A friend and I did this excursion in Nov. 2017 and were disappointed in the amount of false information spread about sharks.
Other than this the trip was great except the time in the cage was way too short ~20 mins, and the cage was very crowded.
I am studying natural resource conservation and am very passionate about shark protection so it was very disturbing to hear the following falsities expressed by the tour operator in her informational section of the tour:
1) Hawai'i was the first place to protect sharks. - False.
In Hawai’i the act of shark finning, possession of shark fins, and sale of shark fins is
fortunately illegal; according to the Regulation Summary Hawai’i Pelagic Longline
Fishing (2015) within the State of Hawai’i: “You may possess and land shark fins
only if they are naturally attached to the corresponding shark carcass”. In fact, Shark fishing occurs throughout the Southern Hawai’ian Islands as restrictions on the fishing of sharks only protect oceanic white tip sharks, whale sharks, and silky sharks (Compliance Guide Fishing Restrictions related to the Oceanic Whitetip Shark, the Silky Shark and the Whale Shark 2015) not the Galapagos sharks we were swimming with.
Additionally, in 2009 Palau became the worlds first shark sanctuary, banning all fishing of sharks.
Hawai'i has a long way to go in the protection and enforcement of regulations, this false statement leads people to believe that Hawai'i doesnt have legal headway to still make in the protection of sharks.
In Hawai'i legal longline finning still occurs which is a huge risk to sharks
a more accurate statement would be: Hawai'i was the first STATE to ban shark FINNING
2) Sharks are the cleaners of the ocean, if they didn't exist oceans would look the scummy aquariums. - False
This is actually ridiculous, filter feeders like mollusks and barnacles are responsible for filtering ocean water. but sharks ARE extremely important.
Very little is understood about the impacts of removing large apex predators, such as sharks, from coral reef ecosystems due to the intertwined and complicated nature of tropical food webs (Rizzari et al. 2014). Although the role of sharks, as apex and mesopredators, in trophic cascades is contested, they play a large role in coral reef ecosystem function and health (Roff et al. 2016 ; Ruppert et al. 2016; Heithaus et al. 2008). Studies suggest that biodiversity preservation may be improved by the protection of healthy apex predator populations (Rizzari et al. 2014). Sharks also provide nutrient cycling within and between ecosystems that improve the overall health of reefs (Roff et al. 2016) Apex and mesopredatory sharks are often opportunistic feeders who remove weak and diseased prey from the ecosystem (Roff et al. 2016). Due to the opportunistic feeding habits of many sharks, there is also potential for the top-down control of invasive species (Roff et al. 2016) Changing densities of sharks in coral reef ecosystems may have an effect of the herbivorous fish populations as well (controversial trophic cascade relationships) (Rizzari et al. 2014).
a more correct statement would have been: Sharks can help maintain ecosystem balance due to their feeding habits
3) "I think Megalodons still exist and are just hiding from us"
REALLY?!?!
megalodons are extinct animals that lived millions of years ago. juveniles lived warm costal waters, and fed on fish and small whales, something we definitely would notice. I'm sure that discovery mockumentary is to blame for this but seriously spreading this false belief is just irresponsible.
These are the main 3 things I can remember, but there were many more false statements, I just wish the company would do more to promote factual conservation talks with guests as ecotourism an extremely important in promoting education and the economic value of living sharks.
Additionally, when someone learns that one fact is false they will likely distrust the rest of the things that staff member has said, aka its important to protect sharks.