.

In panic, she began to swim towards the surface, but suddenly a white-headed shark appeared, and then a copper shark. Predators were everywhere, stopping the woman on the road and probably saving her life. Sharks can be scary, but they rarely attack people.

Sharp movement from depth to surface is a real danger for any diver. If Spence swam too fast, her lungs would just burst.

Fortunately, the sharks held it at a certain level. Shortly thereafter, Spence stopped diving, but was always grateful to the fish that saved her life without even knowing it.

The shark saved a man lost in the ocean

It all began with a leisurely walk of two people on the boat, and ended in tragedy. Only thanks to the intervention of a very friendly shark, one person was lucky enough to remain alive.

In 2010, Tokai Teitoi from Kiribati joined his brother-in-law Lelo Falaille on a 15-foot wooden boat. They planned to go fishing and then go to their hometown.

Unfortunately, a casual afternoon fishing day ended badly. The fishermen realized that they ran out of water and fuel. Soon the boat of men was carried into the Pacific by the ocean, in the waters of which they drifted for another 38 days, until Falaye died.

Tate continued to swim for five weeks. He was in despair and eventually lost consciousness. An unexpected strong blow made him wake up. He saw the boat. This blow came from a six-foot shark, thanks to which he was saved.

Sharks - an important link in the food chain

Sharks are part of the food chain, and when one link in this chain is destroyed, the whole system is broken.

The ocean lives by its own laws. The seabed is covered with phytoplankton, which absorbs carbon dioxide and releases oxygen. But without sharks the whole system is broken, because they eat fish that feed on plankton. Too much fish leads to a lack of plankton and, consequently, to a small amount of oxygen.

People ride sharks, and sharks do not touch them.

Sharks, of course, show unprecedented restraint when it comes to one human hobby. Whether we hunt these fish, or turn them into a tourist bait, we seem determined to stop them from living at every step.

Recently, underwater skating on sharks has become fashionable. This entertainment has turned into a pretty lucrative business. The idea of riding a shark is pretty simple. The diver swims to the fish close enough to grab her dorsal fin.

The shark and the man became best friends

Opposites often stretch to each other. A specific case is a confirmation of this idiom. For a decade, a person is friends with a shark.

This incident occurred off the coast of Port Macquarie, Australia. According to Anderson, he started playing with a shark about seven years ago, when she was very small, about 15 centimeters in length. The man carefully swam to her, not to scare, and then began to lightly stroke. Every summer, he again meets with a female shark, recognizing it by the marks. The predator at the sight of a friend expresses an obvious rejoicing.

The study of the physiology of sharks leads to medical breakthroughs

Scientists have long been keen on the physiology of sharks. Researchers from the University of Aberdeen are investigating whether the antibodies from the blood of these fish can contribute to the cure of breast cancer.

Employees of the Georgetown University Medical Center are checking, in the condition of the warehouse, the connection found in the shark tissue, to kill various viruses.

A company called Ossianix is exploring whether shark antibodies can help break through the blood-brain barrier, an inseparable membrane that keeps us from successfully treating diseases associated with the brain.

The University of La Trobe hopes that using shark antibodies will be able to treat fibrosis of the lungs, kidneys, eyes, skin, liver and heart.

There is Indiegogo, which collects funds for scientific research, according to which shark blood may help in the treatment of such pathological processes in the brain as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.