Avila Beach Victim

[Jeffman]

CuriousMe, I could not agree more. People who know more about sharks and their behaviors could make the best decision about protection beaches that could be threatened by shark attacks.

 

[Bonnet Ray]

Wouldn't this technology just be another way that humans are effecting the enviroment with no idea what the long-term consequencies will be. Given the number of shark attacks are very small each year isn't this overkill?

When we go in the ocean we need to acknowledge the risks and decide whether as individuals we are prepared to take them. Personally seeing a shark on a dive is part of the fun.

 

[Dyno Bill]

Did anyone see the news last night? There were 3 larger sharks seen in the San Onofree surf line with surfers. They were seen at one point within 5 feet of a surfer in the wave itself and not one of them were agressive. I dont think we have the ability to change their habits or actions in their natural habitat. Aparently this type of sighting isnt all that unusual in the area.
Bill

 

[diverjed]

PhotoTJ once bubbled...
Brody and Hooper, anyway.

Well, if you read the book, Quint was actually the one that killed the beast, not Brody. He lost his life in the process but.....and Hooper was killed in a shark cage.

 

[PhotoTJ]

Yeah, I was going for the film version.

 

[Zagnut]

Another point. You suggest that people who would use such a technology are afraid of the ocean and shouldn't dive. Wow, that's profound, that's like telling a mountain man in the 1800s if you take your .50 cal Hawkins with you into the mountains you are just a scared foolish greenhorn and you shouldn't go into the woods. Sheesh, Liver eatin' Johnson woulda' scalped you for a religion like that zeN||

Apples and oranges. A mountain man's Hawken rifle would be useful if a bear was charging him. It would take care of the one bear. It wouldn't drive out every bear in a several mile radius and keep them away permanately. That point isn't relevant to this arguement.

So, if you want to use a personal shark repellant device or a bang stick to take spearfishing with you and use it to kill a shark that is threatening you specifically, I can live with that, after all I'm not a big fan of Walt Disney and I don't think great whites are warm and fuzzy and all cuddly. I just don't see where you have the right to dictate to everyone how you are going to drive every shark in the region away so you can spearfish without a care in the world.


Jeffman once bubbled...

A beach is an extremely small area for a shark to give up.
The ocean is a huge place, I'm sure they would not mind giving us a microscopic fraction of there home for scared swimmers to enjoy.

We hardly encroach on sharks at all...that's why the numbers of great whites have declined by 80% since the mid 80's. Let's see there's the beaches, oil platforms, oil spills, nuclear testing, popular dive sites, trash and sewage dumped by cruise ships, and countless fishing vessels, that sift through millions and millions of gallons of sea water with nets, catching and killing everything in their path....yeah, the sharks won't even know we're here.

A Smart@ss answer, I know, and Jeffman, you have some good ideas. I'm just making the point that it's not a microscopic fraction that we humans require. It's more like everything we can conquer, we've got to have...typical human nature. We can't seem to strike a balance and coexist with nature, we have to conquer it, use it up, and throw it away.

Zen once bubbled...

we are the top predators on the planet, and we go into every environment, we use technology to do it, this is how we have reigned supreme,

Just because we have the technology, doesn't mean we have to use it...we have thermonuclear weapons, that would solve the shark problem...is that a good idea? We "reigned supreme" on the bikini atoll and those islands are still uninhabitable and will be for 100's of years. Yay for us! We are superior!


Probably, if we just be patient, this arguement will be irrelevant. We'll eventually drive this apex predator who has survived for millions of years into extinction and then we can all dive and surf gleefully with the knowledge that we have asserted our superiority on the food chain and we won't be eaten.

Get out the boogie boards and the jetskis and let's party!

Shark fin soup, anyone?

 

[CuriousMe]

Bonnet Ray once bubbled...
Wouldn't this technology just be another way that humans are effecting the enviroment with no idea what the long-term consequencies will be. Given the number of shark attacks are very small each year isn't this overkill?

When we go in the ocean we need to acknowledge the risks and decide whether as individuals we are prepared to take them. Personally seeing a shark on a dive is part of the fun.

I enjoy seeing sharks while diving as well.....but generally, it's not diver's that are being attacked. It's swimmers and surfers. What would be wrong with investigating what can be done to protect them in sandy beach areas?

Peace,
Cathie

 

[Bonnet Ray]

What's wrong is that we have no idea what the long term effects on the environment would be. Is it really ok to stop sharks coming into shore so that we can feel safe whilst we swim. I don't think so, there is more to this world than human beings and we need to recognise and respect that we are just small part.

I am sick of the number of times I have seen people damage the reef as they dive on by, and expeling sharks from our shores is just another example of this attitude that humans are the most important species. We stick our roads where we want, kill the rainforest and now we want to stop sharks swimming close to the beaches. What next? Will we ever learn that we are part of the environment not it's masters?

Yes this sort of attitude makes me mad and sad, there seems so little respect for anything these days.

 

[zeN||]

Zagnut your post is pretty irrelevant, a shark repellant device should pose no substantial risk to sharks once the biology and the technology is understood,
and it is not apples and oranges, you have to be a bit simple to suggest there is no risk in diving/entering the ocean, but people like you condescend to rational divers who want to carry a shark repellant, that unlike shark nets or guns etc. don't harm the creature-it's called living in harmony, a diver can enter the water without that risk, and the shark can swim the wide ocean unharmed, without causing harm to humans,
and your statement is rather absurd,

"So, if you want to use a personal shark repellant device or a bang stick to take spearfishing with you and use it to kill a shark that is threatening you specifically, I can live with that" (Zagnut)

If your concern is for the sharks welfare, why would you possibly accept killing the animal, when a safe/sane electronic repellant would drive the shark off while avoiding injury to it?
Furthermore what is your problem with spearfishing? I work to take my own food, which in my mind puts me hands above people who preach the evils of spearfishing while paying $$$ for a chef to prepare it for me so I can hobnob with the elite crowd zeN

 

[Rick Inman]

zeN|| once bubbled...
, Furthermore what is your problem with spearfishing? I work to take my own food, which in my mind puts me hands above people who preach the evils of spearfishing while paying $$$ for a chef to prepare it for me so I can hobnob with the elite crowd zeN

Oh, yeah! I like that way you said that so much, I just wanted to see it again.