Lemon shark insists on head rub from diver

An eight foot long lemon shark living in the coastal waters off of Jupiter, Florida is welcoming divers into her environment in exchange for one thing - head scratches.

Scuba guide Randy Jordan enters the water on a daily basis, and while normal people would be terrified to be met by a group of sharks, Jordan looks forward to seeing his toothy friends and one in particular named Blondie.

“She recognizes me as soon as I go in the water and runs over to me. It almost looks like she’s smiling. She doesn’t want food, she just wants to be petted,” Jordan told The Dodo.

He said the 200 pound female shark is very insistent on interaction.

“If you don’t give her the attention, she’ll bump into you,” he said. “ You have to attend to her. That’s just the way she is. It is strange.”

Jordan theorizes that because a sharks snout is nerve filled, the head rubs are a pleasant sensation, similar to scratching behind a dog or cat’s ears.

“I’m not a scientist, but I know sharks have a nerve center under their snout and, when that’s stimulated, it puts them into a semi-catatonic state,” he said.

In the video, Blondie appears to be in a trance while gliding underwater with Jordan.

The scuba guide is hoping that sharing footage of the friendly sharks will help combat the general idea that all sharks are man eating and vicious.

Discovery News reported that 100 million sharks are killed annually by the fishing industry. Populations can also dwindle due to habitat loss