Papillion-La Vista Public Schools teacher Pat Purkhiser loves learning and teaching, especially when it comes to the subject of animals.
Purkhiser, who is in his 12th year teaching for the school district, is the instructor for the Zoo Academy at the Henry Doorly Zoo. He recently got the opportunity to expand his and his students' knowledge of great white sharks.
Purkhiser went on the Great White Shark Expedition at Guadalupe Island, a volcanic island 150 miles off the west coast of Mexico's Baja California peninsula. It is a perfect place to view the great whites in their natural habitat.
Purkhiser has gone on more than 3,000 dives during the past 33 years and has been diving at the zoo for 15 years.
He heard about the expedition after he and some friends opened a dive shop in Omaha called DiVentures. Purkhiser came into contact with a fellow dive shop owner and a freelance photographer, who got Purkhiser interested in the expedition at Guadalupe Island.
After speaking with the curator of education at the zoo, who said it seemed like a valid expedition, and with his school's administration, Purkhiser was all set to go on the trip.
“Everything just kind of fell into place,” he said.
Purkhiser said that every year the Discovery Channel broadcasts Shark Week, and a lot of it is “kind of blood and guts.” During the Guadalupe expedition, though, scientists from the Shark Research Institute filmed a video to show that great white sharks are not “just mindless eating machines or killing machines” such as those in the movie “Jaws,” Purkhiser said.
He said that movie was the worst thing that ever happened to sharks, making people fear and hate them.
People should be more worried about bees or pigs killing them than sharks, Purkhiser said. The filmmakers hope to submit the video to the Discovery Channel for next year's Shark Week.
Purkhiser said he never felt threatened in the water with the massive creatures because of some extreme safety measures. The group never left the cage at the surface of the water, because great whites are surface predators. Instead, the cage went down 40 feet before the group left it for the open ocean.
Purkhiser also said there were never too many people in the water at once. Although there were seven guests — two Germans, a Sicilian, an Israeli, an Englishman and two Americans — only a safety diver, a photographer, a Shark Research Institute person and one of the guests were allowed at one time. There was also surface-to-diver communication, and everyone had cameras and safety poles.
While in the water, Purkhiser was able to film and observe the great whites in their natural habitat.
“It's hard to describe it,” he said about his first experience with a great white. “You can't put it into words what it's like to see this thing come up between 12 to 18 feet and it's supposed to be such a bad guy.”
The team would use the cage as a reference and stayed close just in case of a dangerous situation.
Purkhiser said he admires sharks because they are “the perfect predator.” The great white shark has a biting pressure of more than 3,000 pounds per square inch, which seems to be one of the reasons it has gotten such a bad rap.
“When a shark attacks it's all about the shark just tasting you and where it tastes you at,” Purkhiser said. “If it tastes you on the arm, that's OK, you'll probably live, but something this big, with a mouth maybe 24 to 36 inches wide, if it tastes you on the abdomen, you're not going to be so lucky.”
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