We spend a lot of time on this blog talking about the 200 million dollar shark diving industry and how the actions of local operations ripple across the globe to eventually effect us all.For the second day in a row a major newspaper in the U.K has acquired a You Tube video shot by a diver at Isla Guadalupe in 2007.
The video details one of the worst cage breaches ever caught in the history of cage diving.
The operation in question has had several cage breaches going back to 2004 at the same dive site with the same sharks.
By way of disclosure we also operate at the same site and before anyone proffers the idea this post about "slamming a competitor" we would like to put that to rest-now.
This post is about media, responsibility, and leadership within an industry. It is about our responsibility to the animals we make a living from, it is about treating the resource as a renewable one and not as a Biological ATM Machine.
This video, for the anti shark diving lobby, who would like to see an end to shark diving in places like South Africa, Australia, the Bahamas, remains the perfect visual media tool. It is the Golden Key.
For example this video is one of the primary reason the Mexican Navy enacted a ban on chumming at Isla Guadalupe in 2008. This ban affected an entire fleet of operators and shark divers from all over the planet. All due to a video and the complete lack of any media control exercised by a commercial shark diving company.
The abject irresponsibility of allowing this video to remain on the Internet where it continues to portray great whites in a 70's mindset, continues to harm other operations at this dive site, and continues to provide a platform for those who want to end shark diving-cannot be understated.
Leadership within an industry begins with the sharks and it ends with the realization that everything we do on a local level will eventually affect those on the other side of the planet either positively or negatively. The next steps are up the the company responsible for this event.
It is high time they took full responsibility for this sad affair and "retired" this video for the sake of the industry and for the ongoing perception of sharks worldwide. These animals deserve better, you know it, the industry knows it, and no amount of post event website spin will change that.
11 comments:
No amount of media control at this point will help.The U.K media machine has this like a Pit Bull. You'll have to wait until it burns out.
Good point lets see some leadership and get rid of that video!
Hear hear, let's see some action guys!
Here is the guys e-mail.
patrick.sean.walsh@gmail.com
It's right on the You Tube page.
Why doesn't everybody e-mail him and ask him to take it down?
He is the ONLY person who can take this video down.
Not the operator he went with, or anyone else.
Thanks for the email Tom. We get that. More disgustingly those guys are now looking to sell the rights to this clip, gotta love America.
This video was generated by the operator in question. It happened on their watch, and they have a moral obligation to see this video taken down.
Both the vessel and the operator have been asked repeatedly by others withing the fleet to do something about this video over the past year and again this week.
Their response is "we have no control over this guy". Once again shifting responsibility away from this entire event and onto someone else.
We are firm believers in "owning what you break".
Unfortunately this video has gone viral and national being shown on the Today Show this morning to a US audience of over 4 million.
The damage is done, and the rest of the industry is now picking up the tab.
These guys are jokers, they do not care about sharks.
Bad day for sharks.
Now let me get this straight, you are opposed to the video showing the two guys in the cage, and want it taken down, but you have it on your own web-site to promote yourself? Interesting.
After a many years of operational irresponsibility from the company in question.
After the "Ban on Chumming" enacted by the MX Navy due to this video.
After an absolute media blowout this week wherein over 2 million people were exposed to this video.
YOU think this is about getting sales and promoting our company?
Waddaya...new?
I think that watching sharks from a cage is the ocean based equivalent of watching bears in the dump at Yellowstone. It was wrong in the '50's and it is wrong now. However, the two guys in the video have made it really clear that they weren't attacked, and the shark was merely confused. I have heard neither of them endorse or condemn the practice in question. they seem to be only saying: it was an interesting experience. I don't understand your vitriol over two divers, one of whom happened to be shooting video.
Thanks for the thoughtful post on this. It has more to do with the operator in question-not allowing this event to happen in the first place.
This was operator error clear and simple.
The two guys who are seeking to profit from this is a side story to the industry at large.
Post a Comment