Glenn Ashton's Review of The True Nature of Sharks

"Occasionally a special book appears that makes you sit up and reconsider your understanding of the world, or at least a part of it. The True Nature of Sharks is such a book. It echoes the way that Diane Fossey and Jane Goodall forced us to completely reassess how we perceived the great apes, our closest relatives. While sharks may be only a very distant relative, Porcher’s book is no less revolutionary, in that it forces us to reassess how we perceive and understand sharks. Her work is instrumental in firmly shifting our understanding of sharks away from the obsolete trope of sharks as killing machines. Instead she portrays them as intelligent, predictable individual animals capable of so much more than generally assumed.

"Through the ages sharks gained a largely unquestioned reputation as frightening predators just waiting to eat anything and anybody entering the watery realms. Modern history reinforced these tropes with stories of pilots and sailors being attacked during the war years and of all oceans users being at constant risk. This was exemplified in Peter Benchley’s “Jaws”, a book he later expressed regret about writing for the way it maligned sharks. Through these influences, sharks, like all creatures that take humans as incidental prey, have become perceived as creatures that reflect our deepest primeval inbred fears of consumption by wild beasts, as mindless, aggressive predators, without exception.

"Porcher turns the entire trope on its head. Several years of living on the beautiful Polynesian island of Moorea enabled her to closely observe several species of reef sharks in their habitat. She has managed to combine her observations into a fascinating and ground breaking book which forces us to completely reassess how we see sharks. Through careful record keeping and categorisation of the ethology – the study of formal behaviour patterns of animals observed in wild conditions – she shares the reality of how these remarkable animals exhibit behaviours that go far beyond our common assumptions of sharks.

"From her first unexpected encounters with sharks in these beautiful fringing lagoons, Porcher learns that sharks are individuals with personalities, memories and yes, even a consciousness that combine to turn conventional wisdom on its head. We are clearly shown that sharks are everything but the natural born killers that popular media make them out to be. Even after years of intimate interaction with these sharks, feeding them, observing them and spending what must amount to many hundreds of hours in the water with them she never felt inordinately threatened by the behaviour of these fascinating creatures.

"She tells of the tragic consequences of a visit from a shark finning fleet through the area. This event clearly illustrates how conventional wisdom of sharks being a danger to humans is not just wrong but antithetical. The reality is that it is people who kill an estimated 70 million sharks every year, mainly to feed shark fin soup to high-rolling Chinese diners, or to supply fish and chip shops “flake”, the commercial name for shark. Sharks also fall victim in massive numbers as bycatch in commercial nets and longlines, only to be discarded as bycatch.

"Consequently sharks have seen catastrophic declines with several species on IUCN lists of endangered species. For Porcher this reality was brutally driven home when many of the sharks she was familiar with disappeared, never to return after Singapore shark fin fishing companies moved through the area. Through her work shark finning was banned throughout French Polynesia.

"But where Porcher’s brilliance really shines through is in her patient recording of how sharks behave in the wild. She takes these observations and manages to clearly communicate these interactions to illustrate the consciousness and individuality of sharks. As she gradually became familiar with the resident sharks, she named each one through its patterning, nicks and marks or behaviour. Her assiduous collection data and observations of each shark, when it was seen, how it behaved, how they interacted with other sharks and fish are never allowed to become a fusty scientific record but rather evolve into a living diary of how these sharks are an intrinsic link in the life of the reef and of the region.

"This book is an invaluable record that shows how these sharks return to their familiar territories after mating in the open ocean, time and again. More revealingly it shows how these sharks recognise and interact with her upon return and how the personalities of individual sharks shine through by their unique behaviour patterns.

"While she clearly grows fond of the sharks her observations never fall into the trap of anthropomorphism - providing them human characteristics to other species where none exist. Instead she builds a solid repertoire of observed animal behaviour and how they form an intrinsic part of a much larger web of life. She points out how disruptions, such as the visit of the shark finners or of sport fishermen, have massive impacts on the behaviour of sharks in an area and consequently on the entire web of life that interacts with the sharks.

"This book is further enhanced by beautiful illustrations. Porcher uses her considerable artistic talent and shares some of her remarkable paintings and drawings of sharks. She has also employed clever techniques to foreground the sharks she has photographed that enables them to stand out against a background that they are naturally suited to blend into. These pictures show behaviour that we are fortunate to be able to share through this medium.

"The True Nature of Sharks is a must buy for anybody who finds beauty and wonder in the web of life. It is logically laid out and the narrative flows well and provides an easy read, an important task in communicating non-fiction to the layman. Sharks have fairly recently begun to be appreciated by many as the fascinating creatures they are. A growing industry now attracts tourists to observe, dive and interact with them in sites around the world.

"Porcher stands out as a pioneer in being able to give voice and logic to our growing appreciation of these fascinating and ancient creatures. She shares how these keystone species keep our oceans in balance and how even traditionally feared species like Tiger and Bull sharks are able to form unique bonds with humans, showing adaptation that was not considered possible. Porcher is the first person to enable us to get under their skin in order to appreciate the beauty of how this species has evolved over hundreds of millennia.

We still have much to learn about the complexity and interconnectedness of life. We are truly fortunate to have people like Ila France Porcher to share their important stories with the world about how these maligned creatures display behaviours that are completely at odds with what was previously considered possible.

~~~~~~~~

Glenn Ashton has spent most of his life around the world’s oceans, working on fishing vessels and sailing around the world, surfing and diving. He is fortunate to have visited and dived in the waters of Moorea where this book is largely based and become familiar with the sharks of this archipelago, amongst others. He holds a Masters degree in environmental management and is working toward completing his PhD.

Raising Shark Awareness

My personal campaign to raise shark awareness began when the entire community of hundreds of sharks that I was studying, as animals and individuals, were finned for shark fin soup.

Sharks (and fish) had turned out to be more interesting, more varied, and in many cases, more beautiful, than the North American wildlife I had known. They were just as intelligent, and far more responsive to me. They were definitely more alert, and made decisions more quickly, than people.

Sharks were the first wild animals I had met that came to me instead of fleeing, and though I had fed the birds all my life, they never fluttered down around my shoulders when I went outside, or alighted in my hands to be stroked. But fish did.

So it is especially sad to see how these remarkable submarine animals are considered and treated in our society, as being low, cold and not even capable of suffering pain.

That is why I have been on a personal campaign ever since to improve public awareness of their true nature, and why I have followed up the many articles I have written about them with a book describing The True Nature of Sharks.

Now I am expanding my campaign and inviting others to join me in spreading the word about what these unusual and important animals are really like. Their intelligent awareness constitutes another reason to save them from extinction.

