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The Path to a Dream: The Story of One Zoologist

To be in the Maldives, in the tropics, on a beautiful island, in the middle of a huge blue ocean, diving into it head-on with scuba gear surrounded by hundreds of different bright fish and, first of all, among huge tiger sharks, and telling people about them, and not horror stories, but facts, and helping them see animals, not monsters! That's my job!

My name is Nikita Kornilov, and I'll tell you a little about how I got to this life.

Let's probably start from the very beginning - from childhood and the film that everyone has probably seen - "Jaws" (1975). It was with this film, which I watched when I was five or seven years old, that it all started, and it's ironic. The film that scared many with the image of a man-eating shark aroused my keen interest in these creatures and essentially determined my life and professional path. Thanks to comrade Spielberg, what else can I say?! I don't know who I would have become if not for his film. Actually, then it all started! All my childhood I watched documentaries about animals instead of cartoons, especially films by Cousteau, Steve Irwin, BBC films, and of course Nikolai Nikolaevich Drozdov, as an example!

As for books, the same story, I found everything I could find about sharks and read it with bated breath. And even now I still look for and collect such books, because they are very rare. If I went for a walk somewhere, I always dug under the stones catching beetles and spiders. You could say I found my calling right away, I was lucky in this regard. In school, my favorite subject was biology, by and large I almost never studied it. Although it took me a while to understand this. Before that, I wanted to become a submariner (on a submarine, not like now), a subway driver, a paleontologist, a pilot, and in the end I became an ichthyologist! When the time came to choose where and what to study, biology was almost the only option.

At first, of course, I tried to get into Moscow State University, to the biology department, but it didn’t work out, the competition there is extremely high. In the end, I entered the Timiryazev Agricultural Academy named after K.A. Timiryazev, to the department of animal science and biology, in the direction (we don’t have a specialty there) of biology. I remember well how, as an applicant, I came to the admissions office where there were tables of different departments with advertising brochures, and the department of animal science and biology stood out because they had live animals there to attract attention, like rabbits, lizards, snakes in terrariums, and even a tarantula, then it became clear - this is where I need to be! Well, then there was training to become a biologist, 4 years of bachelor’s degree and 2 years of master’s degree. But I must say one important thing, I didn’t learn anything new about sharks there. What they told me about them I knew when I was probably 12, and long before the popularization of the Internet. Everything I learned about them I studied myself from the sources I could dig up - documentaries (including in the original language), very few books, even more rarely articles. In addition, at the university, few supported my desire to devote my life to the study and popularization of these animals. Most often, teachers said something like - "this is unpromising! This is for those abroad, we have our own things to study, stop messing around! We need to describe and study domestic fish, especially commercial ones, to feed the people! There are no sharks in Russia, so why study them then?! (by the way, there are not only dogfish) ", and everything in that spirit. Moreover, I heard such answers not only from teachers at my university, but also at Moscow State University, where I hoped to find colleagues interested in these animals. Unfortunately, no matter how much I searched, I did not find any specialists in sharks or even just cartilaginous fish, or cases or ways of scientific cooperation on these animals, perhaps I searched poorly, but I still have not found anything or anyone in this field in Russia. Many of them have only seen an embalmed shark. As a result, I had to write my first diploma thesis on pike, there were simply no other alternatives for obtaining skills and knowledge in the field of ichthyology. I successfully defended my bachelor's diploma thesis, but even then I realized that under no circumstances would I go to work in the fish industry and with commercial fish in general. This is not my thing, and the state of this business in our country, to put it mildly, is not important, although it is certainly necessary and should develop, I hope it will. However, during my studies, I got a job as a lab assistant in an aquarium laboratory at the academy, where I received basic aquarist skills and generally learned how to work with them, maintain them. Even this gave me much more pleasure and practical skills than working on fish farms or with commercial fish in general. I never had an aquarium at home, but here there were a lot of them. And this played its role, as did the biology diploma, which was very useful to me!
I successfully entered the Master's program, there is much less workload in terms of studies, and therefore it was possible to look for a job. Before that, I had various part-time jobs, mainly in servicing the same aquariums and terrariums, worked for a year as an assistant in a veterinary clinic on night shifts, and even in selling tarantulas at terrarium exhibitions. But of course, they paid me next to nothing for this. And somehow I decided to try working in a petting zoo... I lasted 4 days. But already there I met and became friends with a terrarium keeper from the relevant department, and she told me that an oceanarium was being built nearby, and it was worth trying to get a job there, well, plus she knew someone from there. So I contacted the head of the biological service of the future "Crocus City Oceanarium", where they were looking for a laboratory biologist and aquarist, passed the probationary period and actually started working! At that time it seemed like a dream job, and I still remember those times with warmth, few of my classmates went to work in the field, and I was really lucky. But in fairness, it should be said that I was looking for something like that myself and found it! At that time, the oceanarium had not yet been built, and the animals were in a temporary holding facility, a temporary place where they are quarantined and serviced, and that's where I started working. Well, I'll tell you the truth, I started from the bottom in this business, that is, at first I just cleaned the cages of land animals, then cut food, like fish and squid (in the oceanarium, fish eat defrosted fish, this is normal), then I began to service freshwater aquariums, then sea aquariums, and so I came to work with sharks there, since I knew more about them than anyone else, loved them and was not afraid, well, and just openly showed that I would like to work with them!

