Changing perceptions? Another example of totally misguided good intentions - alas!Here we go again.
Welcome to The Human Shark Bait Experiment.
From the description.
It is the stuff of nightmares and Hollywood horror.
Miles off shore, your boat capsizes at night in the world's most shark-infested waters. A life preserver keeps your head barely above the dark waters. You can practically hear the ominous music indicating that rows of razor teeth are torpedoing toward you. But how much is our fear of this larger-than-life predator founded in fact, and how much is misinformation? Which factors increase the chance of attack, and what could you do to stay off the menu?
And then comes the list of ludicrous ad hoc experiments.
- Swimming vs. floating. Does floating listlessly or actively swimming make humans a more attractive target?
- Color, contrast and shiny surfaces. Do certain colors, bright jewelry or diving equipment attract or provoke sharks to attack
- Bodily fluids. We know a shark can detect minuscule amounts of blood, so will human blood or other fluids like urine signal that a tasty meal is at hand?
- Bare skin. Does exposed human skin, like bare feet, bring them in for the kill?
- Time of day. Does cover of darkness or daylight increase the likelihood of a shark's attacking?
- Panic and fear. Do our involuntary reactions to stress, like an elevated heartbeat, ring the dinner bell for sharks
Did I hear changing perceptions?
Right.
How about unadulterated Shark Porn instead.
Once again, the life history of Sharks is being reduced to one dimension only: teeth, killing and attacks on humans. This has nothing to do with conservation, this is once again only about the adrenaline, the questionable fame of a Nat Geo production and yes, above all, the money!
Pecunia non olet once again!
The perpetrators? Here they are.
Very much unsurprisingly, we got one of the greatest names in the history of the world, Shark cinematographer extraordinaire, human shark bait but! humble closet conservationist ABC4.
So much for But I make an honest effort to avoid films that involve shark attacks and negative portrayals of sharks—most of the stuff I do is driven by sharks hunting what they naturally hunt, you know, seals, turtles huh!
And the other smirking experts, or whatever?
Yes that would once again be the usual Crème de la Crème of self professed South African Shark conservationists - and all veritable Shark Angels on top of it, no less!
No, I'm not gonna dwell.
If you haven't yet caught on to the total Bullshit that is the Shark Angels, nor grasped the total lack of substance of a certain brand of moronic media-driven South African Shark conservation where the actual track record of the self promoting Shark-grabbing bikini bimbettes is A Big Fat Zero, nothing I will ever say is going to change your mind anyway.
Patric is absolutely right when he writes that S.A is a world away from conservation norms and I have no illusions that whilst the local Sharks continue to be massacred, we will be graced with many more self congratulatory PSAs and appalling media produced by those people.
The questions however stand.
- 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?
