Oz Tourists Sight Great
White Named 'UFO'
Like
a scene out of Jaws, this toothy giant surges from the choppy, grey
waters
off Port Lincoln on South Australia's Eyre Peninsula. Dubbed
'UFO',
it is lured out of the water with fish to get up close and personal
with
a group of tourists. Christened by shark researchers, the 4.2m great
white
appears a frightening predator as it searches for food in waters at
Dangerous
Reef. But its dorsal fin reveals a vulnerability that could
lead
to its death. Attached to the fin is a fishing line covered in seaweed.
This
line, which cannot be removed without risk to the researchers, is
likely
to lead to the loss of UFO's dorsal fin, or its life.
Researcher
Andrew Fox, son of renowned shark expert Rodney Fox,
said
great white sharks were under siege. "Over the past 10 years we've
seen
a lot of sharks that have fishing line damage," he said. Great whites
remain
somewhat of a mystery and there is little data on population but
experts
say their numbers are declining. Mr Fox, who takes tourists to see
the
sharks said that data showed up to 200 great whites were
inadvertently
killed every year by commercial fishermen in Australian
waters.
"And that figure is likely to be higher because these are just the
reported
cases," he said.
The
Foxes are developing a photographic catalogue of great whites in the
region
and are launching a satellite tagging program to gain an idea of
their
traveling patterns.
A week
following this article in the paper, a reader wrote in with this observation:
SHARK
SHAME
"As
a fan of the great white shark for 16 of my 32 years, I was less
than
impressed when I saw the photos of the shark nicknamed
UFO,
taken off South Australia.
In
my opinion, this photo shows an apex predator being blatantly
mistreated
and teased to react in a way that is not it's natural behavior.
I
am not against ecotourism and cage diving with sharks. It is just that
there
is, as with everything, a right and wrong way to go about it, and
that
is the wrong way.
I
returned recently form a two week stay in Gansbaai, South Africa,
diving
every day with these majestic animals. My guides and friends
were
Michael Rutzen and his family. Michael was filmed recently free-
diving
with great whites out of a cage, and he knows these sharks
intimately.
His
team has a passion for the shark and took every precaution to
protect
it, with cage designs with no corners or snags down to engine
covers
to stop cuts from boat props.
They
never teased the sharks, nor did they force the shark to do anything
it
did not want to do, and as a result I got to interact with calm sharks
within
centimeters of my camera lens, showing none of the aggression
apparent
in the picture published.
My
photos and video are testimony to the professionalism and
dedication
the good people of Gansbaai have for protecting and studying
great
whites while still maintaining a viable ecotourism trade.
I
wish more people could experience these sharks as I have, with a
chance
to see and learn what I did from the people I met.
More people would change their opinions, I'm sure "
