For its thirty fifth Annual Shark Week, Discovery has, as all the time, devoted itself to all issues Selachimorpha. For Australia’s Paul de Gelder, this marks his tenth 12 months as a Shark Week star.
De Gelder will get moist and all-too-near the apex predators as he hosts Wednesday’s “Florida Shark: Blood in the Water,” a take a look at what’s touted because the “Shark Attack Capital of the World,” and Friday’s “Deadly Sharks of Paradise,” a shark haven 100 miles off Brazil’s coast.
De Gelder stands out in any Shark Week because the survivor of a horrific 2009 bull shark assault. He, a Navy diver, was in Sydney Harbor when he was bitten, misplaced his proper hand and most of his proper leg. Now an advocate for sharks, he isn’t afraid to speak about how scary being underwater will be with three large sharks heading his manner.
“I never was provided any therapy or counseling from the military. I had to do all my own physical therapy. So I had the opportunity to learn things the way that I do like to learn them — and that’s by trial and error,” de Gelder, 46, started in a telephone interview from LA, his residence for the final six years.
“I by no means began to have PTSD. I don’t have despair. I’ve by no means had nightmares. I believe the reason being as a result of I’ve discovered to open up myself. I don’t have to cover behind that facade of being a manly-man anymore.
“Because I really feel like I’ve had my man card fairly nicely stamped for all times. I bought eaten by a shark, misplaced two limbs, swam again to my boat by way of a pool of my very own blood and nonetheless lived. Now I’m with sharks for a dwelling and don’t really feel the need to need to bury stuff and be like, ‘Man, I gotta be tough.’
“Being an actual man is being susceptible in addition to sharing that aspect of you that you simply may be just a little bit embarrassed of. But in case you don’t share it, you simply preserve all of it inside, it simply boils over and bubbles into one thing else and that’s not wholesome in any respect.
“So I like to inform individuals: In vulnerability there may be energy. Once you don’t have all of that stuff inside you, you’re free to be the person who you need to be.
“What I’m making an attempt to realize is I need individuals to be taught the reality about sharks. I need individuals to find out about how one can work together with them. Learn how essential our oceans are. Because data is energy, as everyone knows.
“And also knowledge dispels fear. So that’s just how I like to live my life now. Just share it all. Lay it all on the line.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”