Fish and sharks are treated worse than any other animals, though they suffer just as much. Sharks have been cast by the media as monsters for horror shows and fishing tournaments for so long that the prejudice against them is not even recognized.

People really believe that they behave the way they are shown on Shark Week. But they do not. . .

So please join me in speaking out against the prejudice that has raised a barrier against their protection. I will be posting plenty of information and other material to share as the summer passes.

Donations, too, help enormously to spread the word about this campaign. A donation can be made at this link:

https://www.gofundme.com/sharks-need-our-help 

Many thanks in advance for any help you can give.

About me: 

For fifteen years I spent my free time watching the actions of sharks underwater to learn about their behavior and their daily lives. During seven of those years, I kept track of over 600 individuals of which I could recognize 300 on sight, and wrote several scientific papers about them. No marine biologist has done comparable work and though more than a decade has passed since my study was done, it has never been duplicated.

Ila France Porcher

The TRUE NATURE of SHARKS Now Available for Pre-order

At last this long awaited presentation of wild shark behavior is on Amazon.com. It can be pre-ordered at this link : 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072WSKK3M/ref=sr_1_5

I have prepared some gifts for everyone who pre-orders to thank you for your interest in what sharks are really like, so please send your receipt to

the.true.nature.of.sharks@gmail.com

and I will send you the link to the page where you can download them, and the password. These gifts include a copy of my latest book about sea turtle intelligence, MERLIN : The Mind of a Sea Turtle, an ode to a bird called Legend of the Dinosaurs, and some of my favorite shark illustrations and paintings, as files that you can download and print for your enjoyment.

Here is the official description :

The True Nature of Sharks is a full-scale exploration of the natural behavior of wild sharks. Written by one of the worlds few shark ethologists, and the only researcher to have studied them as individuals through long-term underwater observation, it reveals a new dimension of understanding of their lives. 

You will learn how the complex behavior that sharks display shows that they are thinking, rather than acting on instinct. For sharks are not the dangerously stupid automatons that popular media will have us believe. Neither are they monsters, nor the cold and senseless creatures described by 'fisheries science.'

 

They are ordinary animals, thinking about the events in their lives and responding intelligently.

You will learn that requiem sharks 

 

• are self-aware,
• form friendships but not enemies,
• make swift decisions depending on the circumstances,
• can plan to influence an event in the future,
• are highly emotional,
• enjoy socializing
• communicate through posturing and gestures,
• easily influence other sharks in their community. 
   

This timely book will make the mysterious world of sharks come alive for you. 

 

As a life long observer of terrestrial wildlife, the author saw immediately that sharks are very different from the mammals and birds we are more familiar with, and launched an intensive study of their behavior, their social tendencies, and their daily lives. During fifteen years of observation, she kept track of several hundred individual reef sharks over a seven year period, and could recognize more than three hundred on sight. These observations were supplemented with shorter periods watching wild tiger, bull and lemon sharks, to verify that not only reef sharks, but many other closely related species, show similar signs of intelligent awareness and reasoning. 

 

The author is credited with finding a way to study sharks without killing them, and yet no one from the marine science community has done any comparable studies of sharks underwater. Shark science has underestimated these maligned animals, and this failure of biological inquiry is examined too, in this ground breaking book. 

 

This is natural history writing at its best, full of fascinating insights and unexpected facts. The author's clear writing and vivid prose takes you right into the presence of the sharks, and the richly detailed analysis of the behavior of the individuals in this community of sharks is captivating. 

 

If you love discovering new, intelligent wildlife behavior, you will love this beautifully written and illustrated work. Once you understand the true nature of sharks, you will never think of them in the same way again. 

"Awareness of the cognitive abilities of these animals forever changes our perception of them and their place in nature, and ours."

       ~Alan C. Kamil, Emeritus Professor of Biology and Psychology~

Your interest in sharks is appreciated; they need all the support they can get to help reverse the negative way they are viewed by society, and survive extinction.

(c) Ila France Porcher

I write every two weeks about wildlife behaviour and curiosities in nature, and invite you to subscribe at my website at: 

http://ilafranceporcher.wixsite.com/author/

Why I Turned to Sharks

I was a wildlife artist when my husband and I moved to Tahiti, so I went out each morning looking for something to paint. The fringe lagoons lay glimmering turquoise and silver under a ringing blue sky, protected by a barrier reef and sheltering an intricate lighted world that put fantasy to shame. Fish of every imaginable shape and colour gazed from the coral formations, ranged across the white sand, and travelled purposefully though the blue. There seemed to be so much life that even the water sparkled with it.

One morning I was roaming upon the barrier reef, lost in a spell. The sunshine ran in golden lines across the coral and flashed upon the fish. It was mesmerizing. When I raised my eyes, a grey shark of about my size was moving languidly towards me and all my lights went on. Everything about her was just right—her curves, her fins, her face—the inarguable shape of shark. Nothing had prepared me for the sight of that splendid creature gliding forth through the rushing landscape, as graceful as a snake.

Having observed the wildlife of the mountains all my life, my knowledge of sharks was limited to the information gained from watching the movie JAWS many years before. All that remained from that brief education was that they bit and badly. Very badly. Essentially, if you met one you died.

So, expecting her to fly into attack mode at the sight of me, I held my breath and drifted behind a coral. But she paid me not the slightest attention as she passed just a metre away. Her smug little face actually looked bored. I moved to keep the coral between us, but when I peeked out to see her again, she was gone as if she never had been. Soon after that, a second shark passed close by from behind as I headed homeward one evening at twilight. Breathless at such fluid beauty and understated power, I followed. But she quickly drew ahead, became a moving shadow, and vanished in the darkness.

I began to seek out sharks each day on my underwater forays. I loved to explore along the barrier reef and peer across it under the layer of pouring water. Sometimes a shark came wriggling across, surfing over the reef to arrive in a cascade of champagne water. When the bubbles vanished, it often approached to turn a circle around me, its eye fixed on mine.

The shark was the first wild animal I had met who came to me instead of fleeing.

They were so intriguing. Shark behaviour was very different from that of the terrestrial wild animals I had known, and their intelligent flexibility and the complexity of their actions soon convinced me that they had been badly underestimated by science.

So I launched an intensive study of the reef sharks using the local lagoon, identifying each one by its markings, and keeping track of subsequent sightings. Soon I could recognize three hundred individuals on sight. I wanted to find out what they were like, not only as animals, but as individuals. I wanted to know them. Used to patiently observing wild animals for long periods, I treated them as I would any other new species. I had no preconceived ideas about them.

