Iridescent skin : encounters of the White Shark and humans.

• Main Author: Aich, Raj Sekhar
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: University of Canterbury 2019
• Subjects: New Zealand; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10092/101681; https://doi.org/10.26021/10734

1,600 km from Antarctica an aluminium cage is dropped into the ocean. Suited divers climb inside and bear the frigid waters in wait of an animal which for many exists between myth and reality. This wait can be for a minute, and for some what can seem a lifetime. For this experience they have flown from all over the world, then travelled to the end of New Zealand and got on a boat across the turbulent Foveaux Strait. But if they’re lucky, they come face to face with an apex predator who can trace its lineage for at least 400 million years, – the White Shark (Carcharodon carcharias). Who are these people that come thousands of km to spend a few minutes in the water with these alleged ‘monsters’? Why are they here? Do they finally find the ‘monster’? Or does something else entirely stare back at them through the bars of the cold cage? This thesis, based at the intersection of these two sentient species- the humans and the White Shark in the dynamic Foveaux Strait- explores the global image of the sharks, and the practice of cage diving which may be the key of demystifying them.