- My First impression of Morocco, on the First Day of a Major Islamic Holiday
- I Regret Shark Cage Diving in South Africa
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- Skydiving in Namibia’s Adventure Capital
- I Got Stung By a Scorpion in Africa
- Morocco – Everything You Need To Know Before You Go
- Essaouira- Morocco’s Surf and Art Town
- 16 Things to Do and See in Fes – Morocco’s Ancient City
- Akchour Waterfall – Morocco’s Lost Paradise
- Volubilis – Morocco’s Ancient Roman City
- A Trip to the Sahara Desert in Morocco
- Morocco 2.0 – Sometimes a Place Deserves a Second Chance
- Chefchaouen – Morocco’s Blue Pearl
- My Experience in Fes – The “Real” Morocco
- 20 Things to Do and See in Marrakesh
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- Bungee Jumping at Victoria Falls
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I regret shark cage diving in South Africa in 2015 now that I’m aware that it’s an unethical, inauthentic and irresponsible practice.
Many of the shark cage diving companies claim that they participate in shark conservation, but this is questionable (and it’s also known as greenwashing).
The practice used to bait the sharks with dead fish is called “chumming”, which is believed to make sharks more aggressive towards humans, and it makes them associate human interaction with food (i.e. human = food, which is what a lot of us are already scared of).
In addition, the act of luring a shark for human entertainment also isn’t ethical because it’s disruptive to their natural behaviours. The dive operators aren’t meant to actually feed the sharks, so they tease the sharks with the bait in order to get them close to the cage. But some sharks get really good at snatching the food anyway, which exhibits a changed behaviour. And this could alter their normal hunting behaviour in the future.
Moreover, sharks are naturally inquisitive, yet shy creatures, but you wouldn’t know this if you experienced shark cage diving because this activity perpetuates the image of sharks as violent predators, as it changes their behaviour.
However, a few conservationists and scientists support shark cage diving because many sharks are endangered due to being killed for their fins and then left to die, so this activity is said to encourage people to value sharks.
MY EXPERIENCE
After 36 hours of travel from Canada to South Africa, 10 hours later I spontaneously found myself great white shark cage diving with my new traveler friends, who I had just met at my hostel.
They invited me and they were fun, so I was being a “yes” person and didn’t think about or research the activity. All I knew was that it was a really popular activity in South Africa.
But that’s the thing with popular activities- they look fun and cool and everyone is doing them, so people (myself included) don’t always consider the ethical consequences of the activity.
Now that I’m a much more experienced traveller, I consider these things. We all make mistakes.
Also, sharks are the most active in the early morning, so pickup for shark cage diving is at 3:30am because the drive to Gansbaai (the great white shark capital) is 2.5 hours from Cape Town. By not going shark cage diving, you can save your sleep, your time, your money ($110-150US) and, most importantly, the sharks!
Wow looks like an amazing experience. Thanks for sharing!
It really was, thanks!
It would be great to try cage diving one day! Were you afraid? 🙂
So sorry for the late reply! It took some convincing for me to go shark cage diving initially, but once I was there, I realized it wasn’t so scary 🙂
That’s incredible! I wouldn’t dare.
Reblogged this on Santa's Reindeer and commented:
Something I would really love to try 🙂
Amazing!
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