G’day. I’m matt from Adventure Bay Charters and welcome to “Shark Bytes”.
I got asked this question recently from Sillo in Western Australia: “Why is the media reporting so many Sharks close to shore? Is it just a media beat up or is it becoming more frequent? If it is increasing, is it because of scarce food sources and they’ve got to look closer to shore?” To be strict, I’m going to think about it like the fishermen think about it. El Nino means good fishing, it’s a Spanish term. La Nina, meaning feminine, is the opposite – bad fishing. The fishermen refer to these times in their years or in their seasons where there was lots of fish to be had or poor fish to be had. Now Sharks are hunters and I think of it this way, we’ve gone through the last 2 years with a very strong La Nina event, it’s a scientific fact. I’ve also seen the fishermen out here catch small fish and not a lot of them, which means the Sharks who predominantly feed on fish sources, are short on food. They spend more time on beaches chasing salmon. These are our swimming and surfing beaches and they spend more time around islands, such as the Neptune’s where there is a high colony or concentration of mammals. I hope that answers your question, there’s obviously more detail than that. There are probably people more entitled to answer you who are more scientifically minded, of course I’m a tour operator and fisherman and that’s how I see it.
So stay tuned for more “Shark Bytes” and remember the future of the marine environment is in all our hands.
G’day. I’m Matt from Adventure Bay Charters and welcome to ”Shark Bytes”.
We need to educate people about the environment or it could cease to exist – dooms day stuff. More than likely what’s going to happen is it will adapt or change, faster than we can adapt to it. There was a time when we thought the resources of the planet were limitless, there was an unlimited supply of fish, of timber, of minerals and fuel, that’s a real concern; we need to be thinking about how we can deal with that and we need to make changes now. All I’m trying to do is appeal to people to make a few changes it the way that they live and I do that in a fun way by getting them out to enjoy the Sea Lions and enjoy the Tuna. I want them to go away and tell stories of this interesting, life changing experience to their children and their grandchildren so that those people can come to in the future, hopefully what we’ve looked after. I actually also want people to think about my blog next time they throw away a working item for the latest, greatest model or they waste food in laziness or throw in to the garbage what can be recycled. Out here, it’s a beautiful place, it’s an interesting place, it feels good – get out and enjoy it. But be back here, drop us a message for our next edition of Shark Bytes.
So stay tuned for more “Shark Bytes” and remember the future of the marine environment is in all our hands.
Please take a few minutes of your time to fill out this survey. The information is very important to ensure we can continue to offer the tours and products our clients want.
G’day. I’m matt from Adventure Bay Charters and welcome to “Shark Bytes”.
Research may very well, in the future, prove some sort of difference between acoustic attraction and berleying for sharks and it may come up with some definitive results as to which one is better and which one isn’t. The fact is it’s irrelevant – both of these practises attract sharks. We’d like to be involved as a company to do the research but we can’t do that without a licence, we can’t do that without commitment from governments to continue to be able to operate. Without the support of the public, this won’t happen. Shark cage diving is one of the greatest, thrill-seeking, wildlife adventures you can have in your life. The whole point here is that we attract sharks for people to view them, it shouldn’t matter how we do it, as long as it’s best for the sharks welfare, it’s best for the concerns of the local community, in that we look after the animals and have respect for the other people that share this space. Get involved in our survey and let us know what you think, click the link at the bottom of this blog page. As I said yesterday, get in here – you only have a limited opportunity to let us know your opinions and how this should go in the future.
So stay tuned for more “Shark Bytes” and remember the future of the marine environment is in all our hands.
Please take a few minutes of your time to fill out this survey. The information is very important to ensure we can continue to offer the tours and products our clients want.
G’day. I’m Matt from Adventure Bay Charters and welcome to “Shark Bytes”.
