I have no problem with using sharks to make money. I FULLY support the commercial and recreational harvest of sharks..
Where is your evidence to support the utopian idea that feeding sharks and artificially aggregating them will preserve them? A more reasonable position would be to promote the responsble and sustainable harvest of sharks for food and recreation. If commercial and recreational fisherman can continue to havest these creatures for money, THIS will do more to preserve the sharks than a few people baiting them.
BTW, I have no problem wiith educating people about sharks or diving with them or observing them. It is the baiting and artificial aggregation and modification of their behavoir which endangers sharks and divers which I take issue with.
We need to make people understand that sharks are a critical piece of the marine ecosystem and they need to be protected.
So you say "We need to make people understand that sharks are a critical piece of the marine ecosystem and they need to be protected." and preceed that with "A more reasonable position would be to promote the responsble and sustainable harvest of sharks for food and recreation. If commercial and recreational fisherman can continue to havest these creatures for money, THIS will do more to preserve the sharks than a few people baiting them."
Seriously?
The best way to promote conservation is to promote recreational and commercial fishing for sharks? Absolute nonsense and bizarre "logic" at the same time, you don't conserve a species by prtomoting killing it, in the Bahamas for example, a dead shark is worth approx $150, a live shark is worth approx $15,000 every single year it's there, it hardly takes a genius to figure out which is more beneficial to both local people and the sharks themselves.
You want evidence? OK, Shark Reef in Fiji...A totally dead reef with NOTHING living there until in 1997, two divers asked the tribes permission to try and attract sharks to the area, less than ten years later the reef have exploded back into life, up to 8 different species of sharks can be present on one dive, up to 50 Bull sharks at once and all the life in the localised food chain, from top to bottom is thriving. Marine Reserve status was granted meaning no fishing at all and in the areas outside the reserve, local fishermen actually benefit from the overspill of fish from the marine reserve.
The shark diving creates hundreds of jobs, promotes local commercial growth, generates millions in tourism every year and relies on sustainable conservation of the local shark population, literally every person in the community and every marine creature in the local eco-system benefits, no accidents, responsible shark diving operation, education and it also creates money for other environmental development like the replanting of mangroves.
Yet again, it doesn't "modify" their behaviour, over 400 million years of evolution and humans think we can change that by simply encouraging natural shark behaviour of scavenging...That's the problem, human arrogance. It's utter nonsense.
It doesn't affect their feeding habits
It doesn't promote unnatural aggregation (many species disappear naturally at certain points of the year in feeding sites only to return as they would normally do) yes it can encourage aggregation of sharks but more often than not it is to areas where they would normally aggregate anyway!
It isn't dangerous for divers if done properly
And most importantly everything in the world revolves around money, I'm not implying you're naive enough to believe otherwise but when there is money to be made through keeping something alive, it means governments and businesses actively encourage conservation. Even recreational catch and release fishing for sharks is damaging because large hooks in sharks mouth often break or at least damage their jaws, there is also the stress and internal damage caused by removing sharks from the water.
It is utterly bizarre that you advocate the damage, stress and killing of sharks to aid conservation (which is totally unnatural) over the observation of totally natural shark behaviour.
Commercial shark fishing in particular benefits the few, the wealthy corporations and food processing plant owners, whereas shark diving benefits the people in the local, often poor, communities directly. If you favour commercialism and unsustainable damage then by all means, scream from the rooftops about "commercial harvesting" but if you prefer a more even benefit to a larger group of people and sustainable appreciation of our oceans top predators, then make the obvious choice of appreciating the benefit of well operated and safe shark feeding.
I still can't get my head around the bizarre logic you've used, it reminds me loosely of how the American people have been conned into thinking socialism is a bad thing and all the controversy surrounding healthcare for all supposedly being so awful!!
You advocate commercial and recreational harvesting of sharks, yeah 'cos that's worked out well so far hasn't it?...
I'm actually making a film about all of this, I'll ensure you know as soon as it's finished 'cos it sounds like you need to see it. I don't own a shark diving operation, my only concern is supporting sustainable conservation of sharks to the benefit of all so I'm not exhibiting any bias, just pointing out what is blindingly the most obvious and simple example of how to make conservation for sharks work.
