Pundits

When it comes to opinions, there’s controversial and then there’s just plain asinine.

Take for instance this, and many other articles and posts dealing with the Bahamas Shark Incident and Adventure Travel in general. They all portray us as as a death-seeking, reckless and lunatic bunch of complete idiots and desperadoes that need to be stopped for their own, and the sake of mankind at large.

Well, as the Germans say, "paper is patient", it does not care about the rubbish people write on it.
So is obviously the web which is increasingly populated by whackos and wannabees hawking their latest Conspiracy Theories (Reptilian Humanoids anybody?), extolling the virtues of esoteric Quackery (how about Cetacean Aquacranial Therapy for a change?) and yes, sniping from the comfort of some air-conditioned suburban office to enlighten us with these increasingly irritating pieces of supercilious horse manure.

What ever happened to the Pundits, "erudite (i.e. non-rude) persons who make comments or judgments, esp. in an authoritative manner"?
As in: intelligent, informed and above all, impartial and unbiased?

Having been drawn into the unfathomable depths of the current US primary process, I'm starting to wonder.
Does the political preference of, say, senior Chihuahua-owning and Bible-thumping middle-class white Baptist widows residing in rural Pennsylvania really constitute a valuable piece of information worthy of profound analysis on Larry King Live?
Is anybody, ever, going to revert to the Big Picture and put things back into proper perspective? And, maybe, educate the public in the process?

Instead, to get back to our nick of the universe, all I can see is an unnerving succession of, I'm sorry to say, uninformed and condescending morons pontificating about the dangers and ethics of feeding Fish and how what we do teaches Sharks to associate humans with food. The "obvious" consequence being that the so conditioned Beasts will then retaliate and devour some other poor innocent and unsuspecting sod when denied an adequate culinary offering.

Did I once say that I wasn’t about to join the fray?
Well, I guess I must have changed my mind. Seriously, enough is enough.

About the former, may I point out that people who attract Fish by offering them food are called Fishermen, not Divers.
Worried about the safety of your precious beaches? Go break the cojones of the guys surf casting from the breakwater, how about that.
So, please, take your fight to IGFA and not us.

The latter at least sounds plausible. Plausible, yes - but it is dead wrong never the less.

With the notable exception of a prominent statistician who has obviously never seen it fit to leave his office in favor of some lowly menial in-loco experience, all relevant industry professionals assert that they cannot discern any such behavioral changes. As a matter of fact, nor can we, and this after close to ten years of baiting.
But then, our collective experience is obviously worth precisely zilch as everybody knows that we’re just a gang of greedy reckless lunatics whose sole aim in life is to kill our clients whilst lining our pockets in the process.

And what about the relevant Scientific community?
There, opinions vary but on closer inspection, they once again are not based on facts, but on personal conjecture and on individual preferences instead.
In my experience, your average Marine Biologist tends to be highly paranoid about having some large Shark sniff at his heels (or, God forbid, gobble down a priceless specimen!) whilst he's engaging in some groundbreaking field research. Thus, any activity that could carry even the most remote risk of infringing on his well-being will inevitably be frowned upon, proof or no proof.
The veritable Shark specialists on the other hand could not care less about such mundane trivia and continue to bait, tag, manhandle and generally, interact with Sharks in total impunity. And, some would say, in reckless lunacy.
In brief, nobody has so far deigned to stoop so low as to try and scientifically prove, or disprove those assertions.

Is anybody of Authority ever going to present us with some proper evidence?
Watch this space!

Having said this, I reject, denounce and repudiate, and deeply apologize for the foregoing which is evidently nothing but the un-erudite ranting of some reckless and incompetent lunatic bozo. Considering who I am, not only a Shark diver but also, believe it or not, a Lawyer, I’m sure you understand.
No Pundit intended!