[Coral-List] Shark Feeding
Szmant, Alina
szmanta at uncw.edu
Tue Mar 4 20:00:40 EST 2014
The GoPro folks put out a video last year of a woman snorkeler riding I think a great white (in very clear water). The video was quite striking and beautiful, and I can see how it would incite copy-cat idiots to give it a try.
“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” Eleanor Roosevelt
“The time is always right to do what is right” Martin Luther King
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Dr. Alina M. Szmant
Professor of Marine Biology
Center for Marine Science and Dept of Biology and Marine Biology
University of North Carolina Wilmington
5600 Marvin Moss Ln
Wilmington NC 28409 USA
tel: 910-962-2362 fax: 910-962-2410 cell: 910-200-3913
http://people.uncw.edu/szmanta
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-----Original Message-----
From: coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov [mailto:coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov] On Behalf Of Steve Mussman
Sent: Tuesday, March 04, 2014 10:38 AM
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: [Coral-List] Shark Feeding
A timely article in Scientific American (
[1]http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/shark-riders-pose-threat-to-con
servation-gains-made-with-diving-ecotourism-slide-show1/) brings to light
some of the concerns that should be considered as logical progressions in
the expansion and development of the shark feeding/ecotourism industry.
Apparently a new trend deemed âshark-ridingâ has raised jitters that a
resultant âaccidentâ could have industry-wide repercussions. In the
article, one popular shark provisioning advocate laments that although
âhighly experienced people may possibly limit risks through adequate
behavior and safety protocols, . . . the increasing number of inexperienced
copycats makes me fear that somebody will end up having a bad accidentâ. He
goes on to say that he hopes âthat everybody agrees that riding harmless
species like turtles, manatees, nurse sharks, manta rays and whale sharks is
totally disrespectful and moronic, so why would riding those predatory
sharks be anything else?â I would suggest that feeding those same species
could be considered equally disrespectful and offensive, so why the sudden
fascination with ethics regarding human interactions with marine life? Why
not feed them all? There is surely more economic and conservation-related
potential here as well. In truth, there are less intrusive ways to promote
shark conservation as seen in efforts world-wide to protect turtles,
manatees and whales. Consider what it would be like if we simply allowed all
wildlife activities to be controlled by the âeconomic decisionsâ of
tourists eager to get up close and personal with any number of species in
the wild. As a side note, nurse sharks are not necessarily harmless and
handling them can unpredictably lead to undesirable and injurious
consequences as well.
Regards,
Steve
References
1. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/shark-riders-pose-threat-to-conservation-gains-made-with-diving-ecotourism-slide-show1/
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