vandenberg
Elite Nomad
Posts: 5118
Registered: 6-21-2005
Location: Nopolo
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Mood: mellow
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Cage fun
The cage or the shark?
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Howard
Super Nomad
Posts: 2353
Registered: 11-13-2007
Location: Loreto/Manhattan Beach/Kona
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Mood: I'd rather regret the things I've done than regret the things I haven't done.
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As we use to say "you screw with the bull and you get the horns!"
We don't stop playing because we grow old;
we grow old because we stop playing
George Bernard Shaw
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mtgoat666
Select Nomad
Posts: 19144
Registered: 9-16-2006
Location: San Diego
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Mood: Hot n spicy
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That video was just another illustrating how abusive is shark cage diving by tourists. The poor shark was bleeding at end of video, looked like
multiple punctures. It probably died, just so some fat gringo could get a cheap thrill seeing a shark. Sad!
On top of the animal abuse, the chumming probably teaches sharks to follow boats for free food, ultimately making sharks more likely to follow humans,
maybe causing shark attacks.
Anyways, if the cages are injuring sharks, the indistry is irresponsible.
[Edited on 10-14-2016 by mtgoat666]
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Ken Bondy
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3326
Registered: 12-13-2002
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Mood: Mellow
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Quote: Originally posted by mtgoat666  | That video was just another illustrating how abusive is shark cage diving by tourists. The poor shark was bleeding at end of video, looked like
multiple punctures. It probably died, just so some fat gringo could get a cheap thrill seeing a shark. Sad!
On top of the animal abuse, the chumming probably teaches sharks to follow boats for free food, ultimately making sharks more likely to follow humans,
maybe causing shark attacks.
Anyways, if the cages are injuring sharks, the indistry is irresponsible.
[Edited on 10-14-2016 by mtgoat666] |
I have done the Guadalupe cage trip. After seeing that video about 50 times I think it is very likely that the blood was from the tuna part that was
being dragged to get the sharks closer to the cage, rather than from the shark. Based on what I saw on my Guadalupe trip it is my personal
non-scientific opinion that these caged encounters are not really feeding experiences for the sharks, they consume VERY little food in the process.
The baits are rarely eaten, rather they are toyed with by the sharks. In my opinion, having seen it, the baiting is a diversion for the sharks, like
a cat playing with a toy. I think they simply enjoy the experience. When they are really hungry, they take care of that elsewhere.
I believe one thing about these trips is undeniably true. The white shark population at Guadalupe would not exist but for the small fleet of
shark-watching boats that operate there, and the publicity (and protection) these trips have generated. The entire Guadalupe population of white
sharks, estimated at about 50, could be completely wiped out by one fishing boat in about a week. Other than a small group of nomadic Mexican
fisherman working the island, nobody knew that whites were there until a lot of long-range Guadalupe fishermen on the San Diego boats started landing
only the severed heads of their big yellowfins. The knowledge of the existence of white sharks in clean water at Guadalupe quickly spread to
shark-watching outfits, and soon several shark-watching boats were operating there, and great images of the sharks were being seen all over the world.
This directly led to the protection of the sharks by the Mexican government. If the shark-watching industry had not "gotten there first" I have
little doubt that the shark-finning industry would have found them. If that had happened, many people would have lost the chance, first-hand and in
images, to see these magnificent, timeless animals in their natural habitat.
So isolated instances like this one, with the shark and diver sharing the cage, are unfortunate, but on balance these trips are good for the sharks.
carpe diem!
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DENNIS
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 29510
Registered: 9-2-2006
Location: Punta Banda
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I'll buy that.
"YOU CAN'T LITTER ALUMINUM"
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