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Getting Close to Sharks In Langkawi

What would you do if you came face-to-face with a shark? In Pulau Payar, Langkawi, all you might want to do is feed it.

It may sound farfetched but you can now get up close and personal with black tip baby sharks in the popular marine park off the coast of Kedah.

Not only can people see them swimming in front of their legs, some even opt to feed the now docile fish, touch or even snorkel with them. "Visitors are allowed to feed the sharks but we advise them to let that be handled by tour guides for safety reasons," says assistant tour guide Zemi Ahmad.

Typically the "shark caller" would start getting the baby sharks towards the beach by breaking little fishes and let some of the blood into the water. In a matter of minutes, tourists would see the first shark circling in the middle of the crowd followed by four, five or even 10 more depending on the day. Other meat-eating larger fishes would also follow suit in a matter of seconds.

Visitors are asked to either stand on the jetty platform to get an overview of the group of fish or they may stand in the water. "We always ask our guests to bury their toes in the sand if they want to stay in the water when the sharks arrive," says Zemi."The sharks won't go for human legs but our toes look like small fish to them so they might want to try them. "Some people take the opportunity to stroke and pat the baby sharks since they are so near and others would snorkel around them since the site of the shark feeding activity on Teluk Wangi Beach is already a popular snorkelling area.Black tip sharks and a host of other fish come to the waters around Pulau Payar to breed partly due to the artificial reefs formed from discarded tyres and boats.When the baby sharks grow bigger, they would typically depart into the deep sea for bigger prey and though some scuba divers have sworn they have seen sharks up to three metres in length around some popular diving sites.

Langkawi 26/09/2002