Being able to recognize them as individuals revealed a new dimension of their lives, and I had the feeling of a window opening onto another world, one so separate from human daily life that it might just as well have been on another planet.

But when, much later, I acquired an Internet connection, the information about sharks that I found on-line bore no relation to the animals I knew so well. Most entries mentioned only shark attacks, and discussions focused on those too, along with shark movies and shark fishing.

Everyone seemed to think that they were vicious. Indeed, the difference between true shark behaviour and their awful reputation was so exaggerated that most people, it seemed, should forget everything they had ever heard about sharks, and start learning about them all over again.

When I contacted Professor Arthur A. Myrberg, a shark ethologist at the University of Miami, he told me that no one else had studied sharks long-term underwater and encouraged me to publish my findings. Myrberg had worked with Konrad Lorenz and was a friend of Donald H. Griffin, author of Animal Minds, the seminal book establishing that animals are capable of thinking. 

Cognition is the word used to describe reasoning in animals, which is a process of sequential thinking that has nothing to do with instinctive reactions. Myrberg and several colleagues were searching for more evidence to support this important new field of zoology, called cognitive ethology.

So, when he was invited to speak on the subject of shark cognition at an international symposium at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, Myrberg wrote to every known researcher—more than fifteen throughout the world—whose work had anything to do with shark behaviour. Yet no one had found any evidence that could even be speculated to suggest that sharks were thinking, and all but one doubted that such an ancient line of animals were capable of any higher mental abilities.

So he described the situation to me, concluding, "And so it must be shown, as difficult as it is to show, evidence that cognition may well be present rather than to disregard any consideration."

I had been keeping notes on apparent cognitive behaviour in wild animals for decades, so sent him several pages of examples of shark behaviour that suggested cognition. Arthur used my observations to form the bulk of his presentation at the symposium.

Afterwards, he wrote:

“Three days of talks and discussions resulted in agreement among those present that animal cognition can be openly discussed, and that term and its processes need not be treated as a non-scientific entity any longer."

Though more than a decade has passed, mine is still the only long-term underwater study of shark behaviour ever carried out. Traditional shark science is dominated by 'fisheries science,' which has denied any higher abilities to them, even the ability to feel pain. Nor has it offered much information about the way sharks behave, because the popular practice of shark tagging keeps the researcher at a distance from the animal.

My upcoming book, The True Nature of Sharks, fills the need for real information about sharks and the actions they take, to help debunk the destructive myths about them that have effectively erected a barrier to their conservation.

Here is information that can only be found by taking the time to observe these unusual creatures underwater, as animals and individuals, with an open mind.

Ila France Porcher  

The True Nature of Sharks

My latest book on shark behaviour is finally getting close to its release date. It has taken a long time to write and research what others have found about the actions that various species of sharks will take, their intelligence, and their social lives.

As a life long observer of wildlife, I recognized as soon as I began meeting wild sharks that their behaviour was very different from that of the mammals and birds we are more familiar with. So for fifteen years I spent most of my spare time watching them underwater to learn as much as I could about what they are like as animals and individuals. 

For seven of those years, I kept track of hundreds of individual reef sharks using a lagoon, and could recognize more than three hundred on sight. Studying them as individuals opened a new dimension on their lives, revealing their companionships, their emotional responses, and the way they socialized. These studies were supplemented by observing other species--tiger sharks, lemon sharks, and bull sharks--for shorter periods of time.

Many of the actions that sharks will take indicate that they are thinking, rather than acting on instinct alone, and it became clear that they have been badly underestimated by science. No one in the marine science community has done equivalent studies of sharks underwater, or any similar study involving long term underwater observation of wild sharks.

Yet, though almost nothing was known about what sharks are really like, they have been presented for the past several decades as monsters by fishermen and in the media. So my book also examines the current state of shark science, which is inseparable from fisheries, and how and why it has failed this whole line of animals. At this time many species are plummeting into extinction. 

The knowledge that sharks are intelligently aware, feeling, and thinking about the events in their lives means that we cannot continue to regard them as being automatons, cold and senseless. As Professor Emeritus Alan Kamil wrote about pinion jays, 

"Awareness of the cognitive abilities of these animals forever changes our perception of them and their place in nature, and ours." 

 

If you love discovering new, intelligent wildlife behaviour, you will love this book, which will make the mysterious world of sharks come alive for you. Like my first book, The SHARK SESSIONS, it is fully illustrated.

 

The Question of Consciousness

The current science of consciousness has been widely discussed on the Internet, and considering the many claims that soon we will be blessed or damned by conscious machines, it is remarkable how little is known about it. 

The essential question involves explaining how a physical universe gives rise to non-physical intelligent awareness, and this boggles everyone, because it is explainable by no current scientific knowledge, physical or quantum.

There are various theories, two of which are considered the most promising. One, which is favoured by traditional science and supports the idea that computers could be conscious, holds that after a certain level of complexity is reached, consciousness emerges naturally, all by itself. In neurology, consciousness is always mentioned in connection with the human brain, which, of course is the most complex. Quantities of rambling text, much of it of a speculative and highly philosophical nature, have been written on the theory, including such unexpected claims as Daniel Dennett's, that his thermostat was conscious.

When I read of it, this raised my suspicions immediately, since at the time, I was formulating an argument, based on research from other fields of science, that my sharks felt pain when they were finned. My pleas that they be protected in the middle of their slaughter were laughed at by fishermen, who claimed that science had proven that fish could not feel pain, because it was impossible that they were conscious because they lacked a human brain.

Yet, no study had been done to determine this; the idea was nothing more than a declaration by fishermen scientists, that lacked supporting evidence. Were a human brain necessary for sentience, then the pet phenomenon would be impossible.

Further, in the same year, different researchers had found that fish were capable of all the varieties of cognition (with the exception of imitation), that had been identified in the "higher" animals, including primates. Others felt that cognition is impossible without consciousness in some form, since the act of cognition indicates the presence of an intelligent awareness that is doing the thinking.

No brain is simple, as anyone who has watched the activities of a spider will appreciate.

It seemed extraordinary that scientists believed that their thermostats were conscious, but that animals who shared up to 80% of their genes, were not. This was one of the first indications I found of how wonky science has become, and formed the backdrop to my research into the subject of consciousness.

The idea that consciousness can be created by man has always been a high-profile one, and has captured the public imagination through science-fiction tales and films that have made intelligent robots seem possible. The current efforts by artificial intelligence research (AI) to imitate the human brain, (sometimes by creating a machine with as many connections in it as the brain has), have been more widely publicized than other areas of research into consciousness.

