On the early morning dive at the Daedalus reef we had drawn the lucky number:
We stumbled into a nice school of scaloped Hammerhead sharks!
Not only as we had to go deep down, much farther that 40 m, this encounter was so thrilling, the sharks were curious and came very close, having a close look on us, too.
That was my first contact this beautiful and out-of-this-world looking species and I was really amazed!

I would love to have so much more encounters like these. But:

All Sharks are in danger.

So here are some thing you can do in order to help sharks:

• Please do boycott shark fin soup in restaurants and all other fish products that include sharks.
  Mostly shark meat is not referenced as such, so please inform yourself, what you buy and eat and avoid fish products of uncertain origin.
  This is a very difficult topic, best would be to avoid fish in general, but I like eating fish and it is healthy food, so it would be irrational for me to advocate abandoning fish as food.
  As you cannot rely on the eco-badges the industry awards themselves, try to only eat fresh fish from traders, you know they are fishing in a sustainable way.
• Take a stand against long line fishing or large haul nets where ever you can.
  Sharks and other species, like dolphins, often get caught accidentally and get thrown back into the sea, as they are not allowed to fish.
• Help to inform people about the horrorfying methods of finning and support organisations and goverments that endorse finning bans.
• Let people know that most species are not dangerous to man at all.
  Sharks play an important role the ecosystems of our oceans and are no ruthless predators.
  Around 6 (six!) people get killed by sharks worldwide per year, in the USA lighting strike fatalities demand around 40-50 lifes a year…
  So the risk by loosing your life in a shark incident is absolutely low.
• Do not fish on sharks for fun, trophy or records. That’s valid for any other fish, too. Never do that.
• Keep the ocean clean. But you should do that anyway.

Here are some organisations you can support in order to help lovely sharkies to survive:

https://www.sharkproject.org/
https://www.sharktrust.org/
http://www.sharkwater.com/
https://marinemegafaunafoundation.org/
http://www.sharkadvocates.org/
http://www.ocearch.org/

Here is another example how fascinating sharks are, this was my new years eve dive 2016 and one of the best dives I ever did: