Luke Tipple
marine biologist/ shark diver/ conservationist/ TV host
Phone interview took place
on March 1, 2012
What attracted you to
shark tourism?
The ability to educate people about sharks, the access to
sharks for science is actually what really what got me to it, I was actually studying
whale sharks in Hindus and my tagging efforts were monitored by tourism, so the
ability to take people out on the water, teach people about sharks, show them a
great big shark and get them a great in water experience, and also fund my
research is really what got me started in the tourism side of it and then tourism
has since become a vehicle for everything from film projects, to scientific
research, to just one-on–one interactions with people to educate them about the
animals.
From what I
understand, chumming or throwing fish bait into the water are ways to attract
sharks to the boat, I understand that this has been made illegal in some
places, as a shark biologist do you believe it is this harmful or disruptive to
the sharks and if so, why?
No I don’t, but there are some caveats. I believe chumming
can be done quite safely, there has been a few studies conducted, specifically
in Australia and South Africa, which show very limited long term effects and
behavioral changes from chumming activities. However, I don’t believe that
chumming should be done in close proximity to recreational swimmers or heavily
populated beaches or areas. Regardless of what the science says- in that a
sharks long term behavior won’t be affected- its short term behavior can be, so
I don’t think we should be exciting the animals or putting them into a feeding
state when they may not have been actually been in that state close to shore. There are some areas in South
Africa that I think are judgmental to chumming around people, but a majority of
places, actually all the places that I have personally worked, chum. But very
far away from swimming activities or recreational use of the water. And we do
that specifically so that there is no possibility of the two actions
being confused. It’s really important to realize that sharks are obviously a predator,
they will feed when given the opportunity, and we just need to be smart in what
environments we present them with feeding opportunities.
What prevailing
beliefs does the general public hold prior to their experience shark diving on
a guided expedition?
It depends on what type of animal they are going to go see.
Particularly with Great Whites, because we cater to people who don’t have any
diving experience, they don’t often have water experience, I don’t know if you
know about the cage diving, but anyone can go. You don’t need to be certified,
you don’t need to have any experience, the actual diving criteria is actually
very limited, so you can enter the water- your in about 6 feet of water, we
teach you how to use a regulator, and it’s very, very safe, there are no skills
necessary. So on those trips we find a lot of people who are quite scared, we get
the people who have phobias of sharks- people have phobias of the water even,
the typical Jaws response where they
saw the movie as a kid and have always been terrified and have that hatred and
fear. That is definitely one part of the demographic. Another side of it is
that we get the super shark enthusiasts- people with tattoos all over them of
sharks, and they’ve got clothing with sharks and license plates with sharks and
everything in their lives is sharks except they’ve never seen one. Seeing a
shark is generally more exciting than anything they’ve ever seen before. So we get the enthusiasts, the super
scared, and then you get your pros- your photographers and people who regularly
interact with these animals. We get those people with the great whites, but
more so in the open water diving expeditions like with the whale sharks or the
tiger sharks, we get a lot more experienced, more rational, more acclimatized
people because there are generally professionals on those trips. The Great
White trips are great social experiments because people from all walks of life-
from the super scared to the super pros and you put them all in one mix and
they all walk away ecstatic with having that experience and the same level of excitement.
How do their
perspectives change after their dive?
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The most significant change that we see is in people who
come from that scared phobia school of thought. I remember, there was one diver
who came out, who was a moderately famous actor and he was being asked to do a
movie where he had to be in the water and he was petrified, he didn’t like the
ocean, he was scared of sharks and really, really didn’t want to do the film in
all that water without facing his fear. He was out there to face his fear and
he walked away after a day in the water with the Great Whites wanting to get
out of the cage, wanting to be close to these gorgeous animals, he was
completely cured. That seems to be fairly common, and this is a common
experience shared by the people who are very, very afraid. A lot walk away still
very respectful of the animal, but with more of an understanding that it’s not some
demon fish, or a vicious killer, or the things they had been led to believe by
horrible media. That’s fairly encouraging.
Why do you think this
view change occurs?
Change comes from being presented by the truth. Put people
in an environment that completely counters the redirect that’s been presented by
badly made TV and poor reporting from the media outlets and they are free to
make up their own minds. Most of them come to a rational answer and conclusion.
I’ve never come across someone who has entered the water with them and turns
around and says ‘yes, I’m still absolutely petrified of them, they’re demons
and they’re horrible animals’. They all walk away with a new found respect at
the very, very least and they are usually very critical of the media who kept
them believing and being misinformed for so long that something was the case
and just it simply wasn’t.