More importantly, the hype that surrounds it has been of vital importance in generating grants for further research into AI.

But, apart from the point that this theory minimizes the difference between the intensively programmed machine, and the self-serving living creature, it directly predicts high levels of consciousness where most people would deny that consciousness is possible, such as in your CD.

Here is a bit of a description, written by John Horgan on March 22, 2016:

“Like heaven, the Singularity [the name for the union of man and machine] comes in many versions, but most involve bionic brain boosting. At first, we'll become cyborgs, as brain chips soup up our perception, memory, and intelligence and eliminate the need for annoying TV remotes. Eventually, we will abandon our flesh-and-blood selves entirely and upload our digitized psyches into computers. We will then dwell happily forever in cyberspace, where, to paraphrase Woody Allen, we'll never need to look for a parking space.

Singularity enthusiasts, or Singularitarians, tend to be computer specialists. . .”

A worrying point in this scheme, that has not come up in any discussions that I have found, is that computers not only just compute without comprehension, but they use only decimal numbers. Yet, there are an infinity of numbers which are impossible to write as decimal numbers. For example, the number one third, easily comprehended by the smallest child trying to cut a cake into three for him and his two sisters, becomes 3.3333333. . . ad infinitum in decimals, so any computer would soon round it off!

You don't have to go very far with numbers to find such surprises. Another example, represented perfectly for all life forms on Earth in the shape of the sun and full moon, is the relationship between the diameter and the circumference of a circle—the irrational number pi. Pi, and all such other numbers that go on and on without foreseeable endings, are rounded off by computers!

Would such over-simplified approximations to the true universal values still result in the generation of consciousness? No thoughts on this obvious point have been offered! That such inconsistencies are considered irrelevant seems quite an assumption for those claiming to be on the verge of producing conscious machines, when those machines cannot even represent one third correctly.

Given the mind-boggling complexity of the universe—we are personally about halfway in size-scale between the universal and the sub-atomic ranges of sizes—human considerations are really fairly simple.

Though in the eighties, exaggerated claims were made about the conscious machine that would soon be created, as time passed, none of the algorithms (combinations of mathematical formulae) originally postulated to imitate cognitive functions were successful. Many of the leading AI labs eventually shut down, and no new algorithms have been developed. The progress that we have seen since, has been due to advances in complexity, miniaturization, and size, which have increased the computational power of computers, but have not given them the power of understanding.

You can demonstrate this to yourself by typing any short piece of writing into Google Translate, to see how well it is translated into a different language of your choice. The poor ability of robots to translate phrases from one language to another is due to the inability of the computer to understand the words. Those meanings are conceptual, not computational.

Yet, robot hype continues at a high pitch, though, like everyone else, the researchers involved have no idea what consciousness is, or what is required for its manifestation.

The other main theory of consciousness was put forth and argued by Roger Penrose, a mathematician at Oxford, and originator of black hole theory, among other things. He believes that consciousness, along with quite a few other things in this universe, is essentially not computable, so no computer could ever be conscious, no matter how big it might be. He postulates that consciousness is a manifestation of quantum mechanical behaviour.

He regrets that biologists are unaware of how matter really behaves, because they ignore the actions of matter at a sub-atomic level, which, after all, takes place all the time all around and within us, not just in physicists' particle accelerators.

You have likely heard of the big problem in physics—that the laws found that govern the universe, as described by such lights as Euclid and Einstein, do not agree with those found in the sub-atomic world of quantum mechanics. One of the curious things about quantum mechanical behaviour, is that at a very small size scale, our universe becomes a mush of probabilities—probabilities that this or that will come down.

The peculiar aspect of this phenomenon is that it appears to be conscious awareness of the probabilities, that makes one or the other actually come to pass. The name given to the transition from the probabilistic state to the collapse into reality is reduction. The need for consciousness to trigger reduction, is another clue to it, that appears in a completely different way.

The subatomic reality is not like the mechanical one we can see, nor does it operate by the same rules, and no one, not even the rocket scientists, have found a way to picture it in their minds. Decades of experimentation in which this was tested repeatedly, and mind boggling mathematics, were necessary before it was accepted at all.

Penrose started one chapter in his book The Emperor’s New Mind, by describing a poor lost man trying to walk home from the pub, and not being able to figure out which way to go. He sits down, gazes at the moon, and goes up, instead. He goes into Plato's world.

Plato first described a world we could access only by the intellect, one which appears to have an independent existence outside of space and time, where the transcendent laws of mathematics, physics, chemistry, music, and maybe even ethics and beauty, exist. Only by going there can we understand the world and the universe, and Plato's world reveals itself to each of us through conscious reflection.

An example of something that exists only in Plato’s world is the square root of minus one. This is the number which, when multiplied by itself, will give minus one. While at first glance this could seem like nothing more than a mathematical joke, since all numbers when squared are positive, the square root of minus one has proved indispensable for working out some of the details of the functioning of the universe--the behaviour of subatomic particles cannot be understood without it!

The mathematical phenomenon known as the Mandelbrot set is the solution to an equation invoking the square root of minus one.

The illustration shows it graphed, and then a part of the set magnified over a million times. The intricate boundary does not change on magnification, which is one of the qualities of a fractal.

The remarkable beauty of the graphed Mandelbrot set, named for Benoît Mandelbrot who found it, was inaccessible until we developed the computational power to unveil it. Yet, it was always there in Plato's world!

Music, too, leads us into Plato’s world, and since some birds sing using the humanly defined scale, it appears to be accessible to other species.

Roger Penrose offered this way of conceiving the idea. He describes three worlds, the mental world of consciousness, the physical universe, and Plato's world, or the place where mathematical reality lies. He calls the relationships between them the three profound mysteries.

As shown in the diagram, in the physical world appears consciousness, which reflects and finds Plato's world, the truths of which lie behind the manifestation of the physical world.

Working with a biologist, Stuart Hameroff, Penrose has developed his complex theory of quantum consciousness further, since, and has written more books on these subjects, including Shadows of the Mind, and The Road to Reality.

There are other theories discussed at the conferences on the Science of Consciousness, including one that states that just as rats cannot do arithmetic, so we are not capable of comprehending consciousness, though of course, we can't give up!

Others cover a vast range of subjects including evidence from altered mental states, taking hallucinogenic drugs, and the realms of the paranormal.

Yet, in all of these writings on the subject, an assessment of how consciousness manifests in life on Earth has not been mentioned. Its as if only humans and their machines are of any concern, though evidence of cognition has been found in all animals studied, from the great apes to sharks, octopi, bees, and even Paramecia. These are one-celled animals, so they have no brain, or even nerves, yet they can learn, remember, and make decisions based on whether or not they were in a place before, and whether or not, when they were there, they had a good time (Armus et al 2006, Day and Bentley 2016).

