The Telegraph (London, U.K.), February 10, 2008

SHARK TOURISTS 'ARE PUTTING LIVES IN JEOPARDY'

[Rachel's introduction: Craig Bovim, who survived a great white attack five years ago, said that the precautionary principle should apply. "It's common sense that people shouldn't be baiting and teasing a very dangerous animal in proximity to humans," he said.]

By Sebastien Berger in Gansbaai, South Africa

Tourists who flock in their thousands to watch sharks off South Africa's Cape have been warned that they might be cost lives by attracting the predators closer to the shore.

Some believe that the tourist trips are altering the nature of the sharks' attitude to humans

Every year about 50,000 people travel to Gansbaai for a close encounter with the area's great whites, drawn in by the presence of a huge colony of Cape fur seals, and each day boats set out to sea to give tourists a closer look.Dangling bags of "chum" -- usually mashed fish -- a scent trail is created, and pieces of tuna on a line are used to draw the sharks towards divers in a cage on the side of the boat.

When a great white shark rams the cage, inches away from a diver's face, the adrenaline immediately blots out the cold of the southern seas. But while the visitors are safe, others believe the practice is inherently risky.

In recent years six people have been attacked by sharks in the waters off the Cape annually, with on average one person killed.

Craig Bovim, who survived a great white attack five years ago, said that the precautionary principle should apply. "It's common sense that people shouldn't be baiting and teasing a very dangerous animal in proximity to humans," he said. "If there's any doubt that we're influencing the behaviour of the apex predator of our oceans then we should not interfere with it at all."

advertisementMr Bovim, 40, was diving for lobster off Scarborough, near Cape Town, when he was "surprised by a very large animal". He said: "It bit me on both my forearms and was swimming slowly out to sea with me being held under water. I was drowning at the same time."

With death imminent, he headbutted and kneed the shark until it released him, and he struggled back to shore. "There was no fear, it was very calm," he said. But he added: "It was a very close call. I lost a lot of blood."

Shark spotters have since been employed at a number of beaches. Yvonne Kamp, who co-ordinates the spotters, said that while anecdotal evidence of sharks coming close to shore was increasing, that could be due to more people in the water and greater awareness.

There was no evidence that shark-spotting was responsible, she said.

The boat operators themselves insist there is no way their practices can train sharks to see people as food. Brian McFarlane, 59, who owns Great White Shark Tours, said: "Any time a surfer or diver has been attacked they like to point a finger at us. Yes, somebody will get bitten in the next month or two months or six months, possibly even today.

"The shark is hunting for a seal or a turtle or dolphin and attacks this moving object which may happen to be a human.

"More than likely he will spit him out because he will realise he's made a mistake because humans are not in his food chain."

Great whites are solitary creatures that can swim vast distances. There are no reliable estimates of their numbers, but it is listed as vulnerable on the World Conservation Union Red List of endangered species.