What can shark
tourism do for conservation efforts?
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Shark tourism can do a lot. Firstly, it can give people
access to make up their own mind. In it’s very, very basic form it’s a
business, which enables people to get out in the water, be exposed to sharks,
and make up their own minds about the animals. Secondly, it can actually
replace traditional methods of making money from the ocean. In some places, the
ocean has just been a fishery, where the only source of income is from fishermen
going out and killing sharks or killing other fish. But now they realize they
can make money by keeping those animals alive, by being in tourism now. That’s
also very encouraging when that happens. Tourism can also contribute to science
by giving the researchers access to the water, it can also tourism groups will
contribute part of their earnings to scientific research, which is quite
common. They can also collect data, scientists can’t be on the water all the
time and some of the most knowledgeable people about sharks are the tour
operators. Even though they might not be quote on quote scientists, but they
can make anecdotal sighting data that can contribute to research. In many ways,
the more you have got knowledgeable eyes watching a finite resource, the more
we can understand that finite resource and that’s really what’s opened up.
How has the media and
pop-culture shaped opinions of sharks?
It’s done a lot of negative work over the years. You know
the old media story if it bleeds, it leads. Well typically with the sharks, any
news worth reporting has been coming with bleeds. So people have been lead to
believe that sharks are out to get us, that there are dangerous things in the
water, and that has led people to have very negative connotations when they
think about sharks. The media very seldom tells the story of why we need them,
so when they are constantly confronted with a negative opinion of that animal
and no reason for why it needs to be there, it leads people to think ‘if we
don’t need them, just wipe them out’. And that’s something that I’m forced to
deal with, if not everyday, almost every day and in that sense the media has
really done a dwindling population a great disservice, especially by
categorizing them all in one lot. As you surely know, there are many species
who don’t attack or are not even capable of attack. It’s something like 5% of
total species group that attack, the rest are quite benign. But people only
think a shark is a shark is a shark and that they need to be wiped out, and
that’s really unfortunate.
How can the love of
sharks and need to protect them be translated to the general public whom may
not have the opportunity to shark dive?
By better media and better understanding and that not only
happens on TV or in papers and news articles and stuff like that, it also
happens in that type of conversations. I think people who don’t understand the
ocean or don’t have access to it need to understand that some activities they
do can still negatively affect it. People who eat food, which is harvested by
non-sustainable and non-selective means can actually be also be hurting shark
population. I think people need to understand more where their resources are
coming from and that needs to be conveyed by people who just know better,
people like yourself who are interested in discerning the facts rather than a
bunch of fiction and teaching people is fundamental thing that needs to happen
and a change of thought that needs to happen across an entire population and
that’s not a quick thing to happen, unfortunately.
Have you seen a
change in public opinion of sharks in recent years? If so, what is that
attributed to?
Yeah, I have actually and that’s a slowly occurring but more
frequent change and I think its happing on all levels- a lot of conservation
groups which are doing work in the media, the social media side of things has
really helped- you know, a lot of people having access through news feeds and
statuses and petitions and that all that type of thing. That does have a nock
on effect eventually, and so, I am seeing more and more of the positive articles
coming out weather they be behavioral based saying, “hey sharks aren’t all that
bad” or weather it being conservation based and saying, “we have a problem here
and this is what we can all do to fix it”. There is a growing side which is
changing, there is no way to actually say the cause of this is one thing because
it happing on all aspects. We’ve got celebrities talking about sharks, we’ve
got global groups talking about sharks, we’ve got locals on indigenous islands who
are protecting their waters and their resources specifically because of sharks
and the value of having sharks live in their oceans. It’s very encouraging.
What benefits has
your film SharkDiver had on the
public?
Actually we didn’t get to complete the project,
unfortunately, but our initial goal was to put a different spin on the shark
story and to show the passion people have for sharks. The feedback I get from
that is always very much the same, that we managed to show sharks in a very beautiful
light while still giving the animal respect. We wanted to not go down the shark
“huggie” trail where you get people who say, “sharks are our friends and
they’re not trying to bite us and their all lovely” and that type of dial up to
me is just nonsense because its not true, their a predator and we need to
understand that, they defiantly aren’t our friends and they don’t like to
cuddle as some people try to say, but on the other hand they’re not a monster
and we need to give them their respect and show them in that light. I think
it’s perceived in exactly the right way, and we really portrayed them in the
way that I wanted to show them in that we portrayed the passion that not only I
have, but a great number of people that I know who really feel a passion for
these animals and the environment and the need to go out and explore more and
see more of them and interact more. So the feedback has been quite positive and
I’d like to do more projects like that. 
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