The following (in italics) is a blog by "DaShark"
It's a great read and addresses the issues facing the shark diving industry brilliantly. DaShark is of course the very guy who was instrumental in establishing the Shark Reef National Park in Fiji! So he knows a thing or two about operating a shark dive. Check out his operation
"The best shark dive in the world!"
Thorny thorny!
If you're a Shark diving operator, you need to read this!
And I cite.
5. Conclusions
In recent years there has been increasing global interest in
shark-encounter tourism and the potential economic incentive
and awareness raising benefits this industry may bring to shark
conservation.
However, recent research has indicated negative
behavioural impacts arising from shark diving or snorkelling and
inadequacies in management have been highlighted.
In this global
study of shark tourism practices we found that in the majority of
cases surveyed, shark operators apply codes of conduct (either
mandatory or voluntary) to ensure the safety of both people and
sharks even when no formal national guidelines exist.
However,
the practices and approaches taken varied widely, and we believe
there is a good case for greater regulation to raise standards and
minimise any adverse effects on both sharks and people. Such an
approach would involve greater scrutiny of the industry and formalisation
of legally enforced national guidelines.
Links are frequently
made between shark baiting/provisioning and attacks,
and while these remain speculative, a precautionary approach is
warranted that would be best delivered through regulation.
Without
this, shark tourism has the potential to cause accidents which
could decrease the growing popularity of sharks and thereby have
negative knock on effects for their conservation, particularly when
culls follow attacks such as those recently witnessed in Western
Australia.
While our questionnaire indicates that the majority of
shark encounters and shark tourism currently pose very little risk
to people, more field research is required on shark behavioural
responses to tourism practices to help assess best practices for
sharks, people and environment. Shark diving management therefore
needs to be dynamic and must evolve with continuing developments
in the industry and understanding of shark behaviour.
First things first.
When it comes to collecting the evidence and painting a picture of
global Shark diving tourism, this paper is really quite good. Also, I
really don't want to further elaborate on what I've already said about
those problematic non-provisioned encounters with Elasmobranchs, be it
Whale Sharks, Mantas and the like, i.e. that if the industry is not able to self regulate, then the regulator has to step in - see e.g. here.
And what about those provisioned dives?
I've blogged ad nauseam about what the evidence teaches us about their effect on the animals, the public and the environment, e.g. here.
Yes there are of course people that postulate otherwise - but at this
stage in the debate, it is for them to stop speculating but instead, to
finally come up with evidence to the contrary. And no, invoking the
precautionary principle in view of those totally unsubstantiated
allegations aint good enough anymore, either!
And if they cannot come up with the evidence, they finally need to shut the fuck up - especially the researchers!
Yes Shark feeding is dangerous - dooh.
Yes often the Sharks get excited - dooh.
And yes there are dodgy Shark diving operators, and those unsupervised
multi-user sites like TB are a cause for concern. And we also all know
that there have been quite a number of Shark bites - very few on the
clients but plenty on the feeders, the latter ranging from harmless
because there was protective gear to serious when there was none.
But here comes the big BUT!
In tens, if not hundreds of thousands of baited Shark dives, there has
been a grand total of ONE documented fatality - and I betcha that if one
were to make the comparison to "normal" diving, you would likely find
more fatalities per hours spent in the water than during baited Shark
dives!
The reason?
Believe it or not - but none of us has a death wish, and we also want to bring back our clients unharmed!
We know that what we do is dangerous, and we are the first ones striving
to minimize and manage the risks we admittedly create! This is why the
overwhelming majority, if not all of Shark feeding operators have
devised voluntary codes of conduct - and those protocols obviously work!
Does anybody really believe that some government bureaucrats could come
up with, implement and then supervise better protocols - but more
importantly, is there really a need for them? There are already more
than sufficient laws on the books to deal with criminal negligence
vis-à-vis the customers, and accidents to the staff are covered by
occupational health-and-safety regulations - so instead of wasting
additional government resources on what is essentially a non-issue, why
don't we rely on the authorities to simply apply the Law. An guess what
- provided that the incidents are serious, they incidentally do it already!
And the suggestions by the authors?
... legally binding national guidelines for shark tourism
which all shark operators need to be made aware of.
Education
could include mandatory classes for shark operators about species
which are likely within their area, the threats facing them, current
management practices, potential human impacts from tourism
activities and best practice for mitigating them. Attendance at such
sessions could be a formalised requirement of any permitting
scheme and could be funded through charges to operators.
Based on our findings and review of literature, we propose that
national regulations or codes of conduct for shark-related tourism
should include limits on: group sizes, time spent in the water with
sharks and provisioning (both in terms of quantity and quality of
food items). There needs to be compulsory education about such
regulations and legal consequence should they not be followed.
Seriously - what a load of crap!
Surely, this stupidity has not been coordinated with the concerned operators - or has it?
None of the accidents I know of (and I know of many!) had anything to do
with group size, time spent in the water and amount of food, let alone
with not knowing the animals! Once again,
it really appears that some researchers are bloviating about our
industry without the slightest clue about sustainable Shark provisioning
let alone tourism - and it is really starting to piss me off!
Guys, we appreciate the interest.
But for fuck's sake, as a minimum, you need to talk to us before
accusing us of not knowing what we do! In fact, the contrary is true -
most of anything that is known about Shark behavior and sustainable
tourism practices has been garnered on dives that have been established
by our industry, and smart researchers have long learned to talk to us
and to listen to what we got to say!
Anyway, it matters not.
Governments got no time for these minutiae - that is, unless there are
real issues where self regulation has obviously failed. Then they
should, and will regulate - and when they do, I'm equally confident that
they will seek the dialogue with us, the pros!
And in the meantime, we will continue to do what is right.
We will continue to provide extremely safe, enjoyable encounters that
harm nobody - not the public, not the Sharks and not the environment.
And we will of course evolve and progress, like we always have, and like
we are presently doing by having voluntarily established GSD
and quite possibly, by collaborating with respectful people and
organizations in formulating a global code of conduct like briefly
mentioned here!
That's how you do it - by dialogue, not by proclamations ex cathedra!
To be continued no doubt!
~DaShark
Thank you DaShark! Excellent insight!
Cheers,
Martin Graf
CEO
Shark Diver
About Shark Diver.
As a global leader in commercial shark diving and conservation initiatives Shark Diver has spent the past decade engaged for sharks around the world. Our blog highlights all aspects of both of these dynamic and shifting worlds. You can reach us directly at staff@sharkdiver.com.
