Lauren's shark expertise came from years of diving, captaining, and spearfishing with sharks
Lauren's comfort in the water with sharks is not accidental. She grew up visiting the Bahamas every year, which she describes as very sharky. When she went to college in Florida, she began working on a shark diving boat off the Florida coast, spending nearly every weekend in the water with sharks or captaining others in those same waters. She then moved to the Bahamas full time, where she was doing shark diving and spearfishing alongside sharks regularly. "Over time you learn their behavior," she says. That accumulated experience is the foundation of both her confidence and her caution.
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Knowledge, not fearlessness, is what makes shark diving safer
Lauren Landers Sailing argues that the more aware and knowledgeable you are about sharks, the less you fear them, and that this knowledge is what actually keeps you safe. She is not reckless about it: she respects sharks, avoids conditions
Murky water raises shark encounter risk because sharks cannot identify you
Lauren Landers Sailing explains that she avoids murky water specifically because sharks rely on visibility to identify what is in front of them. In low-visibility conditions, a shark cannot tell whether you are a threat or prey, which is wh
Sharks come to spearfishers because of injured fish movement, not blood
When you're spearfishing, sharks are attracted less by blood and more by the vibration and movement of the injured fish. A speared fish signals weakness, and sharks are highly opportunistic, preferring to target what is already weak or dyin