Watch the video - nothing has changed! Source.
And I cite.
Discovery's angle seems to hinge on the fear people have of the unknown, and especially the unknown in the water where they swim. Shark Week has been so good at tweaking and magnifying this fear, that generations of viewers who grew up watching the show are afraid to go in the water...
The problem is not only that there is a fatal prejudice against sharks, but that it is not even recognized.
In the case of other animals, such as snakes, everyone knows that there is a deep bias against them, but in the case of sharks, the stark contrast between sharks as they are portrayed, and sharks as they really are is unseen.
The public actually believes that sharks behave the way they are shown on Shark Week.
Indeed, and bravo Ila!
Watch what these people do to New Zealand's GWS.
Think that those Sharks are behaving naturally around boats, or have they been amped up intentionally in order to create all that idiotic drama - and how does this disrespectful rubbish adequately illustrate those past 10 years of stellar research by NIWA and DOC?
Yes it's same old same old, pure Shark Porn.
Have you read this comments thread?
Pitchforks and Flaming Brands is obviously an insider, and she knows what she is talking about. Shark Week is not some amorphous entity, it is people - and together with Sorensen's small team who defines the overall direction (= ever more exploitative garbage), those folks she calls out are definitely some of the worst serial perpetrators.
And like an old broken record, let me repeat.
Here are my own questions to fellow Shark diving operators and conservationists.
- Are we gonna continue pretending this aint happening?
- Are we gonna continue watching that shit?
- Are we the operators gonna continue enabling it?
- Are we gonna continue giving our business to operators that do?
- Are we gonna continue associating with those people?
Is anybody, ever, gonna learn the obvious lessons?
The good news?
From a conservation point of view -and here I differ with Ila- it thankfully matters not!
1 comment:
As long as a very loud and obnoxiously tribal segment of your "fellow operators" continue to come from such stellar backgrounds as:
Rodeo Clown
Underwater Pipe-fitter
Commercial Shark Finner
Drug Addict and Felon
Alcoholic and Domestic Abuser
Internet Photographic Gadfly
Other
The answer to your timely questions are:
1. Are we gonna continue pretending this ain't happening?
- Why yes, yes we are, for these are the stunts and mishaps that get us Facebook "likes" and as you know nothing in the world is as important to our lives as Facebook "likes."
2. Are we gonna continue watching that shit?
- Indeed, for this is the currency of our Facebook Empires, we need to create stupid content with sharks to be relevant in the world today.
3. Are we the operators gonna continue enabling it?
- Ummm, Duh?
4. Are we gonna continue giving our business to operators that do?
- Ummm, Duh?
5. Are we gonna continue associating with those people?
- Herein lies the rub. Someone should bring together operators and operations that are willing to accept the burden of "sustainable wildlife tourism." People who see sharks as a resource to be nurtured and cared for. People who see interaction with these animals as a gift, not a right, and folks with the courage to set a sustainable course for an industry dominated by a minority party who have consistently failed to rise to the challenges that wildlife tourism presents.
Since the dawn of mankind wild animals have always been used abused by a few to enhance their pitiful lives (think Rome, Christians and Lions, a cottage industry).
This current trend with sharks is nothing new.
What is new is the ability for someone in obscurity to rocket into Internet Fame with, "one stupid wild animal trick."
Change, unfortunately, can only come from leadership, and right now leadership in the commercial shark diving industry has been conferred in a leadership vacuum to a few miscreants with agendas that have nothing to do with, "what we can do FOR sharks," and everything to do with, "what sharks can do FOR us."
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