Cage diving with sharks is happening in Cape Town! Many often ask themselves the question, is it ethical?

Perhaps 50 years ago, sharks may not have needed the protection of the people whose livelihoods depend on them. Illegal fishing, overfishing and the rampant rape of the seas all go unnoticed by the same earthlings who cry “unethical”.

So who are the whistleblowers?

Those who have the most to lose! The shark cage industry includes a community invested in the welfare of sharks, the ecosystem that supports them, and nature lovers in general.

The industry spends more time on the water than most other ecotourism vessels. It is therefore important that a significant part of the time devoted to observing sharks and their habitats is devoted to actions aimed at protecting the sharks.

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The shark cage diving industry versus the fishing industry

The billion rand ecotourism industry employs around 350 people and indirectly supports over 1,650 dependents.

With the decline in the presence of the great white shark in False Bay and Gansbaai, there is a new emergence of other shark species, namely the seven-gilled shark and the bronze whaler shark. Both of these species have been visiting cage dive boats for the past four years.

The bronze whaler is a commercially fished species. Even though bronze whalers are generally considered low value, there is a market for their meat and fins for export in South Africa. Bronze whale sharks only reach maturity at around 20 years old. What we do know about these sharks is that the Gansbaai and False Bay locations are used as feeding areas for these pregnant sharks and even possibly as a nursery area for this IUCN near-threatened species .

The media has been alerted by the shark cage diving industry to a local fisherman targeting bronze whale sharks at the location of the shark cage diving boats. It is unacceptable to have a front row seat to kill any animal qualified as a vulnerable species. Shark ecotourism is a non-consumptive industry where the economic value of live sharks is worth more to South Africa than what fishermen can do with a dead shark,” says Wilfred Chivell of Marine Dynamics.

Demersal longline fishing

Enter Operation Phakisa mandated by the South African government in July 2014, which is a rapid results delivery program specifically designed to drive economic growth and increase job creation with one of the outlets being the use of the sea. As a result of this mandate, many fisheries were opened along the South African coast. These fisheries are now having a devastating impact on the health of our ecosystem. It is clear that very few, if any, impact assessments have been done on the effects of these new fisheries on the ecosystem and even on other fisheries.

One of them was the implementation of 6 demersal shark longline licenses mainly targeting the Smooth Hound (gummy shark) and the hollow fin shark (tope shark).

Like all sharks, these shark species mature late and have relatively few young. As such, they are both extremely susceptible to collapse if subjected to severe and heavy fishing pressure.

Almost overnight the sharks disappeared and their disappearance was accompanied by a dramatic decline, with catch statistics and sightings now showing just how serious the situation is. In response to this, concerned individuals from the ocean community and the shark cage diver community lobbied DAFF hard and called for an immediate halt to inshore demersal shark longline fishing.

Many scientific studies have proven the extreme importance of the presence of predators in the ecosystem to maintain the fine balance that exists. When these predators are eliminated, the entire ecosystem collapse can take place. When this happens, there will be a ripple effect on everything from consumptive fishing to non-consumptive tourism-related activities. “The effects will be catastrophic and all for the creation of a handful of jobs in a fishing industry that brings very little economic value to South Africa,” says Chris Fallows of Apex Shark Expeditions.

South Africa is probably the most famous country in the world for tourists who come to see a multitude of shark species. Our coastline is unique in that it has one of the highest densities and diversity of shark species in the world, which would attract more and more people to our shores. All of this is sacrificed because of apathetic public servants and a few greedy fishermen who seem determined to change our ecology and our seascape forever.