The Negative Impact Of Shark Diving

Sharks are some of the most misunderstood creatures in the world. They are often given an unfavorable image by the media, both in the news and in the movies. For example, the 1975 summer blockbuster movie "Jaws" directed by Steven Spielberg, portrayed great white sharks as ferocious man eating monsters, that actively hunts humans. In addition, the Discovery Channel is guilty of doing this in their Shark Week television program. The program over exaggerates the behaviors of sharks as being very dangerous when that is not the case. . Sharks are indeed powerful and dangerous animals, but not in the way that people usually interprets. Interesting enough, just as people are terrified of sharks there are also many people who find sharks …show more content…
The scholarly study "The effects of shark cage-diving operations on the behavior and movements of white sharks, Carcharadon carcharias, at the Neptune Islands, South Australia" written by Barry D. Bruce, focuses on finding out if shark cage diving has any impact on the sharks in the area. If it does is it a positive or a negative impact and how should this affect the shark cage diving industry? In this scholarly study Barry D. Bruce states that "studies on the impact of shark based tourism on shark behavior are few and have provided conflicting results". This quote shows the relative difficulty it is to get a clear answer on the effects of shark cage diving on sharks. To few studies have been done and these studies are not showing consistent results to make matters worse. According to Barry D. Bruce one of the reasons why these studies have shown a wide range of results is because there is basically no data of shark behaviors before shark cage diving operations began in the area to use as a control group to compare it to current data of shark behavior in the area. The only shark behavior data available were taken after the shark cage diving industry grew in popularity and have already been active in the area for many years even before the industries massive growth in popularity(890). Even at the end of this study the research showed shark cage diving as having a minimal impact on the behavior of sharks(905). Despite the results of the research however, Barry D. Bruce argues that these results are not enough to make an accurate claim about whether or not shark cage diving has a significant impact on the sharks in the area where shark cage diving takes place. He argues that a more longer term study is needed to see the real long term effects that shark cage diving has on the