Shark cage diving is

underwater diving Underwater diving, as a human activity, is the practice of descending below the water's surface to interact with the environment. It is also often referred to as diving, an ambiguous term with several possible meanings, depending on contex ...

snorkeling Snorkeling ( British and Commonwealth English spelling: snorkelling) is the practice of swimming on or through a body of water while equipped with a diving mask, a shaped breathing tube called a snorkel, and usually swimfins. In cooler waters ...

where the observer remains inside a protective cage designed to prevent sharks from making contact with the divers. Shark cage diving is used for scientific observation, underwater cinematography, and as a tourist activity. Sharks may be attracted to the vicinity of the cage by the use of bait, in a procedure known as ''chumming'', which has attracted some controversy as it is claimed to potentially alter the natural behaviour of sharks in the vicinity of swimmers. Similar cages are also used purely as a protective measure for divers working in waters where potentially dangerous shark species are known to be present. In this application the shark-proof cage may be used as a refuge, or as a diving stage during descent and ascent, particularly during staged decompression where the divers may be vulnerable while constrained to a specific depth in mid-water for several minutes. In other applications a mobile cage may be carried by the diver while harvesting organisms such as abalone.

Shark-proof cage

A shark-proof cage is a metal

cage A cage is an enclosure often made of mesh, bars, or wires, used to confine, contain or protect something or someone. A cage can serve many purposes, including keeping an animal or person in captivity, capturing an animal or person, and displayin ...

used by an

underwater diver Underwater diving, as a human activity, is the practice of descending below the water's surface to interact with the environment. It is also often referred to as diving, an ambiguous term with several possible meanings, depending on context ...

to observe dangerous types of

shark Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachi ...

s up close in relative safety. This can include various

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of shark, but the most commonly observed within the confines of a cage are the

great white shark The great white shark (''Carcharodon carcharias''), also known as the white shark, white pointer, or simply great white, is a species of large Lamniformes, mackerel shark which can be found in the coastal surface waters of all the major ocean ...

and the

bull shark The bull shark (''Carcharhinus leucas''), also known as the Zambezi shark (informally zambi) in Africa and Lake Nicaragua shark in Nicaragua, is a species of requiem shark commonly found worldwide in warm, shallow waters along coasts and in ri ...

, which are both known to be aggressive at times. Shark-proof cages are built to withstand being rammed and bitten by sharks, and are intended to protect the user from potential injury. Cages can provide a visual and tactile deterrent to sharks. Cage-diving allows people to closely monitor sharks for scientific, commercial or recreational purposes, and sometimes interact with them. The shark-proof cage is also used in the controversial exercise of shark baiting, where tourists are lowered in a cage while the tour guides bait the water to attract sharks or stimulate certain behavior."Maui not biting on toxic shark feeder bait"
Cyber Diver News Network. July 10, 2009

Early development

Shark cages were first developed by Jacques Cousteau. Cousteau used a shark cage during the production of ''

The Silent World ''The Silent World'' (french: Le Monde du silence) is a 1956 French documentary film co-directed by Jacques Cousteau and Louis Malle. One of the first films to use underwater cinematography to show the ocean depths in color, its title derives f ...

'' which was released in 1956. Rodney Fox developed his own shark cage in the 1960s. Fox's first design was inspired by a visit to a zoo he made after surviving a near-fatal shark attack in 1963. Later designs were refined further and put to use by documentary filmmakers and abalone fishers who sought personal protection from great white sharks. Peter Gimbel was one filmmaker involved in the design of a shark-proof cage which was used during the production of '' Blue water, white death'' (1971).

Self propelled version

On September 4, 1979, US

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

number 4166462 was issued for a self-propelled shark-proof cage;"Patent 4166462"
www.patentstorm.us being designed to allow abalone divers to collect abalone without becoming vulnerable to attack. Thanks to the propulsion system, abalone divers would exert themselves less and, therefore, be able to collect their prey for longer periods of time. The patent abstract details a self-propelled cage with at least one access opening and a mounting frame that carries both an air motor and a propeller. Buoyant material is attached to the frame so that the cage may be made neutrally buoyant. This patent expired on September 4, 1996.

Shark cage diving tourism

During the 2000s, shark cage diving become increasingly popular as a tourist activity. In South Australia, tourists are taken by boat from

Port Lincoln Port Lincoln is a town on the Lower Eyre Peninsula in the Australian state of South Australia. It is situated on the shore of Boston Bay, which opens eastward into Spencer Gulf. It is the largest city in the West Coast region, and is located a ...

to the

Neptune Islands The Neptune Islands consist of two groups of islands located close to the entrance to Spencer Gulf in South Australia. They are well known as a venue for great white shark tourism. Description The Neptune Islands consists of two groups of is ...

in southern Spencer Gulf where they view great white sharks either from a cage tethered to the back of a boat near the surface, or from a cage lowered to the seabed. The government considers the activity to be one of South Australia's “iconic nature-based tourism experiences” which supports 70 jobs and contributes over $11 million to the state's economy. Shark cage diving is popular in the

Guadalupe Island Biosphere Reserve The Guadalupe Island Biosphere Reserve, (Reserva de la Biosfera Isla Guadalupe in Spanish), is located in the Pacific Ocean and is part of Baja California state of Mexico. The Reserve consists of Guadalupe Island and several small islands nearby ...

