Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Tourism operators educating people about Great White sharks

One of the primary functions of commercial shark diving operators worldwide is to inform and educate the public to the positive side of sharks.

Not everyone does this but when they do good media always follows:

ABC News S.A

HENNIE OTTO: We've got some scientific evidence that chumming doesn't really affect the behaviour of the shark being- making them more accustomed to boats and people, etc - or making them more prone to attack human beings.

ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: Hennie Otto from the company Marine Dynamics, which runs Sharkwatch South Africa.

HENNIE OTTO: If the bait line's been pulled away as the animal moves in and that's negative-negative conditioning, if you want to call it that. Um, there's proof that the sharks have been habituated about what we're doing. As soon as you see that they don't get the bait, they usually just swim off. And you rely on constantly new animals coming through on a regular basis for the divers to see them in the cage.

ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: How important is this as far as the tourism's concerned, to actually educate the people about the shark.

Complete Story.

No comments: