Meet Cristina Zenato, The Woman Who Lives To Remove Wayward Hooks From The Mouths Of Sharks

This story was originally published by The Inertia.

This is Cristina Zenato and she has a very close relationship with sharks. She's a professional diver who's been diving with the ocean's most feared predator for some 25 years. A member of the Explorers Club (she's also way into cave diving), her expertise in sharks is especially well tuned with the Caribbean Reef Sharks in the Bahamas, where she has an almost zen-like approach with the fish.

That's why some call her the "Shark Whisperer." She has an innate ability to soothe these eight-and-a-half-foot predators into submission with her touch. So much so that she's been able to remove wayward hooks from the mouths of sharks that have often been there for years (that can't be comfortable). She says the hooks come from escaping directly off the lines of fisherman or even biting into flailing fish that are already hooked. Regardless, the hooks become permanent markers on the fish.

In the video above she tells the story of the first shark that came to her, and how she knew it had a hook in its throat and went to remove it on a bit of a whim (thanks to the way the sharks already trusted her, of course). Well, word got in Sharkville, and every beast with a hook in its mouth came looking for Zenato to remove it. You can hear more from her in the video below or follow her on Instagram, here

This story was originally published by The Inertia.