September 3, 2024, 6:42 am | Read time: 3 minutes
American Steve Dee gets closer to sharks with his camera than almost anyone else. In an interview with TRAVELBOOK, he talks about how he got his passion, what his most dangerous experience was during his underwater adventures, and why he no longer needs the protection of diving cages.
Steve Dee has an unusual hobby. As often as he can, he dives into the depths of the sea to feed tiger sharks or observe great white sharks. He always has his camera when swimming with sharks and takes spectacular pictures of the huge, brutal-looking fish that most people are afraid of. For Dee, sharks are “beautiful creatures.” The 44-year-old is actually a psychotherapist by profession. He grew up on the east coast of New Jersey and the west coast of California and began diving and exploring underwater life at an early age.
“When I was 7 or 8 years old, my father took me to a beautiful natural pool in California,” he tells TRAVELBOOK in an interview. “It was there that I saw a shark for the very first time and was fascinated by its elegant movements.” He believes that the image of the shark as a dangerous killer that craves human flesh has been entirely constructed by the media.
“Sharks don’t want to eat you. They don’t hunt humans. Many people tell me that they no longer dare to go into the sea because they are afraid of being bitten by a shark. But the chances are 1 in 3 million. The probability of drowning in the sea is much higher.“
Swimming with sharks
After getting his scuba diving license as an adult, Dee flew to the island of Molokai in Hawaii. While diving, he saw a school of hammerhead sharks swimming over him. He immediately felt the desire to observe the silvery predators up close. Since then, he has been diving all over the world to photograph them.
In Guadalupe, Mexico, he prefers to swim with great white sharks. However, his favorite sharks are tiger sharks, who he even gives names like Cinnamon, Emma, or Hook. The more time he spends with the cartilaginous fish, the more familiar he feels with them. “Almost all the diving trips I do these days are without a cage. Some people think it’s a bit crazy, but if you deal with sharks and know how to assess their behavior, it’s pretty safe.”
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A shark has directly attacked Dee
None of the carnivores have ever directly attacked Dee. Instead, his most dangerous experience was photographing tiger sharks with friends and feeding the large fish while lemon sharks swam above them. When an angelfish suddenly darted between the divers, they realized it was fleeing from the sharks above them. Right behind it came the hunters, swooping through the divers and tiger sharks. The latter, however, remained calm because they were already being fed. After a few minutes, the angelfish disappeared, and the divers were once again safe from the hunting sharks.
The American has published the photographs taken on his countless diving trips as a book. He hopes his photos will draw attention to the wild beauty of sharks and improve their image.
“Sharks are hunted for their meat, oil, fins, and teeth. In the course of these practices, they are killed in large numbers. They cannot reproduce as quickly as their population is dwindling. So, if sharks continue to be killed at the current rate, we will lose the species forever. This would have a catastrophic effect on the ocean ecosystem.”
In fact, humans kill far more sharks worldwide than vice versa. The British shark conservation organization Shark Trust, for example, speaks of up to 73 million sharks that are killed every year through targeted finning alone.