Monday, February 18, 2013

Lupe: even more Shark Bait!


Behold!
It's an extraordinary love affair, frightening and full of affection.



Yup, the Lupe Shark bait has posted another one!
I'm sure JSD will be visually delighted - and like many other media outlets, the poor unsuspecting Fiji Times has swallowed the bait hook-line-and-sinker and has found it fit to re-post her stupid pseudo-conservation balderdash.

I was impressed by Martin's take on that shit.
Contrary to the bimbo who parachutes in and back out, he has been operating in Lupe for over ten years and thus knows those GWS like few others do - and his analysis is among the most insightful, unflinching and truthful I've read in a very long time!
Kudos - and great to see an operator call it for what it is!
Where do these stunts lead to?
What is the next person that wants to get their 15 minutes of fame going to do? Open the sharks mouth and brush it's teeth? Her video is not about shark conservation but simply an attempt at self promotion. If we really are concerned with shark conservation, we need to accurately show what these magnificent creatures are like.
They are neither mindless killers, nor are they pets.
Indeed!
But of course this got nothing to do with conservation and everything with shameless self promotion!
The saddest part? It's not even about female emancipation - this is all being pimped by a male shark molester who wants to sell the images!
As my wise friend said
It stopped actually being "about sharks" a long time ago.
It's about the individual and what the sharks as a vehicle to notoriety can do for them.
And talking of which.
What is the ever industrious ueber-bimba doing these days?
You guessed it - she has already come up with the next stupidity!
Get up close and personal, freediving safely and comfortably with Oceanic White Tips - regardless of whether you are a beginner or have experience!
  • Learn to safely freedive with sharks - and maximize your interactions!
  • Long, up close and personal encounters with Oceanic White tips - as well as the possibility to see 7 other species!
Wowfor beginners! With OWTs! 
Interactions - up close and personal!
Betcha that's Shark conservation, too - to dispel the myth or whatever!
And I must say, I'm disappointed that Fred is part of that shit - and I used to be a fan!

Debra, Vincente: is that you?
If so, is that really the kind of publicity you want and need, and are these shenanigans in the long term interest of your business?

And so it goes...
Back to diving with our Bulls!

PS: News flash, it's 2013, the age of greater equality than ever, a time when people earn respect for what they do, not merely because they have a vagina and do cool "man stuff". 
The Shark world is swarming with all manner of girlies elbowing each other to ensure they get their slice of the media pie and part of the routine is to find the biggest, most badass shark you can and climb all over it, capture it on film and send it to the world's media.

PS2: my good friend Jillian, an intelligent and emancipated woman and Shark nutter, here - the correct citation being, “Sharks are not FUCKING underwater scooters!”.
Detail detail! :)

9 comments:

jsd said...

'I'm sure JSD will be visually delighted'
.
.
.
I beg to disagree. Fully clothed bimbos doing look-at-me shark stunts is so day-before-yesterday. Then it was bikinis. Isn't it time they all went nude?

In fact, so no one accuses me of sexism, I would insist that from now on Professor Flopalot also does his pseudoscience in the buff.

Blech.


DaShark said...

That is the inevitable progression - and sadly, I'm not even kidding!

Watch this space - I say, in 2 years, max!

Tropical Selkie said...

Skinny-Scuba (nothing under my wetsuit). I do it often and even with sharks. My close-up, please, Mr. DeMille.

Seriously, though, I don't understand how 'conservationists' (however that is defined by the public now...very loosely, mostly) can praise this stunt (and that is what it looks like, unless she is doing this daily for some meaningful outcome we don't know about...how about donating any proceeds from the publicity to enforcement at Guadalupe to keep people from breaking the rules; like free-diving with white sharks).

These same 'conservationists' (especially those with a massive Facebook page and little else) will post a photo of someone doing the same to a turtle, free-diving and holding on, and cry Holy Hell. Why is this different? Because this is more dangerous, it is more enticing, I think. And therefore gets a pass? Or because it sends a 'message'...Either = fail.

It is the exact same human-centric view (what can I do with this animal that will make ME happy/famous/calm/whatever, not what does this ANIMAL need first and foremost, apart from me) that leads to well-meaning but completely irresponsible, and disrespectful interactions with say, manatees. Touch one that hasn't approached you first or for more than 5 seconds, and YOU WILL HEAR ABOUT IT from all the "conservationists" (and rightly so).

But at the same time, people claim to love this footage because it sends the message that these sharks aren't man-eaters. But they aren't man-eaters under NORMAL circumstances, which this is not. So there is no logical, legitimate conservation message in this. Seriously, people. Can we get some critical thinking in the mix, please. Geeeeze.

(And don't even get me started on BEGINNER free-divers with OWTS...talk about 'task loading'! And anyone remember some pretty chilling footage of OWTSs nipping a snorkelers fins in Egypt...with some unsavory results? Experienced free-divers may not flail about at the surface like bait but even well trained new ones might. What is the margin of error? Is it worth the money?)

Finally, people want what they see; and will PAY to get it. How soon before the new 'standard' for more and more shark diving is ANYONE can do it -- it being every kind of interaction with every/any species? Never, I hope. But if/when it does, both the industry and the animals will suffer. So sad.

Tropical Selkie said...

There was nipping first (saw the footage, OWTs chased a snorkeler back to the boat, quickly), then there was EATING.

My understanding is that the basic biology of OWTs is that because they ARE 'oceanic' they live and hunt in an often resource-poor environment, closely investigating (often aggressively) and eating things at the surface, is advantageous. Why would anyone want to test their basic biology by putting floaty, interesting, inexperienced humans in their environment? I don't get it.

jsd said...

I fully agree with you Tropical Selkie: I am mocking these ghastly narcissists and the downward spiral of their stunts. They have arrived with their wannabe-celebrity longings and turned shark/human encounters into a branch of Hollywood stunt work. And of course every single cliche-spouting one of them thinks they can read / know what's going on in the sharks' 'minds' due to their expertise, delusions, quackery, pseudoscience or general New Age twaddle.

When I was photographing sharks I hated putting divers in the shot precisely because it sucked the life out of the natural history and turned it into Macho Hero Diver Confronts Man Eating Monster Shark.

Horizon Charters Guadalupe Cage Diving said...

Sadly, and I really mean sadly, very few within the shark operations space or shark con space spoke up when this was happening.

It's not like this hasn't been a topic but during the "quickie marriage" that was shark operations and shark cons some weird and congenitally defective media line got spread around that it is O.K to finger bang a shark as along as:

1. It is for conservation

2. Empowers someone for something

3. It is used to dispel a myth of some kind

So expect to see more of this brought to you by headgear challenged individuals and Facebook hounds seeking sharks to molest because, "They feel it empowers them to speak about the misrepresentation of Catherine the Great whose death was not brought about by a horse after all, THAT was a myth!"

Or something like that, meh.

OfficetoOcean said...

Reports those OWTs will be fitted with saddles and cup holders are yet to be confirmed...

Horizon Charters Guadalupe Cage Diving said...

Saddles? O.K that's conservation...cup holders? My god man what kind of bestial monster are you?

wleander said...

Julie Andersen? Doesn't surprise me at all - but Fred Buyle teaming up with her to teach beginners how to free-dive with OWT's??...

Fred: Je suis vraiment decu par ca...