Shark Nets (Low Resolution Video Version)
A Save Our Seas Foundation Investigation
Save Our Seas Foundation Chief Photographer Thomas P. Peschak talks about the issues surrounding his recent article published in Africa Geographic magazine on the shark nets off the Kwazulu-Natal coast.
Save Our Seas Foundation Chief Photographer Thomas P. Peschak talks about the issues surrounding his recent article published in Africa Geographic magazine on the shark nets off the Kwazulu-Natal coast.
This is the low resolution video for slower connections. There is also a high-bandwidth version. Or watch it in HD on Youtube.
Shark Nets Video Player
| SHARK NETS UPDATE There has been overwhelming public comment and interest in the wake of the feature article Shark Nets: The Real Killer of the Sea? published in the May issue of Africa Geographic magazine and the accompanying multimedia feature on the SOSF website. The popular shark interest blog sharkdivers.blogspot.com had this to say: "Once in a great while someone in our industry comes to the table with compelling, reasonable, and frankly conservation changing media. This week our hats come off to the Save Our Seas Foundation who has taken on the issue of South African Shark nets. This is conservation action at work, spending time, money and resources to bring home an issue and help save sharks on a regional level. This is also industry leadership. Kudos to everyone involved. SOS has hit a home run with this effort. Please support them." The International League of Conservation Photographers has made SOSF Chief Photographer Thomas P Peschak photographer of the month and are featuring the Shark Net campaign on their website. To our delight many members of the public and other NGOs have taken the cause to heart and launched their own initiatives to have the nets removed. The petition at removethenets.com has already gained many signatures and a Facebook cause Remove the Shark Nets in South Africa has attracted more than 5,500 concerned members after only three weeks of being live. We at SOSF are very heartened to see that by creating powerful conservation media, be it an article on good old fashion paper or a web based approached, can result in so many people using their enthusiasm and resources to strive and make a difference. *** Large numbers of sharks are a non-negotiable prerequisite for healthy seas. Sharks play an important stabilizing role in the ocean and South Africa is fortunate to harbor two of the world’s top shark hotspots. The western Cape’s icy seas, home to the great white shark and the subtropical waters off KwaZulu Natal (KZN) where tiger and zambezi sharks crown the top of the food chain. The western Cape and KZN differ not only in their respective shark faunas, but also in the type of relationships that people have chosen to have with sharks. KZN is one of only a handful of places in the world where shark nets are still used. Many people wrongly believe that these nets are a continuous barrier that prevent sharks from approaching beaches. In reality they are gill nets designed to entangle, suffocate and kill sharks. In fact 40% of sharks are caught on the beach side of the nets on their way back out to sea. The rational is that reducing the number of sharks will also reduce the likelihood of shark bites. The first nets were installed in 1951 and were so effective that by 1989 45 kilomters were in place at 64 beaches, today managed by the parastal KZN Sharks Board. Between 1978 and 2008 the nets caught 33684 large sharks and the present day haul is 600 sharks every year. Key targets are so-called “dangerous sharks” (great white, tiger and zambezi), but the majority caught are species that have never seriously injured a human. The nets also ensnare on average 230 rays, 58 turtles, 50 dolphins and 5 whales every year. We live in an time of great technological innovation, the era of space travel and nano-technology, surely we have the capability to develop non-lethal electric or chemical means to replace the archaic nets and allow sharks and ocean users to peacefull coexist? Despite the environmental toll I believe that the greatest impact the nets have is on the human psychy. Their presence instills in generation after generation of beachgoers the belief that only a ocean free of sharks is safe to swim in. This of course is completely untrue and the true risk of shark bite is miniscule. Fishing fleets kill 100 million sharks every year and many species have declined by 90 percent. Sharks are in trouble and need our help. Who though is going to have the desire and passion to conserve an animal that they falsely believe, in large part due to the presence of the shark nets, is going to eat them when they venture into the sea for a swim? The unfortunate reality in KZN is that a large part of the public is still too fearfull to swim off beaches not protected by shark nets. I therefore belive it to be premature to lobby for the removal of all shark nets, especially those from popular bathing locations. However there are many nets at less utilized beaches that could be removed asap. Sharks bites are not a uniquely KZN phenomenon and the Cape has had its share of incidences. There have been calls for shark nets in the wake of bites, but the public has repeatedly rejected them. The people of the Cape would rather have shark spotters than nets and in turn enjoy healthy oceans with sharks rather than decaying ones without. A end to all shark killing in the name of bather protection in KZN will only come in the wake of a concerted effort to create a more shark tolerant society. I therefore wish to end with a call for action to all aspiring marine conservationists everywhere. Educate the people of KZN and the holiday visitors about sharks, bring the negative impacts of the nets to light and share how to safely co-exist with sharks. The more converts you find, the sooner KZN can stop killing sharks to “protect” bathers and join the rest of South Africa as a world leader in shark and marine conservation. Thomas P. Peschak is an award winning photojournalist and marine biologist based in Cape Town, South Africa. He is the chief photographer for the Save our Seas Foundation and travels extensively to document shark conservation and research around the world. To make your voice heard go to: www.removethenets.com Download Tom Peschak's Africa Geographic article as a PDF here.  |
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