Wild Encounters: Ragged Tooth Sharks
South Africa offers a wide variety of fantastic shark experiences, but coming face-to-face with Ragged Tooth Sharks at Protea Banks and Aliwal Shoal off the KwaZulu-Natal coast is an impressive experience worth the challenge.
The Ragged Tooth Sharks congregate in the hundreds for mating through the winter months. They patrol the gutters, caves, and overhangs to shelter from prevailing currents and potential predators. They are equipped with an impressive set of narrow, needle-like teeth and have evolved to pierce, secure, and hold rather than sever. They also have powerful jaws that allow them to seize and hold on to their catch, which is swallowed whole.
Capture Info
The photo was taken on our 2013 South Africa Expedition by Thomas Baechtold
Camera: Nikon D700 / Lens: Nikon 10-35mm f2.8 / Flash used / ISO: 200 F-stop: f6.3 Shutter speed: 1/125
At Protea Banks and Aliwal Shoal, the caves are the ideal spot for close encounters. It can be an intriguing experience as space is limited, and they are quite a large animal. Ragged Tooth sharks hunt mainly at night. During the day, they are conserving energy and resting and seem to ignore you, making for calm close encounters ideal for photography. The best strategy is to place yourself in a good position where the sharks pass by to increase your opportunity to capture a great shot in the limited time you have at depth.
The right balance of ISO and flash is essential for capturing even exposure. Set your strobes wide and slightly back to create even light on their contrasting body. The use of a mid-range f.stop guarantees sharp focus from the eyes through to their jagged array of teeth.
5 Wild Facts
1. Ragged tooth sharks are more closely related to Great white sharks than Tiger sharks.
2. Unlike other sharks that rely on a swim bladder and a large oily liver to maintain their buoyancy in the water, Raggies surface to take great gulps of air into their stomachs, which allows them to stay buoyant in the water with little effort.
3. The eggs are fertilised and hatched inside the mother’s body and the female usually gives birth to one or two pups after about nine months.
4. Newly-hatched sharks feed on any other embryos and eggs present until they are large enough to face the outside world. For this reason, the female continues to produce eggs even while pregnant.
5. Although the ragged tooth shark appears extremely malevolent with its beady eyes, hump-backed appearance and needle-like teeth protruding every which way from its jaws, it is in fact a docile slow-moving animal and extremely tolerant of humans in its environment.