It doesn’t really matter what we think about how you attract sharks and if it works or doesn’t work. What’s really important is whatever we do is good for their wellbeing and good for the environment. It’s important that our interaction with Sharks doesn’t change their behaviour and doesn’t ultimately injure the sharks or danger them. If you’re a tuna farm diver that doesn’t like the idea of blood and bait going into the water, if you’re a concerned family member that doesn’t like the idea of sharks associating boats with food and therefore humans with food, if you’re an abalone diver who spends their tome underwater attached to a piece of string affectively looking like a teaser, then get involved, please, by all means, we have a survey that we’re running at the bottom of this window, on our webpage, on our blog page, click on there, take a few seconds of your time – it’s not going to take long, and just put your thoughts down on the page, tick the boxes that are appropriate to how you feel about this and remember, essentially all we’re trying to do is make sure our interaction with these beautiful, majestic animals is improved in the future so they look great, feel great and they feel good about us – not hungry about us.
So stay tuned for more “Shark Bytes” and remember the future of the marine environment is in all our hands.
Please take a few minutes of your time to fill out this survey. The information is very important to ensure we can continue to offer the tours and products our clients want.
G’day. I’m Matt from Adventure Bay Charters and welcome to ”Shark Bytes”.
We’ve had so many people send in this question – Do I think tourism has had an influence on Shark attacks on our beaches? – The fact is, the Barry Bruce report collated in 2011 stated that “berleying, provisioning and baiting of Sharks, has changed their behaviour.” The report showed that the Sharks were appearing half an hour before boats were to rock up at the Neptune Islands, it also showed that the Sharks left an hour afterward and were spending longer residency at the Neptune Islands than ever before. Over the last 10 years, we have impacted the way Sharks behave. This impact has not yet seen a detrimental return on the Sharks but it could be considered dangerous. Is tourism changing the way Sharks behave or creating more attacks on our beaches? I think we’ve also got to look at berleying for fish, fishermen, discharge over the side of our vessels and unless we address everything, we cant just point the finger at one industry. Shark tourism is the greatest opportunity in the world for people to get out onto the water and see a Great White Shark. For an equitable tourism experience, you can’t see Sharks without some sort of attraction. We must be able to go out to the Neptune Islands and bring the Sharks to the boat or people won’t be able to see them.
So stay tuned for more “Shark Bytes” and remember the future of the marine environment is in all our hands.
Please take a few minutes of your time to fill out this survey. The information is very important to ensure we can continue to offer the tours and products our clients want.
G’day. I’m Matt from Adventure Bay Charters and welcome to ”Shark Bytes”.
We won the regional award for sustainability last year. Now there’s a couple of things you need to consider in this. Firstly, as a business it must be economically sustainable. I cannot run a business, as much as I would like to take people out to show them things, I can’t without covering my costs. Secondly, it’s really important that we don’t change the environment. It’s important that when we take people down there, it’s the first time; it feels like the first time, it’s a wildlife experience and that we keep it the same for everybody every time they go there. And thirdly, we need to improve our environmental footprint. The environmental footprint I refer to, are things like; the carbon we create, the natural resources we pull out of the environment – these are the things we need to be responsible for in the future. Believe it or not, these are the things that the new, educated, younger generation of consumers are looking for. They do these things because they know it’s the right thing to do. The choices they make reflect the changes in sustainability. This generation, remember, are responsible for the biggest swing in politics in 50 years – going towards a 20% green vote. They actually want a carbon tax. We as product producers are under a scrutiny like never before; this group of people have the funds and are prepared to pay the premium price for a product that reflects their beliefs and changes about the way the world should be run. At Adventure Bay Charters, sustainable tourism and environmental sustainability are not negotiable.
So stay tuned for more “Shark Bytes” and remember the future of the marine environment is in all our hands.
Please take a few minutes of your time to fill out this survey. The information is very important to ensure we can continue to offer the tours and products our clients want.
G’day. I’m Matt from Adventure Bay Charters and welcome to ”Shark Bytes”.
I care about the marine environment because my family have made a living out of it for 4 generations. We’re acutely aware of the changes as they happen. I’m also aware of what really good management of a fishery can achieve. Is the price of fish honestly reflected as a part of where it comes from? We talk about the price of fish for instance in terms of what the cost of production is. Does it really reflect what thousands or millions of years of evolution really did to create this animal? Does it truly reflect the last 20 to 30 years that it grew? And that sort of reflects how i care about the environment. It’s a bit weird to think that the environment itself or Mother Nature doesn’t get rewarded for all the effort that they put in. Anything that we do to pay that back will be better than what we’ve done in the past. It’s annoying to me to think that we go about our daily lives and don’t consider what the environment produces for us. We cannot continue to consume without regard, we cannot continue to walk without looking where we’re stepping because if we do, continue the way we have, it may not be here in the future.
