Friday, November 20, 2009

Not surprised!


Well, as I said Amos never disappoints!

Having finally had the time to go through all of the recent Shark-related blog posts out there, I came across this one by the good guys over at The Dorsal Fin highlighting Amos' newest batch of GW pictures in the British media.

For all the hype, most of it is rather ordinary stuff that could have been equally shot from the safety of a cage.
The one I've posted is likely not even from this year's stunt and not by Amos, but from 2008 and by Jeb Corliss - and I may add, I'm far from being surprised by the "confusion" about its authorship.
La volpe cambia il pelo ma non il vizio, as we say where I grew up.

Nor am I frankly surprised that the above link (to an unfortunate article, and shame on DPG for having aided and abetted the marketing of this stupidity) more than amply proves that this was not some spontaneous last-minute decision, but very much premeditated.

Anyway, I'm not about to re-kindle the controversy as 63 comments on my last post are more than sufficient to shed more than ample light on the matter. Incidentally, having met one of the fearless clients, I understand that everything was meticulously planned and impeccably executed - which is good but not the point, and he hopefully now understands where I am coming from.
In any event, we managed to be friendly and to shake hands: Friede Freude Eierkuchen!

What of course remains is the mess.
Obviously, nobody realistically expects Amos and his pet "research" travel shop to kill the newly hatched goose. Plus, want it or not, the goal posts have been irrevocably moved and the Guadalupe operators will undoubtedly be faced with a deluge of groupies wanting to emulate, and even one-up the heroic feat. Having talked to some operators, they are all adamantly opposed to the unnecessary and very much unwanted escalation - but Club Cantamar may not want to play and in view of the treacherous political climate, it may be unwise to confront the Mexican authorities with the fact that the Shark diving operators are not able, or willing, to self regulate.

Thankfully, the GW season is drawing to an end, meaning that all concerned have 8 months to try and sort things out. It will be interesting to see if they can finally come up with a firm set of universally agreed upon protocols and above all, with a mechanism for enforcing them and for punishing any transgressions.

Because, Amos or no Amos, somebody will try pushing the envelope again - and that, you can take to the bank.

2 comments:

Umpire Randall said...

As someone who has an active interest in marine conservation, I find this whole situation astounding.

After reading all 63 comments in the other thread, it seems some people will continue to ignore the facts.

It is not about whether cageless diving is incredibly dangerous or not, but rather the consequences of a "visionary" doing so in an illegal fashion and a sensationalist manner, to the detriment of shark conservation overall.

So often, people are so consumed by there own self importance they fail to see the bigger picture.

At the end of the day, I am pessimistic that people will be able to transcend short term gain for long term sustainabilty.

I'm seeing it where I live and now on the Galápagos where I am studying (shark fins much?).

I have no idea whether Amos is genuine when he expresses his shark conservation message, but his actions speak otherwise, unless he is completely naive to the consequences.

DaShark said...

Amen