One of the main reasons why WRDMalta's Sean McGahern has chosen to spend a number of days inside the shark tank at the Malta National Aquarium is to try and change people's perception of sharks.
Unfortunately, far too many people picture the pneumatically powered great white shark prop from the film 'JAWS' upon hearing the word 'Shark'. The film made the mistake of portraying great white sharks as vengeful predators, and this had a massive impact on people's perception of sharks in general. Even today, a very large percentage of mankind seem to be under the impression that all sharks are bloodthirsty man-eating machines and are afraid to even put their foot in the water. Sadly, the press and media make it difficult for many people to understand why sharks are worth saving, let alone why we should take measures to help protect the species.
What mankind does not realize is that we have more of a chance of getting struct by lightening or being killed by a coconut than by a shark. Moreover, people don't realize the vast variety of shark species that there are out there and how harmless they all are to humans.
During Sean's time in the tank, he will be greeted by black tip reef sharks and zebra sharks, amongst other marine species. So far, during training both species of shark have been completely uninterested in consuming Sean for dinner. Quite the contrary, Sean's presence has not bothered them in the slightest and they seemed pretty content to host him in their home - which is pretty damn jawsome in our opinion!!
Support Sean by donating at http://finathon.org/finathon-malta. For every $100 donated he will spend a day in the tank!
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