The word 'shark' is enough to strike the fear of god into many people. But are they as much of a threat as some seem to think? & are modern practices, such as shark cage diving, helping to educate the masses or only making matters worse? Chris Fallows, shark conservationist & wildlife photographer, is angry; the great white sharks that are his subjects have been given a raw deal of late.
It's astounding & dis-graceful that there is such a lack of understanding of our marine predators,' says Fallows. 'Our great white sharks are seen as an incredible asset by international tourists - more & more of them are travelling huge distances just to come & view them - I just wish the local population would see them the same.'
South Africa's coastline offers the best viewing of great white sharks in the world, especially in
Gansbaai. Fallows & his wife Monique have made a living out of photographing the whites & are especially known for their pictures of the sharks breaching: when they explode out of the sea while hunting seals swimming near the surface.
The tourism draw card for South Africa is huge, but recent attacks off Cape Town's beaches have cast a dark cloud over the subject of sharks & tourism. For whilst there are a handful of shark cage diving tour operators who rely on a gung-ho approach to viewing sharks, the majority of operators are doing a great deal to run eco-sensitive tours. Many are members of the Great White Shark Protection Foundation that places an emphasis on education, shark conservation & the well-being of guests.
In fact, conservationists say that the number of encounters between sharks & humans have increased only marginally - due largely to there being more swimmers in the sea - & have no connection to an increase in Great White shark numbers, which are actually stable to slightly decreasing with more sharks being hooked or poached. Shark nets are to blame as well. Fallows describes the KwaZulu-Natal shark nets, which kill as many as 60 Great Whites a year, as 'a disgrace'.
Fallows suggests that extending electronic barriers or creating more tidal pools could make bathers in the Cape feel safer. As for regulating anglers, Fallows has publicly attacked marine policing operations. Illegal fishing for Great Whites openly takes place in South Africa, with the perpetrators being so brazen as to advertise their activities in some of the world's largest game fishing magazines. On a larger scale, commercial fishing for various species of sharks goes unchecked, and virtually no regulations are in place to prevent the decimation of our shark stocks.'
Diving (cage & other) operators have also come under fire from conservationists for being insensitive to sharks, since they often allow tourists to dive too close to breeding female Raggies (particularly on the northern KwaZulu-Natal coast), & many cage diving operators have been criticised for chumming - throwing offal & blood into the water to attract Great Whites. But experts agree that chumming is not actually to blame for the increase in attacks. Cage diving takes place in areas where sharks occur naturally & the media's theory that chumming has bred a taste for human blood in Great Whites - a kind of Tsavo lion story for the sea - is false.
Fallows & others who deal with the protection of sharks agree that it all boils down to awareness. As soon as Capetonians become aware of the beauty & importance of sharks, that they are both an ecological treasure as well as a vast tourism resource, then the real reason behind shark attacks off our shores could be uncovered. Floows: 'We want to make people aware of the beauty & importance of sharks, the threats they face, & what we can do to protect them & conserve them.'
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