Be careful of cage diving because it will make the shark goes hungry faster

News24xx.com - Research found that sharks activity increases when they interact with cage-divers, tourists who interact with sharks inside a metal cage under the water.

Lately, wildlife tourism has increased and become more popular. However, this raises a question about its implication to the wildlife.

Cage-diving with sharks is available in several countries like Australia, South Africa, United States, Mexico and New Zealand. In one site, there can be more than one company operating the wildlife tourism.

Previous studies found that wildlife tourism can change the behavior of some species. It can alter their habitats or eating habits. In case of cage-diving with sharks, conservationist fear that sharks will spend too much energy in interacting with divers that they will have less energy to hunt for food.

Recent study shows that sharks become more active when divers are around compared to other times. A research is done to sharks in Neptune Islands, Australia. The result shows that they experience dynamic body acceleration, 61 percent higher compared to other times they are in the area. Their rising metabolic rate causes sharks to use a lot more energy in interacting with divers.

“Spending time interacting with cage-diving operators might distract sharks from normal behaviors such as foraging on natural energy-rich prey like pinnipeds,” said one of the researcher, Dr. Huveneers, as cited from Daily Mail.

 

 

 

 

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