UK Blues: Your Reaction

Yesterday we posted an article by Jeff Goodman about his recent experience of a ‘Blue Shark Diving Day’ off the coast of Cornwall in the UK. The article includes upsetting photos and a video of a blue shark tangled in one of the boat’s lines, and asks whether the experience was, as claimed by the boat’s operators, a scientific endeavour, or just an opportunity to make money out of the tourists on board.

Unsurprisingly we’ve had a huge response from the Scubaverse audience over this article – here’s what some of you had to say:

Richard Shucksmith: To be honest Jeff, that did not really sound like research, it sounded more like a joke and put on for the sake of the punters. There is a guy working off Cornwall where you can swim and photograph blue sharks without hooking them at all and he comes very highly recommended. It would be interesting to know who was doing the research, which institute, where the data was going, what was the research question, etc etc as far as your article goes it makes it sound like a joke and no real research was being undertaken.

Nick Lyon: I was on the boat that day too. Quite apart from the fact that conditions were not conducive to safe diving, what we saw was a bloke going fishing. The sharks were only measured so that the skipper could estimate the weight of his trophy. No tagging took place. No research was conducted. The deck was awash with blood after the sharks were thrown back. It was appalling.

Charles Hood: If anyone is interested I do it differently. No hooks or capture just a special mix of Rubby Dubby:  http://charleshood.com/snorkel-with-blue-sharks

Richard Shucksmith: To be honest Jeff,  you should name and shame all these operations so people stop going with them and go out with people like Charles Hood who undertake working with sharks in an incredibly responsible and professional way while still providing great photographic opportunities. Here is a link to a blog from a good friend and fellow colleague Matt Doggett who went out with Charles Hood last year: http://www.earthinfocus.com/blog/detail.php?id=11

James Gregory: I’m glad you got some good images though I’m not sure good is the right word! I couldn’t watch what was going on underwater hence surfacing and wanting to get out. I was truly shocked to see how those sharks were handled. I just hope that out of all the “publicity” he wanted some good will come of it.

Ryan: “Great write up Jeff, and I agree… unnecessary suffering”

You can read Jeff’s article in full here.