Which of these statements is true?
- Feeding sharks in order to lure them to shark-diving hotspots changes sharks' natural feeding patterns and disturbs the balance of nature.
- Shark diving helps people understand and appreciate the shrinking population of these apex predators of the marine world, and may encourage conservation.
If you read accounts from marine biologists, conservation managers, and divers, you will come to an unassailable conclusion: The answer is "Both."
Pacific Harbour, Fiji, is home to one of the world's premiere shark diving opportunities. For 11 years, divers in the Beqa Channel have had the opportunity to get up close and personal, not only with common reef sharks (black-tipped, white-tipped, and nurse-sharks) but also with lemons, grays, silvertips, bulls, and tigers. The latter two are considered two of the most aggressive and dangerous sharks, second and third only to the great white. But in 11 years of shark diving in Fiji, there have been no attacks.
Shark Diving in Fiji: Conservation and Tourism Merge
Commercial Fiji shark diving began with Brandon Paige, a South African expatriate. Brandon had experience with shark diving in South Africa, where there is a long history of shark dive operations. He approached some local dive operators with the idea of starting a shark diving program in Fiji. Pacific Harbour's Beqa Channel contains some of the world's premiere soft coral dive sites, but it's also a passageway for sharks, including bulls, nurse sharks, reef sharks, and the occasional tiger.
"This reef was dead then," he says, gesturing at the ocean. The process of attracting the sharks was not immediate. In a true manifestation of the slogan "If you build it, they will come," he kept dumping chum in the same places. "Sharks are cautious creatures," says Brandon. "It was a long term project."
And even when the sharks did start coming to investigate, it took time before they would come anywhere close to the divers. "It takes time for them to decide they can trust you." says Brandon, which is a just a little ironic, seeing as he is talking about bulls and tigers, two sharks species with a reputation for attacking humans. "And they learn from each other: One shark will finally decide to come in close enough to accept food, and the others will copy that behavior."
But finally, the sharks came in regularly enough that it seemed possible to offering a diving experience where visitors were almost guaranteed to see them. One visitor in those early years was Swiss businessman Michael Neumann, who was so enamored with the experience that he decided to start his own operation. The two operators jostled a bit for reefs, staff, and customers; at the end, there were two different operations, AquaTrek, managed by Brandon, and Beqa Adventure Divers, owned by Neumann and some partners, each working with a different village and operating on different reefs.
Shark Diving and Sustainable Tourism
In both cases, the dive operators work similarly with local communities, which own the reefs and license the right for the diver operators to use them for a commercial tourism operation. Both operators train and hire local dive guides and pay fees that make it worthwhile for the villages to support reef conservation efforts and enforce bans on reef fishing.
The results have had dual benefits: both economic and environmental, as the reefs' health has improved. Brandan points out that the coral reefs, which are one of the richest ecological communities on earth, actually came back to life with the onset of shark diving. The chum that was spread into the sea fed not only the sharks, but also the coral polyps, which then attracted more and more reef fish.And the reefs have become part of a Fiji marine protected area.
Shark Diving and Safety Issues
Critics point to two main issues with shark diving: disturbing the natural balance by creating an unnatural food supply, and safety. You can't really argue that these issues have merit: It's true that feeding puts humans and sharks in closer contact than they were meant to be. It also puts different shark species together in closer contact than is "natural" which can create aggressive behaviors.
But Brandon says that sharks are purely being opportunistic: They come in for food when they smell the chum being poured out, they grab a free lunch, and then they leave and return to their natural eating patterns. He says that if the free take-out were to suddenly stop, they would simply move elsewhere. "If we don't put out food, they don't come here," he points out.
Both Bequ and Aquatrek have worked with world renowned marine biologists and shark experts, such as Ron and Valerie Taylor, on the ecological and safety aspects of their programs. The environmental record is impressive: Reefs that were dead at the beginning of the program are vibrant today. As for safety, there is the 11-year record of no injuries, although of course, sharks are wild and unpredictable. As the stock marked analysts say, past performance is no guarantee of future performance. The fact is: There haven't been problems up till now. The fact also is: There could be.
The funny thing is, the Fiji shark dives themselves seemed peaceful. I felt no fear lying on the ocean floor surrounded by 30 or more apex predators that could quite clearly swallow me. The sharks were clearly more interested in the fish parts being offered up, and even then, they behaved more like lazy overfed dogs than frenzied predators. I've seen a feeding frenzy, at a dive operation in Bora Bora: This wasn't one.
Riding back on Beqa's boat, Michael talked about this magical world: He wants to introduce us to its inhabitants, and help us understand why we should care about preserving them. I couldn't help but think of Ansel Adams and the early environmentalists, who, with similar messianic zeal, organized wilderness trips for political movers and shaker, business and leaders, members of Congress. The idea was to show these influence-wielders the magnificence of what was at stake, and why it was that we should care.
Shark populations are dwindling worldwide, and with every dive, Beqa and Aquatrek are convincing a few more people why we should wonder about them, seek to understand them, and care about preserving them.
Karen Berger - Karen Berger is the author of 15 books. Please click on her name to read her full bio.