The oceanarium was completed and animals were transported there just when I was finishing my master's degree, I wrote my thesis there not on fish, but on bats. It happened that way because with fish everything was again tied to commercial species and everything connected with aquaculture of such fish, which was categorically not interesting to me. But it was not easy with bats either. Not only because in practice I had to stay up all night, catch mice and ring them like birds, but also because it required a lot of work on analyzing foreign data, articles, translating articles, working with statistics in EXCEL, in other words, just actively sitting in front of a computer monitor, reporting to a scientific supervisor and deciphering echolocation signals in a special program. It may sound great, but in reality it was about the same as working in an office, and for me it has always been a personal branch of hell, if not worse! It was much more interesting to work at the oceanarium, new fish were constantly arriving, you learn and study information about them, I also liked the activity of working with the aquarium, although it was a dirty job, to put it mildly, but I liked working directly with animals, especially with marine and aquatic animals, more than being an analyzer of scientific data and an accountant of correlations and an editor of diagrams with graphs. When I finished my master's degree (with honors, by the way), I was invited to go and master the granite of science further, to graduate school. But I refused. There were several reasons for that. Firstly, when I finished my defense, received my diploma, I hoped that maybe now I would be able to somehow work with sharks in terms of science. But no, they told me directly that first it was worth spending another 5-7 years, doing something else, more mundane and important for specific people, countries, companies, getting degrees and recognition, and then you can try to work with sharks. Although I already had them at work, why should I waste a few more years for the sake of status in the eyes of people who have never seen these creatures and don’t want to?!
Secondly, the oceanarium paid well, in science in this regard everything is extremely bad. To get the same salary as the one I got at the oceanarium, you would have to have a title of at least a candidate of biological sciences, give lectures, conduct your own work, speak at conferences (including in other cities, where people usually go at their own expense), go on internships, help students, etc. With each additional load, a small increase in the end.

Well, and thirdly, I never wanted to be a scientist in the sense of a typical academician sitting in an office/laboratory, sometimes going on an internship once a year and then the rest of the time talking at closed conferences for gray-haired veterans of science data statistics. No, this is not my thing! I was much more interested in working directly with animals, I always wanted to get practical experience with them more than delving into theory alone! Well, in general, it is easy to talk about them and learn new things if you have a head on your shoulders and know how to search for and analyze sources of information. Fortunately, I learned this very well at the academy, so in addition to work I could calmly search for and study current research and results, just knowledge about my favorite sharks and rays.

