Let's not Question why a Shark has been a Shark..
Reflecting today on the event in Cornwall. It's something we haven’t talked about publicly before now. Our first thoughts and actions were for those involved. We wanted to let the only two statements that mattered, those of the customer involved and the operator, do the talking.
Friends and family who have heard the news were quick to message us and send links, understandably they were concerned that this would lead to a flood of cancellations. We weren't scared of our customers' reactions to this event. We spend enough quality time out at sea chatting to our clients to know they are fully aware that the animals they love and seek with us are neither mindless killers or harmless puppies, but perfect predators going about their business. They know that the risks of observing them are real but they're also calculated and small.
We were scared of the reaction of the tabloid media and the potential for hysteria. We hang our hats on our experience of being a small force for good in the giant battle that is changing the narrative for sharks. A change of perception that is badly needed if we are to halt the industrial scale persecution of this group of animals. We feared this could be a major setback for sharks and that swim-with tourism like ours could be seen as being responsible for it.
Yet, something happened, or didn't happen. The statement from the customer was incredibly powerful. Despite the best efforts of tabloid editors, her words held up to being chopped and changed to fit horrifying headlines. We recognised the voice of our customers in her words too. The sincerity of the statement, and the genuine concern for sharks. It took the wind out of the frenzy and set a tone for refreshingly rational interviews with experts who had an opportunity to fill the vacuum and leave little room for misinformation.
Credit where credit is due, a lot of good questions were asked in interviews and key facts were set straight: The shark was offshore in a location that blue sharks, an open ocean species live and have always lived; the shark was attracted to a boat in order for snorkellers to swim with it. For the first time in ‘swim-with’ history in the UK (probably about 30 years or so) and since records began (~175 years) a blue shark used its sense of touch (.. or in a shark’s world, teeth) to investigate a potential meal.
Yes, a meal. This was not a mistake of an over-curious shark. Blue sharks are a joy to swim with because they're inquisitive and they will often stay for hours circling the boat. Curiosity is a key trait of blues because they live in the open ocean where feeding opportunities can be few and far between and every potential lead needs to be followed up. So yes, there was intent from the shark, an intent to discover whether this foreign being was food, and crucially given its size, was in a vulnerable enough state to be food. Hollywood's portrayal of sharks being hell bent on taking out any human they encounter has been hugely damaging but equally, portraying a shark's agenda as anything other than survival is dangerous to sharks and humans.
The articles continued for a while but the feeding frenzy didn’t materialize. It was a win for the wider shark community, starting with the staff and customers on board that day, the NGO’s, anglers, filmmakers, policy makers... all advocates for sharks. The first unprovoked bite in UK history happened. A section of the press that’s been out for shark blood since Spielberg showed them where to find it must have thought it had struck gold… a few days after Shark Week no less! The waters were chummed for hysteria, yet none arrived.
Let’s not mistake this for a non-story though. Lets debate swim-with shark tourism, let’s question the need for laying scent trails for sharks. Lets measure the value of the research, educational and awareness outputs from trips help or whether swim-with operators can lay claim to any of those anyway. Let’s examine the reasons why we want or need to do these trips. Let's tear into our operating procedures and work together to make sure the chance of these incidents happening remains tiny.
Let's also talk about just how miraculous it is that we still even have sharks arriving in our waters, given the gauntlet of fishing vessels they’ve negotiated and the 70% reduction in oceanic sharks over the last 50 years.
But let's not question why a shark has been a shark.
Written by Rich Rees
