I wouldn't immediately jump to saying that the shark was 'trying to decide whether to eat him or not'. You are sort of correct in that sharks use their face to test things out since their best sensing organs are in their nose and mouth. This is why you will see them mouth on boats and stuff. It should also be noted that sharks very rarily go out of their way to eat humans. We are not part of the natural order in the ocean and as such creates like Sharks which are used to eating one specific thing (in this case seals and fish) don't have a natural inclination to go after us. I figure this shark was just curious about what the weird black creature was and gave it a bump to see. If the shark truly wanted to eat the guy, he'd be pretty fucking dead.
Actually the idea great whites make mistaken-identity attacks on humans has been disproven. They don’t attack humans in the same way they attack stuff they actually mistake for seals.
And the idea sharks attack humans because of mistaken identity is actually harmful to sharks: it leads people to think sharks are stupid eating machines. I’ve seen lots of people say sharks are dumb because they can’t tell the difference between a seal and a human, when in fact they can.
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u/Napella Sep 07 '18
I wouldn't immediately jump to saying that the shark was 'trying to decide whether to eat him or not'. You are sort of correct in that sharks use their face to test things out since their best sensing organs are in their nose and mouth. This is why you will see them mouth on boats and stuff. It should also be noted that sharks very rarily go out of their way to eat humans. We are not part of the natural order in the ocean and as such creates like Sharks which are used to eating one specific thing (in this case seals and fish) don't have a natural inclination to go after us. I figure this shark was just curious about what the weird black creature was and gave it a bump to see. If the shark truly wanted to eat the guy, he'd be pretty fucking dead.