From: pstonge@trentu.ca (CMDR P.D. Keener)
Subject: Sharks: Search and destroy???
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: Trent University Computer Services Department
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 02:41:00 GMT

	G'day, I just read the recent postings regarding the state 
sanctioned killing of sharks (Hawaii???) after the attacks (was it one or 
two).  Can't say I'm terribly happy about it.
	Now I realize that I'm an outsider (being in Ontario, I have as 
much chance of a shark encounter as I do injury from fire coral - NONE), 
and that I don't live in the area, nor do I have a direct stake in this 
action.  However, like many of you out there, I am a diver as well.  I love 
this sport because I can - for a very short while at least - be a 
part of a place where life as we know it is so very different from where we 
live the rest of our upright lives.
	I know that I'm about to stick both fins in where my reg should 
be, but here goes anyway.  I wonder how many divers have had encounters 
with the Tiger sharks, and in how many of those encounters were those 
divers 'shark bait' or at least 'a nice light snack'?  If what I've come to 
understand is true, we as divers have a reasonably low likelihood of injury 
fron a shark.  Why?  It basically comes down to this:  We don't look like 
something nice and yummy for the shark.  Splashing around on surface, 
oblivious to what's below may not be entirely conducive to remaining 
unscathed.  Whereas those of us on open circuit breathers (almost all of 
us) have this nicety of the bubble trail to make ourselves look less 
palatable.  The moral?  The sharks aren't doing harm ON THEIR OWN.  The 
swimmers aren't doing harm ON THEIR OWN.  Instead of peturbing the 
population of tiger sharks (I think that was the species mentioned) to no 
real end - unless you want to be REALLY certain and hunt them to extinction 
- why not place a physical barrier "between these two competing interests"? 
 I believe the resource economist would call that 'demand management'.  Not 
that every beach on the island or islands (if the so called 'problem' is 
more 'widespread') can be made safe in this manner, but these beaches can 
be placarded by the local game / natural resouce officials, warning of the 
risks on the 'unprotected' beaches.
	Every time we hit the water, tanks or no, we take a risk.  While we 
try to reduce that risk by training, experience, equipment redundancy, and 
trust in our buddy, we still all realize that a risk exists.  As one sig in 
a previous posting said, "Respect the beach."  To be honest, I wouldn't 
like to have been either of those people injured in those encounters, but I 
would have to realize that that beach isn't there for me alone.  I enter 
the water, I accept the risk.  I use the beach, I accept the risk.  When 
the risks are not as obvious as they should be, we must be made aware of 
them, so that we know the risks.  Whether this is supposed to come from the
omnipresent mandated agencies or not is of debate, as we all know how 
sometimes things are 'sat on' in the Greater Interests...
	On the other hand, what would the effects of a large scale tiger 
shark kill be in that area, from an ecological point of view.  Clearly, 
the population dynamics of that area would be affected - particularly if 
this species of shark is a higher order carnivore.  The potential release 
of predatory pressures on other organisms directly lower in the food chain 
should be a matter of concern.  After all, what do these sharks normally 
eat?  It follows that without these sharks, the population of these prey 
items could skyrocket, outstripping the food available to them, causing 
another peturbation.  And of the higher order carnivores (what eats these 
sharks?).  Without the tiger shark as a prey item, what alternatives do 
these other animals have?  We all know that natural systems have a great
resiliancy for peturbations in population, but this only goes so far...  Is 
that mandated agency able to guarantee that a threat exists after all other
possible steps have been taken to segregate the swimmers and the sharks?  
Has that agency performed an environmental impact assessment with the help 
of marine ecologists to ascertain the hazards involved with such a course of
action?  I'd really like to know...

Any further info on this matter would be greatly appreciated!

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* Pete St. Onge, 3rd year Environmental and Resource Sciences major,        
* Trent University, Peterborough Ontario Canada K9J 7B8.  Oh, and NAUI
* Advanced diver, too.  B-)
* "I want to look at life, in the available light" - N. Peart, RUSH
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