in the Pacific Ocean off

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

Shark baiting

Shark baiting is a procedure where the water is baited by ''chumming'' with fish or other materials attractive to sharks. Tourists remain inside a shark-proof cage while tour guides bait the waters to attract sharks for the tourists to observe. There have been claims that this could lead to potentially aggressive behavior by the shark population. Some conservation groups, scuba divers, and underwater photographers consider the practice undesirable and potentially dangerous. In South Australia, abalone divers have been attacked by great white sharks, and divers believe that great white shark cage diving tourism has altered shark behavior including making them more inclined to approach boats. At least one abalone diver, Peter Stephenson has called for a ban on shark-cage diving and described it as a "major workplace safety issue”. The government of South Australia claims that there is "no scientific evidence" to suggest that the general public is at elevated risk of shark attack as a result of shark cage tourism. Opponents of the cage-diving industry, such as shark-survivor Craig Bovim, who was reportedly bitten by a

ragged-tooth shark The sand tiger shark (''Carcharias taurus''), gray nurse shark, spotted ragged-tooth shark or blue-nurse sand tiger, is a species of shark that inhabits subtropical and temperate waters worldwide. It inhabits the continental shelf, from sandy sh ...

(a species not targeted by cage diving operators in the region, and not generally considered a hazard to divers) while snorkeling for lobster at Scarborough, on the other side of the Cape Peninsula from Seal Island, where the shark cage boats operate, believe that the repeated chumming used to lure sharks to tourist cages may alter sharks' behaviour. "Stop Shark Cage Diving Say South Africa Shark Attack Victims"
Cyber Diver News Network Bovim's opponents, such as marine environmentalist

Wilfred Chivell Wilfred may refer to: * Wilfred (given name), a given name and list of people (and fictional characters) with the name * Wilfred, Indiana, an unincorporated community in the United States * ''Wilfred'' (Australian TV series), a comedy series * ...

, contend that there is no demonstrated correlation between shark-baiting and shark attacks against humans. However, there is evidence that the baiting of sharks for tourism does alter the patterns of movement of Great White Sharks.

Shark cage diving incidents

In 2005, a British tourist, Mark Currie, was exposed to a high risk of injury or death when a

bit through the bars of a shark cage being used during a recreational shark dive off the coast of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. The shark circled the boat several times, and began to attack the side of the cage, then started to crush and bite through. The captain attempted to free the cage by trying to distract the shark. He did this by hitting it on the head with an iron pole. The shark bit into one of the buoys at the top of the cage, which caused the cage to begin sinking. Currie quickly swam out of the top of the cage and was pulled to safety by the boat's captain, who fended off the shark with blows to its head. In 2007, a commercial shark cage was destroyed off the coast of

Guadalupe Island Guadalupe Island ( es, Isla Guadalupe, link=no) is a volcanic island located off the western coast of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula and about southwest of the city of Ensenada in the state of Baja California, in the Pacific Ocean. The ...

after a great white shark became entangled and tore the cage apart in a frantic effort to free itself. Tourists captured video of the incident, which quickly spread throughout the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

. On April 13, 2008, there was a fatal shark cage diving capsize that occurred off the coast of Gansbaai, South Africa where three tourists lost their lives - Two Americans and one Norwegian. The cage diving vessel was anchored near the Geldsteen Reef and engaged in shark cage diving viewing activities when the vessel was capsized by a large 6+ meter wave. Three tourists were trapped underneath the capsized hull for more than forty minutes before it was realized that passengers were missing and still unaccounted for. It was shown during the 2014 Western Cape High Court Trial in Cape Town, South Africa that the wave that capsized the vessel was not a freak wave, and simply a larger wave in a 4+ meter rolling swell. There were other breaking waves shown in photos and videos which ultimately put all passengers at risk. The 2014 Trial Judge ruled that the skipper, dive operators and boat owners were found guilty on more than thirty charges of negligence. This incident was only incidentally associated with shark cage diving as neither sharks nor the cage were directly involved. Another incident reported in 2016 occurred off the coast of Mexico, when a shark that lunged for the bait broke into the cage and the diver was able to escape uninjured.

References

{{reflist , refs= {{Cite web, url=http://www.doc.govt.nz/Documents/conservation/marine-and-coastal/shark-cage-diving/csiro-report.pdf, title=A review of cage diving impacts on white shark behaviour and recommendations for research and the industry's management in New Zealand., last=Bruce, first=Barry, date=Nov 2015, publisher=CSIRO Marine & Atmospheric Research, access-date=14 October 2016 {{cite web, url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93WiSq9TIoM , archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/93WiSq9TIoM , archive-date=2021-12-21 , url-status=live, title=Great White Shark Cage Breach Accident, last=Gabe and Garrett, date=13 October 2016, via=YouTube{{cbignore {{cite news, work=The Guardian , url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/mar/25/travelnews.travel1 , title=It was a real thrill, says tourist nearly eaten by 18ft great white shark, date=25 March 2005 , first=Sam , last=Jones , access-date=26 March 2018 {{cite web, url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/bathing-banned-after-cape-town-shark-attack-1.1110663, title=Bathing banned after Cape Town shark attack , publisher=The Irish Times , date=31 December 2002 , access-date=25 March 2018 {{cite web, last=Zenato , first=Christina , author-link=Cristina Zenato , title=Shark Diving, Shark Feeding, and Common Sense., publisher=WildAid, website=Shark Savers , url=http://www.sharksavers.org/en/blogs-news/community-voice/shark-diving-shark-feeding-and-common-sense/, date=18 May 2012, access-date=26 March 2018 Shark attack prevention Diving equipment Sharks Safety equipment