This fact throws cold water on some of science's assumptions that only "higher" animals are capable of cognition in the sense I had to argue it for the sharks. And if one-celled animals show this level of awareness, it leads to the question of whether or not such awareness may be an intrinsic aspect of life itself.

Yet, the question of life is not included in the discussions of consciousness, possibly because that would exclude computers!

This strange state of affairs ably represents the current state of disconnection apparent between science and the facts, a subject I will return to again. And, in contradiction to what traditional science (which in the case of sharks means "fisheries") claimed, my beloved sharks suffered when they were finned and died.

Ila France Porcher, author of The Shark Sessions

Commentary on Science ~ The Price of Ignoring Natural Law

  In April, 2016, National Geographic featured an article entitled “The War on Science,” which questions why many scientific claims face a storm of opposition from the public. It explains that these criticisms result from a tendency to believe in one's religious or political position, rather than in the facts, which is a recent finding by Dan Kahan of Yale University.

Yet, the problems with modern science which might contribute to this public attitude were not examined--when one looks out across the ravaged earth, National Geographic's statement “Modern science is based on things it got right,” appears in a different light.

In addition to widespread pollution and the destabilization of the climate, human activity has caused the sixth mass extinction, the tropical forests needed to support the life-giving atmosphere are devastated, and the oceans are showing signs of ecological collapse.

Why, at the height of science's glory, has it had such a destructive effect on the planet upon which we all depend? Why has it offered no guidance to humanity, as civilization expanded, in controlling international events, or finding practical solutions to such serious developments as the threats of nuclear annihilation, and human population growth, which have resulted in dire global problems?

Materialism
One important reason is that for a material science in a material world, money has been a decisive factor in determining the direction taken by scientific research.

Science began with the work of Aristotle, in an effort to systematically analyse our surroundings—the lines, the curves, the way a stone would fall. It was a quest for understanding of the reality in which we find ourselves, and through observation, measurement, and reflection, a detailed map of reality and its mathematical underpinnings, came into being over the centuries. The edifice of science was built step by step, as facts that could be mutually verified, accumulated through pure research done in the quest for knowledge.


Then came the unholy marriage with industry. Instead of studying life, biology focused on using the biosphere to solve human problems, and it neglected an appropriate analysis of nature. The play of life across the planet, how it interacted with the atmosphere, the seas, earth, rivers, and the falling of rain, was simply ignored.

The result was that western society developed without reference to its environment, and the current state of discontinuity between 'science' and the facts is the result.

The influence of religion
The assumption of human superiority over Earth is a religious one which science adopted centuries ago. The human was considered superior—the only one (!) made “in the image of God”—while the rest of the universe, including all other forms of life, did not share the human gift of consciousness, and were considered mechanical in nature. This convenient idea, attributed to Rene Descartes, has well served a civilization that regards our planet as nothing more than a resource.

But in ignoring the uniformity of life, it took a dramatic departure from evidence-based science. Human beliefs began to be considered more important than the facts while, in ignoring our biological heritage, philosophical science imbued our leaders with the sort of arrogant pride which not only comes before, but causes, a fall.

In science, the only rational position to take is the acceptance of reality.

The uniformity of life
We are surrounded by evidence of the uniformity of life. Not only do all vertebrate animals share the same body plan, but on the microscopic level, our cells, from bacteria to plants to man, have the same make-up. Genetic studies, too, confirm that from primates (99%) to fish (85%) a high fraction of genes are shared among us.

The pet phenomenon, which has been visible to all for centuries, would be impossible if animals truly were mechanical, because by definition, a machine cannot act “as if” it can think and feel. A commonly used excuse for treating animals cruelly is the statement, “Just because they act like they feel pain, does not mean that they really do.” This preposterous argument requires that the alleged machine imitate consciousness on cue.

Every time it has been examined, evidence of sentience has been found in animals from insects, to sharks, fish, and elephants. Even one-celled animals, lacking both brains and nerves, are able to learn and remember.

There is every reason to question the prevailing negative attitude to animals, and its origin. There is simply no evidence to support the idea that life as it arose in this solar system, is inferior and unworthy as traditional science maintains.

Quite the contrary. Given current knowledge of the size and nature of the universe, and the mysteries concerning the presence of life and of consciousness, there is every reason to consider it remarkable.

People studying wildlife behavior, as I do, have to be meticulously careful that all conclusions are objective, and uninfluenced by one's perspective as a human. So it is disappointing to see this essential basis for maintaining scientific integrity being ignored by so many scientists. Yet, their consistently anthropocentric attitude goes unquestioned, while they stand in the way of the search for the true understanding of life.

Human behavior as part of the continuum of life
Human behavior is considered to be dependent on reason and cultural tradition alone, yet this approach has failed to produce any insight into the current state of human affairs, or ways to avoid disaster in the future.

However, when looked at as part of the continuum of the behavior of all living beings, the comportment of the human species fits like a piece in a puzzle. Universal trends are evident in animal behavior, and of these a great deal has been learned. But the information has been ignored, due to the denial of the link between humankind and the rest of nature.


The male/female phenomenon, for example, has framed sexual reproduction for at least half a billion years. Myriad examples of how the two genders work together provide a comprehensive understanding of their interconnected roles, which could greatly relieve the difficulties people face in understanding the opposite sex in the modern world.

Similarly, millions suffering under the stigma of homosexuality, would have been greatly relieved to know that love between members of the same sex is natural, right, and good. (note 1)

Monkey trickery on the scale of the modern human appears truly diabolical. There are many cases in which evidence points to huge deceptions, but they remain uninvestigated due to the territorial command to follow your leader. (note 2)

War is waged by animals from ants, through rats and chickens, to primates. It results from the aggression territorial animals feel toward those on the other side of the border.

The territorial instinct evolved to assure the best distribution of animals of each species through their environment, and each territory has two vital places: the nest with all of its treasures, and the border where intruders are repelled. (note 3) Thus, a conflictual attitude to 'others', be they other tribes, city states, or nations, races, religions, or sports teams, is built into our genes, just as a genetically based love of sugar and fat is evident among us.

This explains why violence is so widespread in our society, whether hidden in families, criminalized in communities, or expressed internationally in wars. The continuing clash between religion and science, which was show-cased by National Geographic's article, is an example of the tendency to attack those with different beliefs, and serves as a daunting reminder that even our brightest lights are no more capable of managing their aggressive inclinations than any animal.