So stay tuned for more “Shark Bytes” and remember the future of the marine environment is in all our hands.
Please take a few minutes of your time to fill out this survey. The information is very important to ensure we can continue to offer the tours and products our clients want.
G’day. I’m Matt from Adventure Bay Charters and welcome to ”Shark Bytes”.
What does eco certification mean to me? It means about making the right decisions. What it means for the consumer is that you don’t have to ask yourself the hard questions, is it ok to tease a dog, is it ok to bait a lion, is it ok to see a monkey bashing against the cage when you go to the zoo to see it. Eco certification asks the hard question for its businesses and makes sure that we are responsible to our environment and responsible to the world around us. If you choose an eco certified business you are going to be choosing a business that is looking after the environment and ensures that this environment is here for the future.
So stay tuned for more “Shark Bytes” and remember the future of the marine environment is in all our hands.
Please take a few minutes of your time to fill out this survey. The information is very important to ensure we can continue to offer the tours and products our clients want.
G’day. I’m Matt from Adventure Bay Charters and welcome to ”Shark Bytes”.
Question from Nicole in Switzerland – Does berleying and tourism change White Shark behaviour? - I think the best way to answer this question is to refer to the Barry Bruce report, completed in 2011 as part of the Shark cage licensing review; The only change in the last 10 years in Shark cage diving was the introduction of 1 day trips at the North Neptune Island. The volume, regularity of the trips and the way that they interacted with Sharks was essentially very close to showing a training of behaviour. The design, tourism and Shark cage diving takes the Sharks away from what they’re there to do in the first place – the Sharks are there to hunt seals and while we attract them, whether it’s through berley or acoustic, it takes them away from what they’re supposed to be doing. The report states very clearly of what changes need to be made in the future in terms to management of the industry – limiting the amount of berley, bait, provisioning and chum going into the water, because this is essentially what changes the Shark behaviour. There’s a valuable document out there that’s available for the public to read and see and draw their own conclusions and you can see the recommendations from that report. There’s a hyperlink here within the text u can follow – and then you’ll be able to make some of those conclusions for yourself. I can only hope that as an industry, we can then take the next step to doing the best job that we can to continue to show people the White Sharks so that they can enjoy them and that the tourism industry, in the future has a lesser effect or potentially a less bad effect on the change in Shark behaviour.
So stay tuned for more “Shark Bytes” and remember the future of the marine environment is in all our hands.
Please take a few minutes of your time to fill out this survey. The information is very important to ensure we can continue to offer the tours and products our clients want.
G’day. I’m Matt from Adventure Bay Charters and welcome to ”Shark Bytes”.
We’ve been a carbon neutral business now for 5 years. It’s an initiative that was brought to me by my staff, they’re young, it’s important to them. The idea of planting a few trees to improve the environment, it’s not such a bad idea, it’s not a big expense, whether the government brings a carbon tax upon us or we choose to do it ourselves – at the end of the day, we know it’s the right thing to do. If we don’t do the right thing, if we don’t plant trees and look after the environment, there will be no environment for businesses to operate in. What’s more important at the end of the day – a few extra dollars spent on a carbon tax or carbon neutral or planting a few trees? It’s changed our business, its engaged people who come on our boat, it’s got them thinking about how maybe they can make a difference and how they can plant a few more trees and have those in their life. At the end of the day, carbon neutral is a decision we’ve made as a business, it hasn’t cost us a lot of money, and people have bought from us or bought our product because we’re carbon neutral. I’ve had people engaged for hours on end with discussions about what it means and how it can change their business. These small responses make it worthwhile at the end of the day. There’s an audit process that at the end of every year we go through and break down where we can improve and make a better business financially, environmentally, sustainably and for the future.
So stay tuned for more “Shark Bytes” and remember the future of the marine environment is in all our hands.
Please take a few minutes of your time to fill out this survey. The information is very important to ensure we can continue to offer the tours and products our clients want.
08 8682 2979 
