Sharkrequiem : Les requins

Mike Rutzen

Mike Rutzen est un expert du grand requin blanc (Carcharodon Carcharias) et des requins en général. C'est un des champion de la protection de cet animal. Il est célèbre pour ses exploits et les images qu'il fit en nageant avec toute sorte de requins notamment le fameux grand requin blanc. C'est un des premier à l'avoir filmé et nagé avec lui sans cage et à ma connaissance le seul à avoir passé trois jour et nuits entières avec les requins !

nuits blanches avec les grands requins (1) par soleillevant32bis

Mike Rutzen is an expert on the great white shark and an outspoken champion of shark conservation. His fame spread due to the images of his free diving exploits swimming with the animals without a cage. Mike has spent more time swimming cage-less with great whites than anyone else. He has since travelled the world lecturing on sharks and filming documentaries on them.

Mike "Shark Man" Rutzen started out as a fisherman and local guy, though most definitely not a scientist, based in the South African town of Gansbaai that has since become famous for its white sharks. Like other Gansbaai locals Mike originally knew the great white as a 'Tommy Shark', due to the many British soldiers taken by great whites at the sinking of HMS Birkenhead. As a fisherman he was scared of the animals but as tourism developed in the area there was a need for qualified boat skippers to take the tourists out to the animals. From this point he started to grow to love the fish in more ways than one. Mike worked for Andre Hartman and learned how to free dive with the sharks from Andre. Over time Rutzen learned how to adapt his posture and interpret the sharks' behaviour to avoid being attacked. He discovered that white sharks are very sensitive on the tip of the snout, due to the Ampullae of Lorenzini, and that giving them a light tap or punch there will make the predator change its course. Mike eventually opened up his own shark boat for cage diving. His company Shark Diving Unlimited (which has a self proclaimed success rate of 99.9%) has since become the world's first to offer a PADI specialisation qualification on white sharks. His life ambition is to learn how to induce tonic immobility on a white shark to simplify research, with the ultimate goal of better understanding these animals.