Some primate, including human, societies live in a constant state of war with the surrounding tribes, and our history is an account of wars. It is easy to see how the clans whose warriors could not keep up with the continuous demand for violent responses, would simply have disappeared, resulting in an increasingly militant population.

Ethologist Konrad Lorenz wrote :
“Unreasoning and unreasonable human nature causes two nations to compete, though no economic necessity compels them to do so; it induces two political parties or religions with amazingly similar programmes of salvation to fight each other bitterly and it impels an Alexander or a Napoleon to sacrifice millions of lives in his attempt to unite the world under his sceptre. We have been taught to regard some of the persons who have committed these and similar absurdities with respect, even as ‘great’ men, we are wont to yield to the political wisdom of those in charge, and we are all so accustomed to these phenomena that most of us fail to realize how abjectly stupid and undesirable the historical mass behaviour of humanity actually is.”

In a world in which the current alpha males have science fiction weapons to use in their dreams of world dominion, there is every reason to consider this type of instinctive aggression as the greatest of all dangers. Yet, in an astounding display of denial, science supports the continuing efforts to create ever more destructive weapons, and the news as I write today is full of flagrant attempts by those in power to arouse everyone to militant enthusiasm for yet more war!

Accepting the truth
Insight into how to control the forces of nature has always resulted from the understanding gained through investigation of their natural causes. Were our true inclinations accepted as natural, providing alternate outlets for our aggression could become part of our culture until the brute force method fell out of favor.

Recognition that borders remain in about the same place in spite of wars, could result in a mutual decision to simply respect the ones we have now, and enjoy competing in other ways. Militant enthusiasm can be raised in young people for plenty of other challenges, including science, art, and sports, causes considered worthy by all human beings.


The bonds of love and friendship that join individuals together, work like magic to defuse the hackle-raising communal defense instinct evolved by our pre-human ancestors, and an awareness of them has the power to change the world. The greatest danger is the instinctive tendency to regard those who speak or look differently, as inferior. Recognizing that this inclination is common to us all, as people growing up in different areas of the world, and that in spite of cultural differences we all share similar interests in life, makes it easy to find reasons to like those who are different from us.

Individuals communicating with and befriending others in a spirit of brotherhood could, given the power of the Internet, swiftly connect the people of the world in friendship, which would go far toward defusing international hostilities. A day could come in which they might tell their leaders, when summoned to slaughter their friends, “We the people, have met on the Internet, and we like each other. So please, just let us live.”

In time, adequate knowledge of ourselves would determine the directions to take to avoid the dangers implicit in our ignorance of the nature of aggression.

Other thinkers have written of an “awakening” that might come about to save the world, as human destruction threatens the planet. Indeed, we may be the first life form to gain understanding of the difference between instinct and the wiser choices that are possible through using the intellect.

Perhaps that is final test of the human spirit—that we gain the courage to manage our own biological heritage and remake our world using wisdom and understanding instead.

(c) Ila France Porcher
               August 2016


Notes
1) Homosexuality is widespread in nature, but because it runs counter to Christian beliefs about the purpose of love and sex, this has not become widely known. There is a BBC documentary which serves as a review of this subject on youtube at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?
2) Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarians 2006. Humans have a tendency to follow a leader, to the degree of giving up the guidance of their own conscience. In a famous experiment, he found that you only need to ask three or four people before finding someone who is willing to hold another person down and shock him to death, if you present yourself as an authority.
3) Schjelerup-Ebbe (1922), Z.Psychol. 88: 226-252
4) From Konrad Lorenz's book On Aggression, written in 1966 as an overview of aggressive behavior, and a warning to humanity. His choice of the species closest to humans in behavior was the rat; at that time he considered that humans had about the same chances as several hostile clans of rats on a ship that was almost out of food. My advisor with the sharks, Professor Arthur A. Myrberg Jr., had worked with him, and we both felt that his ideas were in accordance with what we too had observed.
My choice for a comparable species, based on my own experiences is the junglefowl--the ancestor of modern chickens, a species more affectionate and loving than the rat, as well as expressing most dramatically the single-minded determination to fight to gain power, that one sees among humans. These highly territorial birds will also wage war, on a modest scale, with the alpha male using the younger beta males as warriors. Thus he avoids being hurt himself, and rids himself of future competition. With them, too, the borders remain in about the same place.

More Fisheries Pseudoscience

Another piece of shark fisheries propaganda has been published. Shark fisherman David Shiffman now claims it to be scientific fact, that most shark scientists believe that shark fishing and shark finning are the best ways to “manage” sharks, when done sustainably. The fact that most shark scientists work for the fishing industry is omitted. 

What true scientist would condone shark finning when it involves the waste of 95 percent of the shark, in a protein starved world? Shark finning has been documented to be responsible for the 25% of shark species currently threatened with extinction, but a little known fact is that the United States is the seventh worst shark finning nation. The paper even affirms that it was the shark fisheries scientists who were the most likely to be in favour of sustainable shark fishing as opposed to outright protection for sharks.

At about the same time as this paper was announced in the news, The Global Strategy for the management of sharks and rays (2015 to 2025) summarized their plan thus : 

“This Global Strategy aims to dramatically alter the current trajectory of shark and ray decline by promoting the protection and recovery of the most endangered species, advancing the understanding and conservation of all species and their critical habitats, and ensuring that the fisheries, trade and demand for these species shift from overexploitation towards sustainability.” (note 1)

When stated in context, one can see where working towards sustainable fishing practices is beneficial when the current practice is chronic overfishing. What is different about Shiffman's paper, is that it seeks to use the authority of science to manipulate public opinion to support shark fishing, and to weaken the efforts of shark advocates to protect them in other important ways. The very worrying point that shark meat is increasingly toxic due to the accumulation of poisons, including mercury, making sharks unfit food, is not even mentioned. The findings of a dangerous depletion of sharks by overfishing has been echoed every time an intensive global study on shark and ray depletion has been done.

NOAA (2011) itself states:

“The law calls for the United States to pursue an international ban on shark finning and to advocate improved data collection (including biological data, stock abundance, bycatch levels, and information on the nature and extent of shark finning and trade). Determining the nature and extent of shark finning is the key step toward reaching agreements to decrease the incidence of finning worldwide. “

In October 2014, in an article in the journal “Fisheries” Shiffman made another effort to give the ring of authority to fishing sharks, this time by promoting shark sports fishing in Florida. Though both bird fighting and dog fighting are illegal in Florida, he had no qualms about promoting the “fighting” and killing of sharks. 

Based on the findings that in French Polynesia, the biggest shark sanctuary in the world, one shark can be worth over 2 million dollars in its lifetime through shark diving, he recommended that Florida's sharks were similarly worthy through “catch and release,” which he argued was a good way for the state to make money!

