Megan Cook is the North American Rolex Scholar. For more than 35 years, the Our World Underwater Scholarship Society has awarded three prestigious Rolex scholarships to outstanding young people who show a demonstrated interest in underwater-related careers. To read more about Cook’s year or to get scholarship application information, go to owussnorthamerica. 

It’s exhilarating to stand eye-level with the most powerful and enigmatic animals in the sea. With a frozen herring in hand and a shark mouth bearing down on you, you might expect a flood of adrenaline. But for me, as the shark glided by and snapped closed its toothy grin, I was mesmerized. I had come to Grand Bahama to dive with Cristina Zenato, a Women’s Diver Hall of Fame inductee who possesses a magical understanding of and presence with sharks. 

I’ve read plenty of shark stories, but I craved my own experience. Fifteen Caribbean reef sharks swirled around me, their muscular bodies cutting through the water like food-seeking missiles. I felt joy and a thrill at sharing the water, and couldn’t help wondering how sharks have earned such a bad reputation. Sure, they’re stunningly powerful with a sharp business end, but as I watch them, they clumsily bump into one another, careen into the wrong end of the PVC feeding tube or completely miss bait placed a few inches from their nose. 

One large female circled close, then nuzzled her nose onto my legs. I dropped the feeder tube and knelt on a knee, then gently rubbed her face. She immediately relaxed “down to sleep” in my lap. For nearly 20 minutes, I could feel the rhythmic jaw pressure of her venting on my leg. 

Show me a televised program depicting these animals with slashing teeth, and I’ll counter with the contentedness of kneeling in the sand with a lap full of shark.