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The diver who survived 50 years of swimming with sharks
Last updated at 11:52am on 18.01.08The shadowy flippered figure gliding through the water with more than 30 tiger sharks off the coast of South Africa is 67-year-old Wolfgang Leander.
Swimming with sharks is his hobby.
It has led to surprisingly few mishaps, though nonetheless there's something unnerving about the way this steely-eyed pensioner describes a potentially fatal encounter he had with a hungry Caribbean Reef Shark that was drawn to him by the scent of the fish he had just speared.
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Swimming with danger: Wolfgang Leander with more than 30 tiger sharks
"Every time the shark wanted to get the fish, I veered the spear away," explains Leander, as if he is talking about teasing a kitten, not taunting a 5ft, sharp-toothed predator.
Wolfgang Leander relies on lung-power to swim with sharks.
"After I did this three times, the shark got quite mad and bit me in the left forearm, just once but rather angrily."
In a cloud of blood that gushed from the jagged wound, Leander swam to his boat and was rushed to a medical clinic.
There, he needed 42 stitches to sew him back together and four years on he still bears the zig-zag scar.
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The diver has nothing more than a wetsuit to protect him
But mentally? Nothing has changed.
"Wisdom doesn't come automatically with age," he says.
Leander - son of a German-Jewish airman who fled Berlin in 1936 to escape the Nazis and ended up in South America - has been pursuing his perilous hobby since he was 14.
His fascination with the creatures - "Nothing is more aesthetic than their hydro-dynamic shape and grace.
"They remind me of the architecture of the most advanced aeroplanes," he says - began when he was six and read a book about diving and underwater monsters. And that fascination has never abated.
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Hobby: Wolfgang has been swimming with sharks for 50 years
To get as close to sharks as possible, the former banker free-dives, relying on lung-power rather than oxygen tanks to breathe.
"It makes you feel you're not an intruder. And it's more sporting," he says.
To protect him, he has nothing more than a wetsuit, a pair of flippers, a camera and a pole spear that he uses to fend off those that get a little too close.
"I churn the water to get the sharks a little excited," he says,
"enough to make them approach me curiously or even boldly. It's like being on the edge. Some people think I am crazy and they are probably right."
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Leander relies on lung-power rather than oxygen tanks to breathe
Reader views (1)
Kudos on this article. Wolf remains a real advocate for sharks worldwide. Changing the perception of sharks one person at a time has been his greatest passion. We need about 300 more like him out there.
Unfortunately there's only one Wolf.
- Patric Douglas, San Diego, CA, 18/01/2008 02:26
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