2008 - Communication Across the Curriculum (CAC)

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and aggressive, the chunks are attached to ropes. This
way of attracting sharks to the cage is called “chumming,”
which has a negative impact on sharks. They associate
boats and human activities with food; it makes the sharks
believe they get their food from humans at all times.
Many tour companies offer daily excursions as many
tourists want to experience this kind of thrill. The provoked
shark can be viewed and photographed from the boat
deck, or by the scuba divers from the relative safety of
the protective shark cages. More and more, the sharks
become used to the presence of humans which also has a
negative effect on the natural performance of sharks. One
day the sharks might not respond anymore to this kind of
provocation.
The most adverse effect is that more sharks follow the
boats into the harbor, and come closer to the shore, and
too close to the beaches. That is also against sharks’
natural behavior pattern as they usually are not found
in shallow coastal waters. Consequently, more surfers
and swimmers get attacked with the shark believing
the silhouette it sees on the surface is a seal. Actually,
sharks don’t like the taste of humans; they let go after the
initial attack, but many human victims die of the injuries.
It cannot be denied that this tourist attraction changes
the sharks’ behavior; they associate boats and human
activities with food and become used to the presence of
humans. Tour operators deny that cage-diving has any
impact on the number of shark-related incidents, but
recently there have been more than the average number of
white shark attacks along the South African coast.
Based on the growing number of these kinds of
incidents, the practice of cage diving should be stopped.
This will allow the sharks to return to their normal
ecological feeding environment. The tourism business will
not be impacted due to the return of many surfers to the
South African Coast (False Bay). Tourism will not decrease,
but the great white sharks sightings will.
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W r i t i n g A c r o s s t h e C u r r i c u l u m