Yet, for one shark to earn 2 million dollars for Florida, it would have to be fished 4000 times. This is calculated by dividing 2,000,000 dollars by 500 dollars—which is an average price charged by shark fishing charters to go out and catch a shark. The possible effects on the lives and biology of the sharks living there, as a result of being repeatedly “fought” nearly to death at this intensity, was not a subject that concerned him.

When questioned about it, it became clear that he had not even thought about the mathematics, though math is an important tool for other scientists. Nor could he come with any argument to back up his position. 

Sharks are not trout. They are large animals that have to swim continuously forward just to keep an adequate supply of oxygen moving over their gills, and their strong horizontal undulations are like a heartbeat, a powerful automatic motion they cannot stop. Their desperate efforts to escape death while pulling with so much force against a big shark hook piercing their faces or internal organs, can cause serious internal and facial injuries. And as any wildlife rehabilitator soon learns through experience, serious injuries to wild animals are usually fatal without the benefit of treatment and supportive care.

Further, examination of Shiffman's own data reveals that the near threatened blacktip shark is the most frequent species caught, and its survival rate from catch and release fishing is one of the lowest of all species shown. Blacktips and the endangered great hammerhead showed “high physiological disruption and low survival following release.” (note 2) In contradiction to this information, he states many times that the sharks are released “unharmed.” 

It is now a matter of record that industry will deliberately support a political platform for favoured, and often paid researchers, to influence public opinion. This was done, for example, by the tobacco industry and the oil industry.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce (NOAA), two million, seven hundred thousand sharks were caught by sports fishermen in the U.S.A. in 2011. Since those were only the killings that were reported, this figure could be low compared with the true numbers killed if the toll from private boats that were not reported, were added in. 

The fishing industry is a multi-billion dollar power that has taken control of both the wild fish populations, and the way these animals are viewed by the public. The result is that irregardless of available facts, their conclusions are always in favour of fishermen, and not “fish,” a word which fisheries will apply to all marine animals, including sharks, whales, and turtles.

Another example of unsubstantiated claims used to support the fishing industry is the Rose paper which sought to give scientific authority to the old tale that fish don't feel pain. Though Rose has never done a study to prove his allegations, and though his argument applies to all animals except man and possibly the great apes, and though it was published in a fishing journal and not a neurological journal, it received so much publicity that people got the idea that science had really proven that fish were too simple-minded to feel pain. 

Yet at the same time, other researchers had learned that fish have cognitive skills that rival those of birds and mammals, and they are likely conscious. Veterinarians who work on them systematically use pain relief, and have said that they found fish to be more sensitive than birds. It is more logical to believe those who treat and look after fish, than those who kill them.

Scientists have a duty to humanity and the search for objective truth, to remain open-minded. Arguments against established ideas are welcomed when they are based on evidence and logic, but when they are based on political agendas which are not supported by evidence, they fall under the definition of pseudo-science. 

(c) Ila France Porcher 

note 1 : This was the result of a collaboration between the Shark Specialist Group of IUCN, and scientists from the major conservation organizations, following the SSG study, published last year, which found that 24% of sharks and rays are in danger of imminent extinction.

note 2 : According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, IUCN, great hammerheads are endangered, and blacktip sharks are near threatened.

Seeing is Believing : An Affectionate Shark

For the first time, affectionate behaviour in a shark has been documented. Jim Abernethy, of Palm Beach in Florida, filmed his reunion with a tiger shark after a separation of two years.

Abernethy, owner and operator of Scuba Adventures in Florida, had gained the shark's trust through gentle touches, initially to remove five hooks from her mouth. Since 2003, he has been using this method to remove hooks from many different species of sharks, as described in this former article about him, here.

The sharks he helped responded by cooperating, and would return for more affection as is seen so clearly in his video with this tiger shark. Abernethy's achievement was only possible because of his dedication to getting to know these mysterious and very unusual animals, while spending so much of his time on location where he could see them almost daily. As the first dive operator to show that sharks are peaceful animals, Jim always treated them with respect and affection. He spends most of his time on his liveaboard ship, The Shear Water, diving with sharks at sites in the vicinity of the Bahamas, and is on land for only about 40 days a year.

Though divers have understood for decades that sharks are not the demons of the sea as promoted by the media, the long standing bias against them has lived on, and shark attack mania is alive and well, in spite of decades of accumulating evidence that sharks are far less aggressive than the predators we are familiar with on land. Though increasing numbers of researchers are finding that a variety of marine animals are sentient, fisheries science continues to affirm that this is not the case. The argument is summarized here. Abernethy had removed five hooks from Tarantino's mouth initially, so the shark's reaction also strongly supports the argument that she appreciated the relief from pain.

I never got photographic evidence of affectionate behaviour in my sharks, mostly because nearly all of my study took place before I got an underwater camera. (Its hard to believe now, in the age of digital photography, how much more difficult it was to get underwater photos before). That is why it means so much to me that this behaviour has now been recorded. Even people who are willing to consider that sharks might have negative emotions such as fear or rage, find it less believable that they could have positive emotions such as happiness or affection.

With traditional science denying feelings in these animals, it provides evidence that some updates are needed! Anyway, this is a first, and a wonderful intimate look at the natural gestures of a tiger shark. Enjoy!

(c) Ila France Porcher 

SHARKS DON'T BITE like we do

Though sharks have gained a mythical reputation for being biters, their behaviour in nature is the opposite of what we would expect from the vicious animals depicted in the media. I had many opportunities to observe sharks under circumstances in which I expected them to bite, as a dog, cat, horse, or bird would tend to do. Yet they did not. 

All other species, wild and tame, with whom I had the intimacy I shared with sharks, had bitten me sooner or later, either by accident or in a fit of pique; even my pet dog sometimes grabs my hand in her teeth along with the offered cookie. 

Further, while the blackfin reef sharks I knew enjoyed roaming with favourite companions, I never saw them fighting with each other. They had friends but no enemies !

For years people had told me, and I half believed myself, that one evening I would be bitten and would bleed to death, or faint and drown. Since I was alone far from shore as night was falling, I could expect no one to save me, and these circumstances enhanced a tendency to react with darkening consciousness and soaring terror at times. 

The graceful creatures were the colour of the twilight waters, and as night fell, they became just motions in the shadows. As if they knew they had an advantage, it was then that they became emboldened, and would suddenly shoot forward faster than my eyes could follow them--the speed at which a shark can suddenly move, is one of the startling things about them.