Well, I went headlong into work at the oceanarium. There I realized that I was much more interested in such a direction as scientific and educational lectures for ordinary people, about the creatures with which I work, which I also began to actively do. I did this outside of work, for a couple of diving clubs and animal lovers' communities. Basically, I tell basic knowledge about sharks and rays, unusual and interesting facts about them, of course, I accompany everything with photos and videos of certain processes. The key reason why I do this is because I like it! Well, and because I love these animals, and they are much more than the floating teeth and jaws with which they are depicted by the media and horror films. In fact, the image itself, which was drawn by that very film, because of which I fell in love with sharks, I am trying to destroy. I want to show people that these are not man-eating monsters, but just animals. Certainly, potentially dangerous, but not killer machines, as they are always portrayed everywhere. With the same success, you can safely attach such a label to a bear or a tiger, given that they kill more people per year than any sharks. In this regard, as I personally think, I will bring more benefit to sharks and the ocean than with reports on the added value of a new portion of sturgeon or at a conference for professors who themselves sometimes believe in these very myths.
I worked at the Crocus City Oceanarium for five years! It was all sorts of things there, both fun and difficult, you can write a separate article about working there, but that experience also turned out to be necessary, important and useful. But then I didn’t dive with sharks, I had never seen the ocean! Many will be surprised, but it’s very difficult for a biologist to get there, because our work is not the most lucrative, and various expeditions and grants are more aimed at our internal rivers and reservoirs, if you’re lucky - the seas, and then mainly in the north, for example, many MSU students working with marine fauna go to the White and Barents Seas. And even then, most of their work is devoted to local invertebrates, the diversity of which in these seas is impressive! You can’t even dream about the tropics, in this regard, unfortunately. But it was at the oceanarium that I realized where to go next to get closer to my dream! One day I came across a magazine in our oceanarium about diving, where our oceanarium was featured, where dives into the main sea aquarium would soon be carried out. This service was implemented there by a very experienced diving instructor and director of his club - Dmitry Orlov. And in the same magazine there was an article about the dives of the same diving club and its director in Guadeloupe to great white sharks. At the same time, I also participated as a spectator in his webinar dedicated to sharks, and there I bombarded him with questions in every possible way about how to get to a place full of sharks and learn to dive with them and work professionally. The answer received was quite obvious - learn to dive, and go to places where sharks live and gain experience from professionals there! Well, then I slowly but surely began to master diving! Well, besides him, exactly the same thing was later told to me by a true legend in the world of diving with sharks - Cristina Zenato, a diving instructor from the Bahamas, who has been removing hooks from shark jaws for over 28 years and teaches others to do the same. In general, it was clear that I needed to dive head first, at least for the sake of a useful skill and the opportunity to be directly with these creatures, as well as for the sake of useful contacts in this area. So I went into this craft.

First OWD, then AOWD, everything as it should be. But I only dived at work a couple of times, and then as a tourist, and at the open water test in a quarry. Of course, this was not enough!

After 5 years of working at the Crocus City Oceanarium, an opportunity arose to get into a more prestigious and professionally developed place - Moskvarium, in the warm-water marine fish department, which I immediately took advantage of! There I got new experience working with new fish, including sharks. Breeding 2 species of cat sharks alone was worth it! In addition, there I already completed diving training, and received a 4th category diver certificate for underwater demonstration feeding and at the same time observing animals. But this is also a small part of the work of an aquarist in such an institution, the rest can also be written about separately some other time.
I have already worked at the Moskvarium for two years, mostly with sharks and rays. I even trained the latter in a simple way and tamed them using submersible feeding. The most interesting thing was, of course, feeding the main marine aquarium, where we had the largest rays, sharks, moray eels, groupers and other fish in general. Of the large sharks, there are two specimens of common sand sharks (Carcharias taurus) and a dozen smaller sharks, blacktip sharks (Carcharhinus melanopterus), whitetip reef sharks (Triaenodon obesus), as well as 1 ornate wobbegong and zebra sharks (Stegostoma fasciatum), plus large stingrays, guitar rays and shark rays. In connection with this work, I will immediately answer one of the most frequently asked questions - Am I afraid to dive with sharks? NO!

In any case, I am not afraid of sharks at this moment, I am more afraid of the depth itself or the air supply. When I am underwater with these creatures, I experience a whole range of emotions. First of all, it is peace, tranquility, calm, delight, curiosity and somewhere in the last queue - adrenaline. I do not see a monster that can devour me, I see a beautiful animal, an apex predator, constantly analyzing the situation around. I see an ideal hunter for its habitat and catching a certain prey, which reacts in a specific way to me, my actions and responds to them. In the end, I see beautiful, elegant fish that have existed and evolved in the ocean for many millions of years, and about which we still learn something new every year. BUT! I am perfectly aware of myself and know who I am dealing with, for me they and this action itself are not an attraction to tickle my nerves, as some might think. For me, this is work, and a favorite and necessary part of it! Yes, of course, there is a considerable risk of injury or even death. But any person who has worked with animals will tell you that the risk of injury from them is and will always be, no matter what creature you work with! These are not machines or an office that are programmed or where everything is always 100% safe and controlled by a person. And no, the sharks did not try to bite me, if you know how to work with them and behave, then it is safer to be with them underwater than driving a car on the way to the oceanarium (no joke, sometimes it was much scarier on the way).

