Cracking myth about sharks

28 January 2012
DAVID MACGREGOR

NO FEAR: Blue Wilderness shark expert Mark Addison with a monster at the Aliwal Shoal Shark Park in KZN Picture: SIJMON DE WAAL

FOR most people  swimming in shark- infested waters it is  too terrifying to comprehend, but for one family it is  a dream come true.
Since she was three, Ella Addison has been hitting the big blue with her  father Mark – a world renowned shark expert – to  free dive off KwaZulu-Natal.
“My daughter started  free diving with whale  sharks at age three and  blacktips and tigers from  age four, so for her it is kind  of normal,” the 44-year-old  explains.
Now nine years old, Ella  was three years younger  than her father was when he  first swam with sharks with  his marine scientist dad  Brent Addison. 
 
Speaking two weeks after  the sixth deadly attack in  Port St Johns in five years,  Addison says ever since Peter Benchley’s Jaws caused  panic in the movie house  decades ago, sharks have  had a bum rap.
Having personally clocked  up more than 100000 hours  of dive time with sharks –  and introduced more than  20000 people to the feared  apex predators without a  single mishap – Addison’s  life mission is to break down  age-old myths and misconceptions that all encounters  end badly.
“My motto is to ‘Give  Sharks a Chance’ and I really believe that I have done  this by introducing people  to the sharks off our coast,”  he explained this week.
For more than 20 years,  Addison’s Blue Wilderness  diving operation has helped  create a better global understanding of shark behaviour by taking people diving  with the sharks of Aliwal  Shoal.