Cage diving is costly, not for humans, but for white sharks
Huveneers C, Watanabe YY, Payne NL, et al. 2018. Interacting with wildlife tourism increases activity of white sharks. Conservation Physiology, 6(1), coy019.
https://doi.org/10.1093/conphys/coy019
Wildlife tourism is expanding rapidly within the tourist industry, due in part to a growing interest in connecting with nature, but also to new approaches that allow humans to come into very near contact with wildlife. One such activity is cage diving, which allows close encounters with white sharks, popularly known for their large size and elusive nature. Cage diving requires the use of olfactory, visual, and auditory attractants to bring sharks within close proximity. But how do these activities affect the iconic great whites? A recent study investigated just that, using high-frequency tree-axis acceleration loggers deployed on 10 white sharks interacting with cage diving around Neptune Island, Australia. The results showed that the overall dynamic body acceleration — considered a proxy for metabolic rate — was 61% higher during interactions with cage-diving operators. This suggests that interacting with cage -divers is costly for white sharks compared to normal behaviour, and calls for a better appreciation of the effects of frequent shark-tourism interactions to fully understand the impact of wildlife tourism on the fitness of this iconic species.
Kim Birnie-Gauvi, National Institute of Aquatic Resources, Technical University of Denmark
Category: Conservation Physiology