Swimming Naked With Sharks To Save Them

Lesley Rochat’s house is called ‘Soulmate by the Sea’. If you look outside the back you can see why. From here you can see the deep waters of False Bay, where dolphins leap, seals bark and the great white shark lurks.

- Lesley Rochat

Lesley Rochat’s house is called ‘Soulmate by the Sea’. If you look outside the back you can see why. From here you can see the deep waters of False Bay, where dolphins leap, seals bark and the great white shark lurks. This is where Rochat gave up the money as a financial advisor to pursue the adventurous life of a conservationist, photographer and journalist – all because she met a shark named Maxine at the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town.

“[Maxine] was the catalyst that made me change my life, she helped to set me free from the shallow world of finance, to found the non-profit organization, AfriOceans Conservation Alliance, in 2003, and pursue my dream of helping to save our beautiful oceans and sharks,” says Rochat.

Since meeting Maxine, Rochat has spent 13 years fighting for ocean conservation. Through her projects, she has touched the lives of more than 30,000 children.

It doesn’t stop there. So determined is Rochat to project the seas that she didn’t need to think twice about swimming naked with sharks in a campaign against drum lines.

“I do not propose you should go out and try the same to strip naked and jump into an ocean of sharks. Changing the negative perception that people have of sharks is what I aim to achieve. The video reveals the very thing we promote; sharks are not monster man-eaters. If they were, I would not be here anymore – not whole anyway,” she says.