Interesting: A much loved argument for the Pro-Chum protagonists is that using a combination of chum to attract Sharks towards people in underwater cages has absolutely, indisputably no effect on the behavior of the sharks. This theory has gone to hell in a hand basket with the release of the scientific study done by the Australian Government and CISRO research Centre. The study, The effects of berleying (chumming) on the distribution and behavior of sharks, Carcharodon carcharias, at the Neptune Islands, South Australia, August 2011 by Barry Bruce and Russell Bradford (read the full report - ftp://ftp.marine.csiro.au/pub/Bradford/Hayden/Bruce_Bradford_Effects_of_Berleying_2011.pdf ), showed that the “average residency period that individual sharks spend at North Neptune Island has increased from 11 days in 2001-2003 to 21 days in 2010-2011”. The average number of consecutive visits spent at the islands during residency periods “increased from two days in 2001-2003 to 6.5 days in 2010-2011”. In addition, the average number of sharks seen by operators also increased – from 2.2 per day before 2007 to 3.4 per day after 2007. The report said that while this did not mean the number of sharks had increased, it did reflect “that they are staying for longer periods, and that each individual is seen more often”. The report suggested further that sharks were being conditioned to the extent that “daily movements of sharks have changed to more closely match the arrival and departure of shark cage dive operators”. They now arrived around the same time the operators arrived, and left when they left. “This pattern now occurs on days where operators are present, and also on days when they are not present,” it said. Shark expert Lesley Rochat, from Afrioceans, said that while she had not seen the research, there was every reason to believe that if sharks behaved one way in Australia, similar behavior would be recorded in SA. The CSIRO report also identified several negative results, including “increased aggression between sharks if more sharks remain on site”, “distraction by tourism activities resulting in fewer opportunities to feed on seals and sea lions”, and “sharks provisioning on a food source (teaser baits) that is not as nutritious as their natural prey”. These problems had the potential to bring about “unintentional impacts on the overall health of sharks”, and changes to the ecology of the area. Since this report came out the argument that chumming with cage dive operations has no impact at all has subsequently gone very quiet.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 12:57:31 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015