Cristina Zenato has a love for a particular animal that very few people would share. She loves sharks. Her passion for conservation and wildlife has driven her to the most daring of jobs – swimming with sharks.
The sharks are often plagued by fishing hooks caught in their mouths.
One day the normally not so cuddly shark, Foggy Eye, swam up right up to Cristina. That is when she noticed she had a wire hanging out of her mouth. Allowing Cristina to touch her, Cristina was able to pet her and gain her trust.
“I’m going in!” Cristina thought.
This was her chance. She reached into the shark’s mouth and pulled out the wire hook. Ever since Foggy Eye has been the shark that begs for the most attention. This new-found trust spread and now other sharks swim up to Cristina with hooks in their mouths to be removed. Some of the hooks are easily removed. Other hooks take weeks to work on due to being stuck or building the trusting bond between Cristina and the animal.
Cristina has been working with sharks for over 20 years.
It was her childhood dream to be an underwater scuba ranger. It was her goal to protect the reef and the creatures that lived in the seas. She went on a scuba diving trip to the Bahamas where she encountered her first shark while doing a feeding dive and has been enamored with the creatures ever since.
“I went back home and dropped everything.” explains Cristina.
Telling her family that she would be back in a year, she moved the Bahamas to work with the sharks. 24 years later, she is still there living out her dream.
Begging for her attention, the sharks swim right up next to her.
Cristina recognizes many of them and they know her too. Sharks she has named, Foggy Eye, Grandma, Stompy, and Trek are a few that she mentions. She calls them her babies and loves spending time underwater with them. She can tell when they are having a bad day or when they need some extra love.
She swims with the sharks without a protective cage.
Cristina only wears a chain suit while she swims with them for the unlikely chance that they would decide to bite.
“I call this the barrier that drops the barrier” she explains.
This allows her to get up close and personal with the animals that most people are extremely afraid to even think about going near. The sharks now swim up to Cristina’s lap and place their mouths towards her stomach. They rest there while she pets them and gives them attention. The sharks seem to sense the care and understanding that she has for them.
She wants people to show them respect, but know that they are not machines or monsters. Knowing how to treat an animal with respect is important and no doubt that Cristina has mastered this. She and the sharks share a bond that very few people will get to experience.
Check out her amazing shark encounters below!
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