Turkish divers encounter shiver of sharks

HATAY

In a rare and thrilling encounter, a group of divers experienced a heart-pounding moment as they bumped into a shiver of tope sharks, a type of hound shark from the Triakidae family, off the coast of the southern province of Hatay’s Samandağ district.

Akın Rıdvanoğlu and his team were making a dive in the depths of the Mediterranean Sea in Hatay — which draws attention for its biological diversity and above-ground richness in addition to being home to several living species — when they came across a school of sharks close to them.

Describing their encounter with the local media, Rıdvanoğlu said, "At first, it seemed like a random crowd of fish, but as we dived deeper, that's when we encountered the tope sharks." He further expressed how the incident aroused their excitement and prompted them to get closer to the fish.

“We thought they wouldn’t do any harm to us, and we were right,” the diver said, reflecting on the situation as both exciting and frightening. He underlined that they fed the sharks, which calmed the species.

Emphasizing that this particular species has a reputation for being one of the most dangerous sharks, Rıdvanoğlu noted that they were fortunate not to be harmed, as the sharks were not hungry at the time. However, he stressed that tope sharks have a tendency to attack their prey when hungry.

"They ignored us as they were not hungry. This species does not attack at all if they are fed but assaults and devours every living thing it comes across when hungry,” the diver added.