Tag: conservation

I wrote a blog recently, twenty minutes ago to be specific, about the various threats to sharks and how these threats are having a very serious impact on their global population. At this point, with threats like shark finning, shark fishing derbies, illegal fishing, and by-catch, not to mention a number of television series continuing to perpetuate an unjustified fear of sharks, sharks need all the help they can get. I listed a number of ways in which everyone, no matter where you live, can help in the protection of sharks. One of those things was to go snorkeling with sharks so as to provide a financial incentive to keep them alive. Now, if you've ever seen sharks while snorkeling you've most likely noticed that they are very shy and will often swim away from you leaving you with only a fleeting glance of their backside. Something that has become popular—and slightly controversial at the same time—in diving and snorkeling destinations worldwide is the introduction of bait into the water as a means to bring these lovely and highly intelligent animals in closer for longer. I know what you're thinking, why would you ever put dead fish in the water with sharks!? Well, it's not exactly what it seems. Sharks have an excellent sense of smell, and one of their favorite smells is blood, and not just any blood, fish blood specifically. Shark's sensory thingies (clearly I'm not a scientist) are so advanced that they can tell the difference between fish blood and other types of blood, such as human or mammal blood. There have been a number of tests on this exact topic where scientists have built a device that would dribble mammal blood into a sharkie area, while at the same time just a few meters away an