The Australian teenager on a mission to guard ragged-tooth sharks

The Australian teenager on a mission to protect ragged-tooth sharks

[ad_1]



CNN
 — 

With a menacing grin, needle-like teeth, and a sharp pointed snout, a gray nurse shark isn’t a creature that most people would want to encounter. But Shalise Leesfield isn’t most people.

The 16-year-old Australian couldn’t think of a better creature to meet when scuba diving off the coast of South West Rocks, near her home in Port Macquarie, a coastal town north of Sydney.

“I know there’s a huge stigma around how scary they can look, but I promise you they are the sweetest animals ever,” she says. “They’re so docile and so curious, they’re like the Labradors of the sea.”

The slow-moving sharks, which like to dwell near the sea floor in warm, shallow waters, are – for the most part – harmless to humans. But the gray nurse shark (also known as the sand tiger shark and the spotted ragged-tooth shark) is under threat. Populations have fragmented,…

[ad_2]