A diving expert believes that sharks are grossly misunderstood and that they can even be ' affectionate ' - as he says he is friends with a 15-footer who comes to him for help and the pair can even talk.
Jim Abernethy is an underwater photographer and scuba-tour operator, regularly taking people to sea to have a look at sharks in their natural environment.
But he said they are misunderstood creatures and shouldn't be viewed as mindless killers, as Jim, from Florida, insists they have a softer side.
He said that he is friends with a shark named Emma, a fifteen-foot tiger shark, as the pair bonded when he pulled a hook from her jaw and now they communicate with hand signals.
What do you think about Jim's bond with Emma? Let us know in the comments...
Jim said: "Emma, she’s in fourteen different documentaries, you know, she is world famous - she is probably the most photographed shark in the world.
"She’s underneath my boat ten months of the year, never leaves. She would only come in really close when I was there. In fact, one of the producers making a film says 'Jim, I should be making a film about your relationship with Emma, how long has this been going on?'
"I denied it, you don’t want to be a crazy guy that’s got a relationship with a shark!
"Because I removed four hooks from her in the last twenty years, using love and affection to gain a sense of trust, she’s obviously very comfortable.
"The affection is hands on, rubbing her head, and I usually use a hand signal which is rubbing my thumb to my fingertips and the shark swims directly towards me.
"I pull the shark into my head so I can look right at the hook in its jaw and then mentally figure out how to get the hook out."
Jim said that the sharks know who he is and recognise him, even when he changes into a different set of scuba gear.
He continued: "You know sharks are smart, and they know who you are, you change suits it doesn’t matter.
"If you are feeding them the shark has to beat all the other sharks to the fish and that’s survivor mode, to me that’s chaotic so I just use the fish to attract them to the area.
"I started teaching everyone how to make friends with a shark without feeding them.
"If a wild shark spends a lot of time around us at some point that shark will realise that it is not being abused and is going to become more complacent and it’s going to swim around us with very very little concern.
"The tiger shark is really playful and they’re also very curious, kind of like our dogs, whatever I have in my hand they think it’s their new toy. Unfortunately, they are really expensive cameras! Although it's funny, it's not funny if it's your camera."
Although he believes the sharks to be smart and playful, Jim admits that there is a dangerous side and that you've got to be aware of their actions.
He added: "The photographers want the picture so bad that they don’t realise there’s another one right behind their head.
"Even though they're not going to attack, playing with you can kill if you don’t know there’s a shark about to play with you, because like dogs they use their mouth.
"So the key thing is to point to the shark and then tap people on both sides to make sure if they don’t see the shark immediately.
"A shark attack is a mistake, is really a shark mistake. And in the conditions that we have the chances for a mistake to happen are really, really low."
Jim operates shark spotting dives from an area known as Tiger Beach, on the west end of Grand Bahama Island, which is largely populated by tiger sharks, lemon sharks, and Caribbean reef sharks.
He's been doing it for so long that he recognises the different fish that visit and even calls them his friends.
He continued: "You would think that somebody like me doing shark dives, probably more than anyone on the planet, would probably not have any arms or legs and you can see I’m perfectly fine.
"Sharks, when they hear our boat, will actually chase the boat to the mooring or wherever we’re gonna go, long before we put bait in the water which is great if you love sharks, which I do.
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"Tiger Beach for me is a place where I can go and see friends that I've made across the last twenty years and hopefully answer my prayers that they are not killed. Because sadly their future is dim.
"Tiger Beach is so different when you are diving under there, because the things that can happen like making friends with a wild animal, are so impacting you change from wherever your life was before that point to pursuing getting close to wild life."
Jim recently featured in a documentary called Tiger Shark King which is being shown around the UK by the Ocean Film Festival.
The festival will be in London on October 18, 20, and 21, Bristol on October 25, and Edinburgh on February 12, amongst others.
Tickets are available here.
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