And I cite.
I do not advocate touching sharks — and these days, I do my best to avoid it, regardless of how much those incredible moments fuel my drive.
Why? It’s simple: As divers, we assume a very important responsibility when we enter the water with sharks. We must always act with the utmost caution, to ensure no thoughtless risks are taken...
I also realize what I do influences others.
I’ve taken dozens of people into the water for the first time to dive with sharks. If they see me touching, I could be setting in motion a lifetime of shark petting. Or coral grabbing. Or turtle riding. It’s hard to know where to stop, and even harder not to get carried away when it comes to sharks. I don’t pass judgment on my peers, but I do silently wish some of those times I touched sharks had not been so widely publicized or shared...
As we collectively chase sharks to the brink of extinction, it's more important than ever to encourage people to gain an appreciation for their true character through safe diving. So, while contact feeds my conservationist soul, I’ll forgo touching to ensure just that, and hope that others will do the same.
And now, watch this.
Betcha that like always, the video and the proud FB post will be made private as soon as I call them out - but it hasn't yet happened, so enjoy or whatever.
I did call it back then.
And still, the hypocrisy and the narcissism really beggar belief.
2 comments:
Here's the thing.
The Andersons and Martinez's of the world single handed CREATED the diving industries hyper market for selfies with sharks. In their mad long rush for personal aggrandizement they neglected to understand social medias penchant for groupies. Or maybe they did.
The end result are legions of morons who want to become famous by grabbing, twisting, and juggling sharks. It's OK *if* you spout some sort of half baked eco platitude about shark fining, global warming, or jello shots after the fact.
This is their lasting legacy, the invention of a completely messed up animal interaction protocol that, from a distance, looks like conservation.
It's anything but conservation.
Andersons mea culpa is akin to Kim Kardashian saying she wished she had never made a sex tape - after the sex tape catapulted her to stardom.
Andersons best play now is to continue to fade into darkness and NEVER swim with sharks again.
Her penultimate role in creating a negative space for sharks and divers remains her true and lasting legacy. Like a sex tape, once the horrors of it are released on the Internet, it's very hard to get rid of it, and Julie? whinging about it after the fact makes you sound and look even worse.
Please go back to selling soap or whatever it was you did before you thought that sharks would get you your own TV show. Better and much smarter people have already filled that role and NO ONE thinks you are a credible source, maybe your groupies do, but they were created by you in the first place.
Genius - spot on!
The end result are legions of morons who want to become famous by grabbing, twisting, and juggling sharks. It's OK *if* you spout some sort of half baked eco platitude about shark finning, global warming, or jello shots after the fact.
This is their lasting legacy, the invention of a completely messed up animal interaction protocol that, from a distance, looks like conservation.
It's anything but conservation.
Case in point!
Mahalo 4 positive sharky post?
Barf.
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