New Rules Aim To Protect Great Whites From Visitors

November 29, 2008

Release from: Rob Rogers
Marin Independent Journal (California)

For most people, the mere presence of a 20-foot, 5,000-pound great white shark would be enough to keep them out of the water.

At the Farallon Islands, however, tourists and thrill-seekers pay as much as $875 for the privilege of seeing one of the ocean's greatest predators from the safety of an underwater cage. New regulations proposed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration could change that, however, by making it illegal for boats to approach within 50 meters of a shark - about half the length of a football field - and banning the practice of using decoys to lure sharks within the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary.

Sanctuary officials say they're responding to concerns by researchers and members of the public, who fear that tourists eager to see sharks eat may actually be preventing them from doing so.

"Sharks feed infrequently, so to disturb one during a feeding event may disrupt its life cycle," said sanctuary Superintendent Maria Brown, who said that up to nine different tourism companies have pursued sharks within the sanctuary.

"Some operators use pigs' blood or cut-outs in the shape of a seal to attract sharks," Brown said. "Others use surf boards, which could cause sharks to be attracted to surf boards. That's one of the last things we want."

Tour operators say the new rules could hurt their business and make it more difficult for the public to learn about sharks.

"By bringing people out there, they're able to see what's going on and became a part of it," said Greg Barron, who leads groups to the Farallones as a manager for Sarasota, Fla.-based Incredible Adventures. "If the public doesn't know what's out there (in the marine sanctuary), why should they care if it should be closed off?"

Yet others say the rules are necessary to provide a safe haven for migratory sharks.

"We were conscious that we were causing pregnant females to come blasting out of the water so that tourists could take snapshots," said San Anselmo resident Patrick Douglas, who moved his shark-diving operation from the Farallones to Mexico's Isla Guadalupe about seven years ago. "If these (sharks) are breeding animals, and we know they're there to feed so they can make a migration 2,000 miles away, do we want to be running a commercial operation there?"

According to shark researcher Scot Anderson, about 45 great white sharks visit the waters between the Marin Headlands and Tomales Bay each year, feeding on the area's seals and sea lions. Anderson, who described great whites in a Nov. 20 presentation at the Point Reyes National Seashore that drew about 150 people, said no study so far has determined whether tour boats have any effect on shark behavior.

But diver Ron Elliot, who has spent 15 years swimming side-by-side with white sharks in the Farallones, said the sharks he knows have become more wary of human visitors.

"All the cage diving, all the people dragging surfboards and decoys around - the sharks have gotten sensitized to that," said Elliot, a former sea urchin diver who has become a documentary filmmaker. "They're smarter. They know that not everything that's up there is floating food."

Elliot knows that diving with white sharks is a risky proposition. At least four divers have been bitten in the Farallones in the past 15 years - and while none of the attacks was fatal, almost all were serious, requiring 400 or more stitches.

"It's an horrific place, even on a sunny, bright day. Nothing about that place says 'welcome,'" said Douglas, who said he admires Elliot's courage. Diving there "is like climbing El Capitan in Yosemite - which is already as dangerous as it gets - and having 20-foot vampire bats with huge taloned claws swoop in and eyeball you every once in a while."

But as Anderson pointed out, attacks on humans happen only when a shark mistakes them for a seal or sea lion, its intended prey. By making sure they know who he is, Elliot has been able to keep the sharks he meets at bay - so far.

"If you face them head on, if they know you're looking at them, they're less likely to do anything," Elliot said. "Of course, you never really know how they're going to react until you're in the situation."

Shark tour operators say they've helped to protect sharks - hunted throughout the world out of fear and a desire for their fins and teeth - by making them more valuable alive than dead.

"Commercial shark diving is needed in places like Mexico, which kills as many sharks as it possibly can," Douglas said. "In California, we're more educated than that. But I'm personally concerned that what happens in California will be used as a benchmark for the rest of the planet."

Some say the new federal rules, scheduled to take effect in mid-March, could help their operations by weeding out the commercial fishermen and others they say are responsible for harassing sharks.

"Basically, the public is being banned from doing this activity that only professionals should be doing - it's a 'don't try this at home' sort of thing," said Lawrence Groth, who believes his Alameda-based Great White Adventures will receive a permit from the Gulf of the Farallones Sanctuary. The agency is still developing its permit process. "We've been involved in this all along; we co-authored the regulations, and we're in good shape."