Sleep tight and don't let sharks bite at Paris aquarium

Updated: 2016-03-30 10:39

(Agencies)

People look at sharks from an underwater room structure installed in the Aquarium of Paris, France, March 14, 2016. Airbnb and the Aquarium of Paris offer contest winners a night underwater sleeping with sharks and create a research platform for "misunderstood" shark species. [Photo/Agencies]

"It's a great opportunity to show people that you can swim with sharks, you can be with sharks and nothing bad happens, but also that we need to protect the sharks because they are like crucial for the ecosystem. If sharks disappear, we disappear, basically."

The structure, which was tested for durability in the waters of the Mediterranean, will be open to competition winners on April 11, 12 and 13, after which it will be a turned into a research hub.