Shark Cage Diving Town Meeting

[sea nmf]

There was an article in the Star Bulletin today regarding an operation that wants to start up in the South End (out of Hawaii Kai).

In case anyone is interested, there will be a town meeting this Thursday from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Kamiloiki Elementary School, 7788 Hawaii Kai Drive.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Shouldn't the thread title be "Shark Cage SNORKEL Town Meeting?"

 

[Lopaka]

Been watching the boat getting rigged up with the cage. Old boat, but new to the dock, Doggie V or similar. Looks like they are trying to set up a new business: tank holders and benches get taken out, fishing rigs go in, and back again. Never seen it leave with customers, and now it has the cage taking up most of the rear deck.

Be interesting to see if they get off the ground. The "Rina" that caters only to Japanese divers has not left the dock since it had to move for the dock rework. Not a lot of new customers.................

 

[smellzlikefish]

Any idea what they plan to use for moorings?

 

[rgbmatt]

Be interesting to see if they get off the ground. The "Rina" that caters only to Japanese divers has not left the dock since it had to move for the dock rework. Not a lot of new customers.................

There is probably enough demand for it. The Haleiwa guys still make a plenty of runs each day with full boats, and Hawaii Kai is a lot more convenient for the tourist market.

 

[justleesa]

my thought is, if they are saying that this is "illegal" on the South side, how can it be legal up North?

 

[DiveWestOahu]

well it's not, they (lawmakers) are setting up a restriction for any shark dives (snorkels) in the state of hawaii, they can't write up a bill in time before this session ends (end of april) but it will be on the agenda for next session,,, if you got any friends that wanna do the shark dive, better have them do it soon. fyi the meeting in hawaii kai did get pretty ugly at a few points but no one was tied to a stake and dowsed in gasoline (yet).

 

[Lopaka]

Advertiser article yesterday had a write up about the meeting, made it sound like the guy was a loose cannon. Beside the usual local resentment "where you from?" being shouted out, it came out that the guy was just trying to set up a business. Whoops, can't do that here, must bow to all the special interests, and grease palms............

The Koko Marina management said they were shocked, shocked! to find out the guy wanted to set up a shark dive business. Yeah, right. Pretty freaking obvious what the big cage was for, there on the boat for at least two weeks.................

That said, I think the more intelligent arguments were valid. Encouraging shark feeding frenzies in a region with lots of boogie boarding, snorkeling, kayaking, etc. was bad ju-ju.

Article said the KM management evicted the boat, but it was still there this afternoon, sans shark cage, tank racks, fishing gear, etc. Who knows, just more screwball Hawaii business...................

 

[howard4113]

Here's a link to an old article about an operation on the north shore.
Hawaii Shark Encounters Busted? - Divester
Here's a link to one operation 's page
North Shore Shark Adventures
There are several operations there that offer shark adventures. These do not involve diving, but the cages float on the surface and the clients use masks and snorkels. I've been out on one of those boats. They do not chum to attract sharks. The sharks learned a long time ago - from crabbing or fishing operations - that boats mean food. This is true everywhere, and sometimes fishermen have to fight the sharks for their catch. This has nothing to do with shark boats or feeding sharks. The shark boats operate beyond the 3 mile state water limit, so the state has no juristiction over their activities when they are at sea. The feeding I witnessed was calm and there was no frenzy as some would have you believe. More like feeding treats to dogs. The sharks took turns approaching the back of the boat to be fed fish scraps. They paid no attention to the cage floating a few yards away. Although I'm usually opposed to artificial encounters with wildlife (such as captive dolphin encounters) this is a pretty neat way to see sharks in the open ocean. Besides - how artificial is it putting a metal tank on your back and diving down 30' to watch a guy in a chain mail suit feed the sharks, eh? Perhaps it's not a bad thing to have folks see sharks firsthand - closeup in the water. They might just appreciate what beautiful creatures sharks are. Maybe some of them will contribute to conserving the few that we have left.

Mark

 

[smellzlikefish]

There are researchers from HIMB studying the aggregations of sharks around the moorings on the north shore. Basically they are tagging the sharks such that everytime the shark swims by a monitor, the monitor registers a ping. Last I heard, the idea that the sharks were following the boats back to the harbor was bunk. It makes sense. Its not like they are chumming the whole way in, so why would the sharks leave the mooring? The body boarders and surfers at Haleiwa are safe for now, so why wouldn't those in Hawaii Kai be? It is important to remember that they are miles out to sea. Its not like they are chumming along the beach. I say let them chum and give people a positive experience with the magnificent creatures.