AD 2017 Q1

FROM THE SAFETY STOP
LETTERS FROM MEMBERS
DIVE HUT DIVERSION
Our team of biologists is currently
based out of McMurdo Station,
Antarctica, studying polar
gigantism in sea spiders. The
project has us diving beneath the
sea ice at half a dozen locations
around McMurdo Sound. Sitting
in our dive huts during surface
intervals, we’ve been passing the
time by getting caught up on back
issues of Alert Diver.
— Tim Dwyer,
McMurdo Station, Antarctica
PERSPECTIVE DIVERSITY
Thanks for putting out another great
edition of Alert Diver, featuring a
really stunning portfolio by my evil
twin, Douglas Seifert, and Stephen
Frink’s thought-provoking editorial
on the public response to the tabloid
presentation of his croc photos
from Cuba (Fall 2016). Living in
our “diver’s bubble” of people with
shared experiences, it’s easy for us
to lose sight of the fact that while
the diving community has (relatively
recently) accepted the value of and
very limited threat posed by sharks,
crocs and other large marine wildlife,
this attitude is not at all shared by
the general public.
This was brought home to me
by another post that went viral
earlier this year: a drone video of
tiger sharks scavenging a whale
carcass in a very calm and orderly
fashion. Although the “action” was
so subdued that it almost looked like
it was shot in slow motion, the post
was titled “Shark Feeding Frenzy.”
Among the hundreds of comments,
I didn’t see anyone questioning
the misleading use of the term
“frenzy.” The dominant theme in the
comments was attacking the boat
captain for getting within 30 feet of
the carcass because “everyone knows
what would happen if someone were
to fall in the water” — meaning, of
course, that such a hapless person
would certainly have been instantly
devoured. Meanwhile folks like
myself who have actually been in the
water with tiger sharks feeding on
whale carcasses were laboring under
the delusion that if someone fell in,
a few startled sharks might have
dashed away briefly, then returned to
casually taking one bite at a time out
of the carcass.
We who read a lot of diving
and environmental publications
might be under the impression that
everybody knows by now that sharks
pose no menace to humans except
under rare circumstances and that
humans are a vastly greater threat
to sharks. Unfortunately, this is not
the case. Part of the problem is that
a very different story is presented by
the mainstream media, which puts
profit before truth, public welfare
and the environmental integrity of
our planet.
— Doug Perrine,
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii
I finally got around to reading your
article about diving with crocodiles
and wanted to share a few thoughts
with you.
I have long believed that with
privilege comes responsibility. I
have been privileged enough
to travel the world underwater,
and I have felt an enormous
responsibility to share that world
with others and to provide a forum
for education, particularly with
those who will probably never dive.
This brings me to your article.
I was disappointed by your very
cocky tone (“I didn’t engage with
those who commented”). You
suggested that your experiences
made you so enlightened and that
the commenters were never going to
go diving, so they couldn’t possibly
understand. I am thankful that I
never approached my students
or their opportunities to learn
from my experiences with that
same arrogant attitude. For many
years I taught students who lived only
20 miles from the coast yet had never
been to the beach. I can guarantee
you that by the time they got though
with my class they clearly understood
the long-term implications of issues
such as shark finning, ocean noise
and plastic pollution.
Perhaps you felt a bit guilty about
putting your child in the water with
crocodiles? If that is not the case, then
COURTESY OF TIM DWYER
14 | WINTER 2017