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I sat still for several hours patiently waiting for these juvenile Lemon sharks to come closer and interact with me. When they eventually came close the slightest movement from me would scare them off. After circling me for ages they would eventually come closer and head butt me or whack me with their tails and on one occasion actually tried to test bite me to see if I was food. (I literally lost a hair follicle and that is all. It was not a successful or aggressive bite) Once they realised that I am not food or a threat they would approach closer and search for the source of the fish scent that is coming from a small piece of fish placed inside a perorated water bottle, then eventually a loose piece of fish placed directly in front of me. What is interesting is that if I picked up the bottle or the piece of fish the sharks would stay away. (In fact any movement from my arms would deter them) It was also interesting to see how much difficulty they had in pin pointing the exact location of the fish. The adult reef sharks I work with would zero in on a piece of fish instantly. As youngsters maybe they still need some practice. The reason that I am doing this is that I have not seen juvenile Lemon sharks in this area before and I really want to know them better and study them for my own personal knowledge. There are 4 individuals but only 2 or 3 come over at any one time. One has some marking/damage to the snout (The young female one that bit me) and she is my favorite. :) I could just sit here for hours watching these beautiful creatures swimming and interacting with me. I find them truly beautiful and mesmerizing. I have condensed some of the action into this clip but the reality is that most of the time they would just gently swim around me in a calm and relaxed fashion. Without the fish bait in the bottle they would simply stay away. I tried. They are very shy and hesitant creatures. This is not on a reef or in the ocean but an inland ocean hole surrounded by mangroves in a creek. I spend a lot of time with sharks so please do not attempt this yourself. Obviously I would not do this with adult lemon sharks! I am probably the first human they have seen.
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