Please read before commenting. The spear camera mounted footage is linked at end of video.
Here I am spearfishing invasive lionfish. It is easy to think that the shark is attacking me and this is a dangerous situation but it is not. Reef sharks think and react so quickly it is easy to get confused about what is happening and panic. The trick in understanding what is happening is to slow the footage down. The shark is used to seeing the object (spear) and the lionfish on the end. One end I have the lionfish and the other end has the camera mounted on the sling handle. So a spear with 2 similar looking objects on either end. The shark misses the first strike of the lionfish then goes for the camera to investigate it thinking it may be another fish. As my hand is by the camera I need to protect my hand from an attempted investigation bite hence pushing the shark away. If you look at the last attempt from the shark it actually managed to sniff/sense the camera and concludes it is not food. It then goes for the actual fish on the other end of the spear and leaves with the prize. At no point was the shark attempting to bite me or did I feel it wanted to. Reef sharks are an amazing species to work with. If the shark wanted to tear my hand off it could have done so with great ease. This was a heightened state of investigation.
I dive with these sharks every day so please do not try this yourself.
I am just ridding the reefs of lionfish. I am not claiming to be training the sharks to recognize lionfish as a food source and nor do I support anyone else that makes such claims.
Also the sharks are not injured by the lionfish.
Footage of me captured by Tiana Stoddard.