Overall, the experience was more than good. But one thing did not give me peace. I had never seen and had never been in the ocean, I had not seen sharks and rays there! More than once, guests at oceanariums and several of my diver friends told me how they dived in the ocean and seas and saw certain types of sharks that I had read a lot about, watched, knew, but had not seen them. I won't lie, it was very depressing! Because I was an ichthyologist, an expert on sharks, but I had no experience with them in the ocean. This is not right! I continued to slowly but surely master diving. Of course, I continued to give lectures, both at the oceanarium and for diving clubs, and for anyone interested. Now I give them on the island of Fuvahmulah, in the Maldives. How did this happen? It turns out that when I was just starting out, at a webinar where I was actively asking Dmitry Orlov, I was noticed by diving instructors Petr and Irina Britanov. They, like me, are shark fans. But unlike me, they immediately began diving with them wherever they could. As a result, they have a huge practical experience of safe diving with a wide variety of species. But their big dream was to dive with tiger sharks, a population of which can be found on the island of Fuvahmulah, where they stopped, founding Tigersharkprofi. Well, they kindly invited me to work for them as a full-time biologist-lecturer, and a diving guide, and that's all I do now.
I remember well how I came here and could hardly believe that it was true! And sometimes I still have that feeling. As I left the airport, and there was the ocean, not the sea, but the ocean! Huge, blue, to the horizon, the smell of sea salt, the sound of the waves, many small huge tankers in the distance like matchboxes, in other words, it was not the Black Sea at all, the difference was total. Not to mention the change in climate, just what I like, warm, humid, but not stuffy! The first stop was Dhaangethi Island, where the Tigersharkprofi branch is located, there I did a check dive and dived into the ocean for the first time, not into an aquarium, finally!

My very first dives were on Dhaangethi Island, among reef mantas, with a wingspan of 3-4 m. These creatures will not leave anyone indifferent, especially a biologist who dreamed of working in the ocean. Then there were dives to gray reef sharks, these were the first sharks I saw in the ocean, as I dreamed of. A couple of them were swimming in a small group, at a decent distance from us. But even so, I was delighted, because these are sharks! Wild, natural, and here they are in the open ocean, just magnificent! Beautiful, calm, but attentive and cautious hunters. And gray reef sharks, one of the smartest fish in the world. In addition to them, there were also just a variety of corals, groupers, many fish already familiar to me, but in the open ocean, and in addition there were those that I have never seen in real life even in an oceanarium, like whale sharks. True, here it was snorkeling, not diving, but even so I was incredibly happy to look at these big and kind giants, which are becoming increasingly rare all over the world. Why this happens, I tell in my lectures to guests. Well, and then there were shark dives on the island of Fuvahmulah, where I am now. The first local check-in was at the Farikeit site, near Thundi beach, in the company of thresher sharks. Oh, these graceful gentle creatures never get boring. It is a pleasure to watch their smooth, seemingly timid, but at the same time precise movements, with a minimum of effort to move in the water, this is pure underwater aesthetics of nature itself!

Well, for dessert there were them ... tiger sharks, the calling card of the island and the diving club! When I went under the water for the first time, one shark was already right under us. It is still difficult to put together all the words that can at least slightly convey my feelings and emotions from this meeting. At first, I did not immediately believe that I was seeing it live. These famous stripes, the shape of the body, the head, the eyes. I've seen them so many times in photos, videos, and now in real life, and it's so strange, so new, so unusual. That here she is, the famous tiger, right there under me, and not on the screen. It's beyond my comprehension!
Then we swam to the place where the tuna heads were dropped for the sharks, Peter and the safety guides were looking around and ensuring safety. And then there were a lot of them! I don’t remember exactly how many, I think about ten. And it was better than anything I expected and was heading for. No titles in biology, conferences or articles can compare with when you see these amazing animals in the ocean around you, not to mention the feeling of satisfaction, relief and joy when you have achieved your dream and now it is coming true in front of you and happening here and now. Diving with sharks is not an adrenaline rush, as some people often think, having only seen news reports and horror films. No! Diving with tiger sharks is an endless feeling of peace, calm, tranquility, a little weightlessness, both physical and emotional. Being among sharks is not horror, fear, nerves, adrenaline and the creepy music of John Williams. It is to be in a new place, to watch amazing hunters who constantly watch, analyze and study the environment around them, it is to know the nature that is around us and its processes, creatures. Well, I felt like I was in my place, where I want to be, and I want to see such a "view from the office" every day! And most importantly, it is much cooler and better than any shark fishing, eating their fins, soup with them or other products from them.

This is the long path I have taken until I fulfilled my dream and began diving with sharks and working directly with them. From now on, I plan to only develop my skills and experience, create new lectures, become information with you, dear readers, and engage in safe shark diving for people far from biology, so that they can see in them what these creatures really are - beautiful, amazing animals that deserve respect, protection and admiration no less than other creatures!