Paua divers fear shark tour's impact
BY AMY MILNE
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A group of southern paua divers is concerned its members' lives are being endangered by a shark tourism operation in Foveaux Strait.
The divers are worried the Great White Southern Dive Company operation will encourage shark attacks and endanger divers. The company runs caged diving trips to view sharks.
They claim the company drops minced tuna into the sea to attract the sharks – a practice known as chumming – and are concerned this may modify the great whites' behaviour.
Paua Management Area Council 5 chairman Storm Stanley said divers were really worried. "We feel there's a real danger," he said.
An "explosion" of fur seals had attracted more sharks to southern waters, he said, adding that he was unsure how to overcome divers' "fears of being chomped".
The problem had been discussed at a meeting involving divers, the company and the Department of Conservation, but Stewart Island commercial diver Ian Wilson said nothing had been properly resolved.
"There's still a lot of differences," Mr Wilson said.
DOC southern islands area manager Andy Roberts chaired the meeting but said the problem wasn't easy to resolve because no organisation had jurisdiction.
The company had approached DOC to develop guidelines on how it should operate, he said.
"But DOC's only point of concern is whether there's going to be an impact on the sharks or not."
DOC was still waiting on legal advice, Mr Roberts said.
Great White Southern Dive Company co-owner Peter Scott said he felt the meeting with divers had gone well. "There's a couple of guys that still have issues with it. That's their choice," Mr Scott said.
Sharks were blamed for killing one person in New Zealand every 13 years, on average, he said.
The sharks were more likely to be attracted by fishing boats dumping scraps they could feed on than by his operation, he said.
Stewart Island fisherman Garry Neave said he had seen many more great whites during the past four years, particularly in Halfmoon Bay, but was unsure what was attracting them to the area.
- © Fairfax NZ News
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Hi Team,
Paua Divers Concerns Hi my name is Paul Morris owner of the Dive Planet website. I have been attacked by a curious Great White shark in 2005 and I spend a lot of time now learning more about these amazing creatures. I can understand the Paua divers concerns but in all honesty they are in no more danger by having a charter operator running shark tours than what they are when they are gathering Paua. To say that using tuna to attract the sharks near the boat will endanger the lives of the divers is ridiculous. If anything it will favour the Paua divers as the sharks will be hanging around the vicinity of the boat.
I have featured in a total of 7 documentaries with National Geographic Explorer Channel, Discovery, Animal Planet and others; here we looked at the association of scent from humans to that of a variety of marine life. Never to say the least but human scent had almost no effect on the sharks whereas anything marine was an attractant. The scent coming from Paua juices in the water will by far attract sharks more than a human blood trail would. Taking this point into account and reading the comments in the Southern Times where Paua divers are worried about the Shark tours will endanger the divers is nonsense. Paua Divers have to realize that the taking of any marine life is placing them in a far greater danger. Sharks in general especially the Great White shark will investigate any object that they see as being a seal. On my website I show how sharks see the world and how they can misidentify a seal from a surfer, diver, swimmer etc as looking from below the silhouette of the entire above look very similar.
So how do we resolve issues and protect ourselves? Firstly if you are in the Paua industry or an industry that places you in the water where sharks may be you can take steps to ensure that you are protected, just as a workman would on any industrial site. One of the best proven devices for deterring sharks is a sharkpod, this electronic device is strapped to your lower leg and puts off an electrical pulse. When a shark comes within the field range of this pulse it is like hitting an electric fence. Sharks sensory are really unique, known as the distant touch. Named the Ampoule of Lorenzini, these tiny gel filled glands have nerve hairs, these pickup minute electrical pulses given off by all living creatures. This is what gets over stimulated and scares the sharks off when the run into the field of the shark shield.
If Paua divers want to protect themselves why are they not using these products? The other thing that could be done is we could say ok, No commercial fishing vessel is allowed within 50 miles of any Paua diver as it may attract sharks. We could take that a step further and place a ban on the taking of Paua as this to will attract sharks. Or we could quite simply say, if you really fear for your safety that much, stay out of the water.
What are the benefits for having such an operator taking people to see sharks? Well the first thing is the tourism dollar that they will spend at onshore local businesses. Then there is the educational value as we can show others the beauty of these feared yet mystical creatures in our oceans. Helping people like me learn how to manage that fear! That may have tormented them for years from a movie or a bad experience.
If you are all thinking that I am a Shark lover and think that we should all go hug one, you are ever so incorrect. Sharks still scare me but I have a new found appreciation for them and I can see that we rely on them to maintain a healthy marine ecosystem.
For more information about Great White Sharks please visit www.diveplanet.co.nz and look up our shark research section. Here you will find a feast of information along with videos and diagrams showing the science behind the predatory behavior of the Great White Shark. http://www.diveplanet.co.nz/dplfoxgwresearch/index.asp