There has been much controversy regarding the shark cage tours run out of Hawaii on Oahu’s North Shore. There are two main companies, Hawaii Shark Encounters and North Shore Shark Adventures, that have been working to keep their businesses alive while others, including a recently passed House Bill 2583 SD 2, have been working to stop the activities.
The activities are basically tossing chum into the water, throwing in a cage, and allowing tourists to check out the sharks close up, from the cage or the boat. The activity is done about three miles out to sea from the North Shore, Haleiwa Harbor, and is done within the regulations the company operators say.
Those regulations prohibit, both by state and federal law, people from feeding sharks. However, the laws allow you to feed sharks as par of a research program that is funded by appropriate funds. And, as you would imagine, the tour operators say they are conducting research on the matter.
The Star Bulletin quote Carl Meyer of UH as confirming that she is performing studies on the “behavior of sharks attracted by the tours.” So I guess that means when they find out it’s bad they’ll stop?
We’ll keep you posted on whether House Bill 2583 SD 2 makes it through the Senate. The bill would increase the fine for these illegal feeding activities from $500 to $5000. But still, it appears that the companies would be able to continue to feed the sharks for research purposes.
Tags: Hawaii Legislature, Shark Cage Tours
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