Joel Ibarra began making headlines after his video of the first high five between the 22-foot long white shark and the diver surface on the Internet. This was the first time a human has ever high-fived the massive fish, but the diver denies high-fiving the great white shark.
Joel Ibarra has spent great part of his life diving among more or less dangerous species of fish in order to study their behavior. Recently, the diver spent hours under water, while closed within a cage to study the conduct of the fearless great white shark.
During the experiment, Ibarra reached out towards the fish and touched its fin. The moment was interpreted as the first high five between a human and the cruel 22-foot long shark.
The video stirred everyone’s attention on the Internet, the moment it was uploaded on YouTube. Biologists and marine experts have paid particular interest on the matter due to the great significance of the moment.
A few days later, however, Joel Ibarra made an official declaration saying that he has never intended to high five the great white shark at all. It was simply a misunderstanding, the diver only wanted to prevent the shark from getting injured in the cage as it was getting too close.
The diver explained that he had been studying the fish for several hours, when the shark finally decided to get closer to the cage. Joel Ibarra noticed that the shark had a big laceration on her side; therefore he decided that the safest thing to do to protect the fish was to push it away from the pointy ends of the cage.
The diver has been long praised for the courage he has had to get out of the cage when the shark was so close to it. Marine experts, on the other hand, have explained that this move was not at all as risky as people might think.
On the contrary, the diver knew very well what he was doing; he waited until the shark was passed the cage and got out of it when the fish could no longer make a sudden turn to attack Ibarra. As the diver reached out towards the massive exemplar, the video camera captured the moment as the first high-five between a human and the white shark.
Scientists are now going great lengths to protect the female shark as she is pregnant and she requires specific attention. The fish is approximately 50 years old, as biologists have estimated, based on her size and her body particularities.
Image Source: pbs.twimg.com
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