Baja, Mexico - Ocean Ramsey, 27, a shark conservationist based on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, swam with great white sharks in the waters of Baja, Mexico. Ms Ramsey, a model, said she believes a hands-on approach with her subject is necessary to convince people that sharks are not the vicious creatures portrayed in films.

She said: "It's difficult to express the incredible joy and breathtaking emotion experienced locking eyes with a great white shark. Watching the shark acknowledge and observe me, while I peacefully and calmly allowed it to swim towards me, and then experiencing it accepting my touch, allowing me to dorsal and tail ride."

Ms Ramsey told reporters "The goal was to go and find some great white sharks and collect video footage of their natural behavior, but also, if the opportunity arose and the conditions were right, to actually interact with them. "We wanted to show that this is what they're really like - not the Hollywood movie where you put a drop of blood in the water and the animals go crazy."

The encounter last year means that she has now swum with 32 species of shark. Ms Ramsey believes sharks have been the victim of media sensationalism that seeks to portray them as vicious killers. She said: "Every story needs a villain, and after films like Jaws, it's just too easy for most media to continue to manipulate the human psyche and ingrain a deeper more absurd terror."

"Just showing these animals swimming around not biting or eating anything, as they are probably 99 percent of the time, isn't enough to convince people."