{"id":1094,"date":"2014-08-12T12:03:52","date_gmt":"2014-08-12T19:03:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/calirose.com\/blog\/?p=1094"},"modified":"2014-08-12T12:03:52","modified_gmt":"2014-08-12T19:03:52","slug":"shark-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/shark-week\/","title":{"rendered":"SHARK WEEK"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It\u2019s Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, but these days it feels like every week is a sort of \u201cshark week\u201d somewhere, somehow.<\/p>\n

Usually this stuff goes through one ear and out the other in our house.\u00a0Usually<\/em>. \u00a0But last month my husband Craig and I actually did \u201cswim with sharks\u201d and not exactly on purpose.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Window Gazing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here we are in beautiful Hanalei on the north shore of Kaua\u2019i enjoying a real tropical vacation. I don\u2019t realize how exhausted I am until we settle into our little studio bungalow a few steps from one of the most beautiful beaches in the world: Hanalei Bay. For the first couple of days all I can bring myself to do is eat, sleep, go to the bathroom, look out the window and go back to sleep.<\/p>\n

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But soon enough I return to life and it\u2019s time to take a dip in the beautiful turquoise bay. First we baste each other with industrial-strength sun block, fortified with zinc AND titanium. I\u2019m looking like a greased albino mammal trundling down Pilokoa Street, leaving little doubt that this specimen is \u201ca tourist.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Hanalei Bay–the “long” view<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Craig and I lay our towels on the sand and head to the water. This time of year the bay looks like a great big blue bathtub with waves that are\u00a0rubber ducky<\/em>\u00a0size. The water is on the cool side, well cool for me, and being a temperature-wimp, it will take ten minutes or so to completely submerge myself in the water. One body part, one joint at a time. On the other hand, Craig dives right in and swims \u201cthat-a-way\u201d just as the salty stuff is lapping at my calves. You get the picture.<\/p>\n

Except\u2026<\/p>\n

Just as we are dipping our toes into the ocean a man yells “SHARK!.” He’s standing close enough for me to guess his age… Fear smears across my husband\u2019s face. Craig is channeling the movie \u201cJaws.\u201d I just know it. As he makes a pitch-perfect U-Turn back to the sand.<\/p>\n

I, on the other hand, just stand there, in\u00a0mainlander shock<\/em>. Or idiocy. (Craig reminds me that when we have an earthquake in Los Angeles, I run to the window \u201cto watch\u201d instead of ducking under a table.) Instinctively I turn to the lifeguard station, which is well within eyeshot, and there is Mr. Tan & Gorgeous, lounging nonchalantly on the ledge of his tower.\u00a0Mmmmm<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Baby Hammerhead Shark<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By now the \u201cShark Town Crier\u201d is pointing at shadows moving underwater about a foot from my foot. I count them. Three. Three little sharks. Maybe eighteen inches long and one of them gets so close to the sand that it grounds itself, flipping and flopping as curious tourists gather around and gasp. Until the next wave takes him back to his watery home.<\/p>\n

The man announces to the small phalanx of folks \u201cthey are Hammerheads. Just babies. It\u2019s okay. They won\u2019t hurt you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRe-e-e-e-ally?\u201d I say, not entirely believing him as I glance back at the lifeguard who is now chatting with some girls. But there is no panic in the air. Or water. Retiree types, little kids, young couples, midlings, are bobbing up and down in the gentle waves. So what the hell? I begin my ritual of dipping ever so slowly into the wet. Craig finally relents and dives in. When he comes up for air I notice he\u2019s casually looking over his right shoulder and then his left and then his right\u2026<\/p>\n

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Row, row, row your boat…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Long story short, we swim with sharks. Sort of. But I still have questions so I corral the lifeguard whose world-weary demeanor makes me think he gets “shark” questions all the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are juveniles. They won\u2019t bother you if you don\u2019t bother them.\u201d At this point I\u2019m wondering\u00a0what that would look like<\/em>–bothering a shark? And why would anyone want to BOTHER a shark.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you know,\u201d I continue, \u201cI\u2019m thinking that maybe since these are, like, shark children, maybe MOM and DAD are somewhere close by, like, hovering\u2026you know\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably not,\u201d he tells me matter-of-factly. Once sharks are born (or hatched or whatever), they are on their own, he reports. Mom and dad\u2019s job is done. This news is shocking to me considering it takes, what, thirty, forty years to raise an adult human. So the baby sharks have to figure things out for themselves, just like that. (This brings up all kinds of abandonment issues for me\u2026but never mind.)<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t sharks have a \u201creputation\u201d for being predators and biters and mean fish? Mean mean fish? I\u2019m sure that\u2019s not the whole story, but nevertheless, popping into the world just as mom and dad are swimming away would not put me in a good mood.<\/p>\n

I’m just saying\u2026<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, but these days it feels like every week is a sort of \u201cshark week\u201d somewhere, somehow. Usually this stuff goes through one ear and out the other in our house.\u00a0Usually. \u00a0But last month my husband Craig and I actually did \u201cswim with sharks\u201d and not exactly on purpose. Here we are in beautiful Hanalei on the north shore of Kaua\u2019i enjoying a real tropical vacation. I don\u2019t realize how exhausted I am until … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogentry"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":2,"label":"blog entry"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"Cali Rose","author_link":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/author\/crbauthor\/"},"comment_info":4,"category_info":[{"term_id":2,"name":"blog entry","slug":"blogentry","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":2,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":138,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":2,"category_count":138,"category_description":"","cat_name":"blog entry","category_nicename":"blogentry","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}