Shark tourism off table
SHARK tourism is worth $25.5 million annually to Australia but Gold Coast tourism heads aren’t interested in it coming to the city.
Great white shark cage diving operators have salivated at the idea of setting up shop next close to major cities but say politicians are too afraid to give shark tourism ventures the green light.
Fears are based on controversial theories which suggest operators unwittingly condition the apex predators to attack people, according to Southern Cross University researcher Kirin Apps.
Gold Coast Tourism Chairman Paul Donovan said people interested in sharks could visit Sea World.
“I don’t want shark tourism. Let someone else have it,” Mr Donovan said.
“Go to Sea World want to see sharks.”
Whales In Paradise boss Anthony Ardern said his company if you had looked into the viability of swimming or diving with tiger and bull sharks off the coast.
He decided against it because profits were marginal compared to whale watching and the risk of a public backlash would be huge if a swimmer was attacked by a shark. It could damage the reputation of Gold Coast beaches.
“We have investigated it, there are pretty good sightings off the Gold Coast,” Mr Ardern said.
“Tweed Heads would be the best place, the sharks are there – it’s just a niche market.
“The last thing we would want to do is burley up the water for sharks.”
Ms Apps argued fishermen who use burley and bait while fishing offshore could produce the same results and some tour operators don’t use burley.
“All fishing boats use burley in the water but great white sharks don’t hang around,” she said.
“There is too much noise in the data to pinpoint (sharks) hang around.”
In the study published in Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries last month she found only four tourism industries which focus on shark diving in Australia.
These included snorkelling with whale sharks off Ningaloo Reef, cage diving with white sharks off Port Lincoln, South Australia, diving with grey nurse sharks off the east coast and diving reef sharks at Osprey Reef (Queensland). why
She said wildlife tourism was booming globally and specifically shark tourism pumped millions of dollars into local economies.
Adventure Bay Charters’ Matt Waller, one of just three operators in Port Lincoln, said there was a huge demand from people wanting to dive with sharks, with people flying in from around the country. He said if he could set up a business closer to a capital city he would be rolling in cash but it was a controversial attraction.