So I had long acquaintance with the phenomenon of fear. Often it took all my psychological force to compose my mind in order to overcome it. 

Occasionally, things went wrong--the boat overturned in high winds, or my camera fell overboard, for example--and I would find myself in tossing waters opaque with blood and excited sharks, in a situation for which I was unprepared. Yet, no matter what happened, no shark bit me, time after time. 

Why had none of those hundreds of sharks of four different species, some many times my size, ever bitten me? I would watch my favourite, Martha, coil through the sea in front of my face, snapping up the treats I was freeing for her while ignoring my hands and the little plastic bag I had brought them in, and be convinced that it could not be a random coincidence. 

There had to be a reason. 

One night I accidentally kicked a shark with all my force, not realizing that the six foot animal was between my legs as I finned upward to reach into my kayak. Expecting her to turn and slash, I peered underwater to scrutinize the situation, but neither her speed nor her trajectory changed as she curvetted on to circle me. 

It was then I realized that I was expecting a reaction from a shark that was based on my knowledge of mammals. Like the other species we know well, we readily bite in fear. Anyone who has been seriously assaulted knows that the instinct to bite in self defence is very thinly veiled beneath our civilized daily lives. Birds too, readily bite in aggression and fear. It is a reaction that we take for granted--it is an important part of our personal defence system, which is instinctive at its root, and reinforced by countless learning incidents, beginning in infancy, and continuing throughout our lives. 

But that night, I realized that these requiem sharks must not share this strong tendency to bite, either from fear or aggression. Separated from us evolutionarily by a gulf of time spanning half a billion years, and having evolved in an oceanic environment, sharks are not territorial, and don't seem to have developed the same tendency that mammals have, to bite in fear or aggression.

It seemed possible that our fear of sharks is based on the intrinsic knowledge that we, and animals like us, readily bite, and we assume that sharks do too. With their big mouths and shocking sets of teeth, our imaginations are undone as we consider them opening to bite us.

But they don't. 

They even seem to have an inhibition against biting companion animals. They don't regard us as prey, and apparently view us as other creatures who share their ecological community. This is apparent, for example, during shark dives. 

Doc Gruber wrote back with these comments when I asked him about this subject : 

“After years and years of observing sharks in competitive feeding situations I have become impressed by how little aggression is shown by these animals. I often read in books when I was young that sharks can go into a frenzy and will attack and kill one another. I find this to be exactly opposite of what occurs. What I see is that sharks when competitively feeding are almost gentle and balletic. For example, if two sharks rush at a piece of bait and one clamps onto the other's head they will carefully unclamp, back up, and move off. They do not bite or hurt one another. 

“Aggression between sharks of the same species seems to me to be very low; they are very tolerant of each other. White sharks might be the exception but at a big whale carcass they do not seem aggressive. 

“When being handled, some species will definitely bite and others won't bite no matter how much you try. The lemon shark and blacktip shark are two examples of sharks that will definitely bite if you manhandle them. Bull sharks and hammerheads will not bite no matter what, and the same goes for tiger sharks. With tiger sharks, young ones will try to bite, older ones will not.”

Dive club owners, who work with sharks daily year after year, report the same phenomenon of non-aggression among feeding sharks. A possible exception has been noted at certain multi-species commercial shark feedings, where over long periods of time, and intensive daily provisioning, certain species of sharks--those that are larger and more pushy--become more numerous, while other species tend to be pushed out, yet biting among them is still so rare as to be practically unknown.

Even the great white shark has been shown by Dr. Peter Klimley to ritualize conflict when ownership of a seal prey comes into question. Through a remarkable series of videos taken of feeding great white sharks, he documented how the shark who splashes water farthest, with a slash of its tail, wins the seal. Thus a physical battle for the seal is avoided. Given their dentition, a battle between great whites would gravely harm both sharks. (See Klimley's wonderful book, The Secret Life of Sharks)

Within the community of sharks I studied in a lagoon in Tahiti, it was the nurse sharks who were the most aggressive. Still it was very rare that one would aggress a blackfin who came too close; the blackfin would change direction. The reef sharks did not menace the nurse sharks.

The lack of aggression in the submarine community was one of the first things I noticed when I began watching sharks interacting, especially in the presence of food. Only about three times in all those years, did I see a large blackfin appear to make a snapping motion toward a smaller one, but in each case I was able to see that the small one did not suffer a bite as a result. At each session, the sharks swooped around together, often touching, with never a sign that the smaller ones were afraid of the bigger ones or avoided them. 

This is the opposite of what happens in societies in which a dominance-subordinance hierarchy exists. Two examples of such societies are those of chickens and humans.

Sometimes, a tiny blackfin pup would make off with a scrap, for example, closely followed by one of the biggest, a shark three times as long, and many times the baby's volume. But, each time, the baby continued on its way and ate, while the big one made no effort to take its food, and treated the tiny shark just the same way it would treat one of its own size. 

Further, apart from mating wounds on females during the season of reproduction, the sharks did not appear with bite marks on them.

Whitetip reef sharks and sicklefin lemon sharks also attended my sessions at times, and their appearance had no effect on the harmony in the site. Once I watched a lemon shark the size of a horse slowly come up behind a nurse shark pup who was lying on the sand munching on a little scrap. The pup was the size and colour of a human baby with long fins, and the lemon shark could just about have inhaled it whole--yet, it passed on. The huge animal did not even take the baby's scrap!

My sessions ended as darkness enveloped the scene, and only the nurse sharks remained, languidly writhing around the site amid the flitting fish, until it was carpeted in nurse sharks. They would scrape and suck out the contents of the fish heads, wriggling about in clouds of sand, wrasses and yellow perch. 

When it was almost too dark to see them, a massive, pale form would appear off in the coral, weaving in and out of view as she floated cloud-like through the shadows, waving an unbelievable tail. In slow motion, she would waltz through the site, her fins spread wide, as she pressed the water left, then right, as if to an unheard rhapsody. She was the biggest nurse shark, with a body massive as a draft horse, a magnificent creature, who would undulate with her beautiful, lazy ballet through the twilight surroundings until I left.

One night, a two metre nurse shark was lying nearby under a coral formation, close beside a Javanese moray eel of about the same length. The two of them were touching all along their sides, the nurse shark eating, the eel looking calmly out at me. For two species renowned for their aggression and even for being dangerous, the sight was counter-intuitive, enhancing the feeling of being in a community in which a certain camaraderie existed, one whose true qualities no human mind could conceive. 

The unusual behaviour of the sharks points to the way their societies are dramatically different from those of the animals that we know best, a subject I will be writing more about, in time.

(c) Ila France Porcher
 ~ author of The Shark Sessions ~