By Madeline McCurry-Schmidt | September 12, 2012 | http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/
Dr. Eugenie Clark. Photo: Tak Konstantinou
Researcher Eugenie Clark is 90 years old. Her office shelves are lined with gaping shark jaws. One is from a tiger shark. It bit her once—the only shark bite of her life.
She was driving to talk to a student group, and the shark jaw sat on the passenger seat. She made a quick stop at a red light, and the jaw flew forward. Clark shot her arm out to stop the teeth from hitting the dashboard.
“Instead, it cut my arm,” said Clark.
After years of swimming with live sharks, that’s the closest Clark’s come to meeting Jaws.
“I’ve had sharks come up to me, I’ve even pushed a shark away,” Clark said. “I’m not easily frightened.”