True Story: Our July 1st Adventure
Imagine this: You are on a yacht, anchored in a secluded cove. After sunbathing and sipping on a few mojitos, you decide to jump into the water. All your friends are there, laughing, splashing, playing…. Really, it’s the perfect day.
All of a sudden, someone screams “SHARK!!!!” In that moment, everything changes. “Da na, da na, da-na-da-na-da-na” becomes your anthem as you swim back to the boat. Salt water fills your mouth and panic floods your mind as you compete with your friends for a spot on that ladder to safety. Finally on board, you turn around to view the chaos. The once still water is choppy from the mass struggle to climb aboard. Abandoned pool noodles drift aimlessly out to sea. And (da na, da na, da-na-da-na-da-na) a large, dark fin pierces through the water and begins to circle your boat.
Ok, now calm down and take a deep breath. Now hold that breath and let’s dive under the water to see what’s really going on.
This shark, with his telltale white spots and dark, rounded dorsal fin is a whale shark, the largest shark in the ocean. Although his immense size makes him terrifying to look at, he is actually as harmless as a kitten. The whale shark rarely even eats fish, but rather fills his metre-wide mouth with plankton or krill. This 15 foot beast (this one is a baby) is just playing in the surf and enjoying a filter feeder feast fit for the king of the ocean. There is nothing to fear here.
Except people.
Imagine this: You are on a yacht, anchored in a secluded cove. After sunbathing and sipping on a few mojitos, you decide to jump into the water. All your friends are there, laughing, splashing, playing…. Really, it’s the perfect day.
All of a sudden, someone screams “SHARK!!!!” In that moment, everything changes. “Da na, da na, da-na-da-na-da-na” becomes your anthem as you swim back to the boat. Salt water fills your mouth and panic floods your mind as you compete with your friends for a spot on that ladder to safety. Finally on board, you turn around to view the chaos. The once still water is choppy from the mass struggle to climb aboard. Abandoned pool noodles drift aimlessly out to sea. And (da na, da na, da-na-da-na-da-na) a large, dark fin pierces through the water and begins to circle your boat.
Ok, now calm down and take a deep breath. Now hold that breath and let’s dive under the water to see what’s really going on.
This shark, with his telltale white spots and dark, rounded dorsal fin is a whale shark, the largest shark in the ocean. Although his immense size makes him terrifying to look at, he is actually as harmless as a kitten. The whale shark rarely even eats fish, but rather fills his metre-wide mouth with plankton or krill. This 15 foot beast (this one is a baby) is just playing in the surf and enjoying a filter feeder feast fit for the king of the ocean. There is nothing to fear here.
Except people.
 |
| Our whale shark friend, taken by my husband on July 1st, 2012 |
I Speak for the Sharks (This is where I get a bit preachy.)
Those who know me well (actually, probably even those who just know me casually) know how much I love sharks. The day described above was one of the greatest days EVER. I have dived with great whites and ragged tooths in South Africa and this April, I’m going to Borneo to dive with whale sharks during their migration. Not everyone shares my deep affection for sharks, and I get that, I really do. But sharks and shark conservation is something I feel very passionate about… If I can reach even one person and change their minds through this blog entry, I will be happy.
Sharks are not mindless, demon-eyed, killing machines. Yes, sharks are calculating… but they are quite smart, very cautious, curious, and even funny or playful. While a whale shark may be the unusually docile giant of the shark family, most sharks share its disinterest in humans. Sharks kill, on average, 6-10 people a year. Humans kill millions of sharks. Clearly, they have a lot more to fear from us than we do from them.
Most shark “attacks” are little more than cases of mistaken identity. A surfer paddling out to ride a wave looks remarkably like a seal from below. Mr. Shark takes a bite, thinks “this meal is all sinewy and tough” and just spits it out. This is why people will often lose a limb but rarely be devoured. My sympathies go out to people who have had this happen. I can’t imagine how devastating it must be. As a diver, I know this is a risk I take every time I get in the water, but the odds of disaster are so small so it is a risk I’m perfectly happy taking. I am in their world and I respect that.
Sharks lose their limbs to humans too though, in a much more deliberate and pre-meditated way. In China, shark fin soup is a cruel delicacy. It is served as both an appetizer and a status symbol at weddings and banquets. The shark’s fin doesn’t even add anything to the soup; the soup would be the same without it! All the flavour comes from the broth. With Chinese New Year approaching, this is a horrible time to be a shark. Anywhere from 30-100 million sharks are killed each year, just for their fins. The number varies widely because there are so many illegal killings that no one can know for sure. I would put a realistic guess at somewhere around 40-50 million. Unlike humans, who can lose a limb and still lead a fulfilling and satisfying life, sharks suffer a most undignified death after losing their limbs. The sharks are hulled onto the boats, their fins are hacked off and they are tossed back into the ocean, without regard. Humans have their precious, priceless fins in a bowl of soup and the sharks have a painful, terrifying death as a starving, suffocating torso on the ocean floor.
 |
| Shark fins drying on a Hong Kong rooftop (not my photo, but not sure where to credit) |
Da Na, Da Na, Da-Na-Da-Na-Da-Na
In Hong Kong, they take their fear of sharks to epic levels. It would almost be hilarious if it weren’t so sad. After our whale shark sighting, the police sailed in on a massive boat and blasted through a megaphone that we need to stay out of the water. We really wanted to swim, so we had our captain take us about 15 minutes away to another area, more populated with other holiday partiers. (July 1st is not just Canada Day, but also Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Day.) We had been in the water for all of 10 minutes when the same police boat came to our new spot and ordered us and everyone else out of the water. Later that day, they closed every single beach in Hong Kong, some about 3 hours away by water. Over-reaction to a single shark? I think so. Every public beach in Hong Kong is already roped off with shark netting. This is another unnecessary and barbaric way to deal with sharks. Sharks get tangled in the nets and endure a long, suffocating death (many sharks need to move forward in the water in order to breathe), often dying from exhaustion as they struggle to break free. Also, the nets don’t really work because around 40% of the trapped sharks are on the beach side anyway.
There are very few sharks left in Hong Kong waters as it is. In fact, there are very few fish at all. I did my dive training here. In my 4 days of training, I only saw 2 clown fish. That’s it. So let’s stop trapping them in their own home, let’s stop eating and torturing them. Let’s just let them live. Sharks take a very long time to mature and reproduce. We need to give them that time, fish responsibly and learn to appreciate this misunderstood and majestic creature.
 |
| Diving with ragged tooth sharks in the Cape Town predator tank |
