What am I supposed to react when a shark is heading towards me?

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It’s a natural reflex to protect its eyes when feeding, bumping or something coming close to its face. Just like us when something coming towards our eyes, we close our eye lids to protect our eyes.

Here is the Cocos Scarface that was identified as the one that had killed a diver. Notice its eyes were closed when it approached to the camera without being petted.

View attachment 519230

Other examples of natural reflex of shark eye rolling when object gets close to their eyes

 
So basically rolling back is shark's version of closing eyes to avoid injury out of instinct

They do it like a purring cat too.
 
You can see how much she enjoys being petted here in this vid:

 
Umm, im no animal behaviorist, but I can say with conviction that sharks don't "enjoy" being petted.

And that vid just shows a shark probably hanging around looking to filch an easy meal.

Can a shark even smile? How can we evaluate its "feelings' here?
 
And I know that it hurts some fish to even touch them - scrapes away their protective slime layer.

I don't know if sharks are those kinds of fish, but since Im not sure, my general rule is don't touch fish.
 
Dump hot sauce all over your body. They hate hot sauce.

As others have said, there are so many species that the vast majority of time, they're just passing by. If in doubt, hands in, go vertical in the water to look larger, and in my case, I raise my large camera. The camera is to take a photo first, but then to use as a shield. I have used it to "redirect" overly interested sharks.

Also, dive with a smaller, slower buddy. And carry a knife. The knife is not for the shark, but you can nick your buddy, so that they start bleeding, and flailing around trying to figure out why you just stuck them with a knife. This is the time you make your getaway. :)
 

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