Wildlife tourism is a growing industry – and a powerful tool for education and conservation. By allowing people to connect with nature in ways that can foster a deep appreciation for protecting it, the experiences are numerous. Observing the “Big Five” (lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo, and rhinoceros) in national parks. Visiting the snowy tundra to see polar bears. Catching whales breach from a boat. And jumping into a cage to get up close with one of the ocean’s most feared and misunderstood predators: white sharks.
However, wildlife tourism also raises questions about the impact on the animals themselves. Specifically, there are concerns that cage-diving may condition white sharks to associate boats with food, potentially increasing the risk of negative interactions between sharks and humans. To explore these concerns, a team of researchers conducted a study tracking the fine-scale movements of 73 white sharks near cage-diving boats at Neptune Islands, Australia, from 2018 to 2022.
The goal? To determine whether these sharks were becoming conditioned to associate boats with food and whether this association might last beyond their stay at the tourism site. To understand how white sharks behave around cage-diving boats, acoustic transmitters were attached to sharks using a modified spear gun. To avoid biases in estimating residency, such as the tendency of sharks to stay in the Neptune Islands area or seasonal variations (e.g., the presence of long-nosed fur seals, Arctocephalus forsteri), the team tagged sharks randomly throughout the monitoring period. Observation of cage-diving activities has been required since 2012, with operators recording details such as arrival and departure times, anchoring locations, and the number of sharks sighted using a mobile phone application. Between November 16, 2018, and July 25, 2022, 1,714 cage-diving events were recorded at the Neptune Islands.
Located off the coast of South Australia, the Neptune Islands are a renowned marine sanctuary famous for their thriving population of great white sharks. Comprising North and South Neptune Islands, it is one of the few places in the world where cage diving with great white sharks is permitted, offering a unique opportunity to interact with these apex predators in their natural habitat. The study revealed that white sharks spent progressively less time near the cage-diving boats as their stay at the tourism site continued; this trend was consistent regardless of the shark’s size, sex, or the specific year of observation. What does that mean? Well, that this gradual reduction in time spent near the boats means sharks most likely do not form long-term associations with these vessels. Instead, they seem to lose interest as the novelty of the stimuli used to attract them (aka the bait) wears off. This phenomenon is known as ‘habituation,’ where an animal’s response to a stimulus decreases over time with repeated exposure.
Interestingly, however, this habituation did not appear to be permanent. Each time the sharks returned to Neptune Islands after a period away, their behavior went through a sort of reset as their initial time spent near the boats was similar to their first exposure. This pattern indicates that the sharks do not retain a long-term memory of their interactions with the boats… and do not develop a lasting association between boats and food.
These findings are significant for several reasons.
First, the results suggest that the concerns about sharks becoming conditioned to associate boats with food — and the potential dangers that might arise from this — may be overemphasized, at least in the context of current cage-diving practices. The study also shows how the effective existing management strategies are, such as limiting the number of days cage-diving operations can occur, controlling the amount of bait used, and reducing the amount of bait that sharks consume. The team believe that the current measures help mitigate the risk of sharks developing a strong and potentially dangerous association with boats. By ensuring that wildlife tourism is conducted in a way that minimizes its impact on the animals, the public can continue to benefit from the educational and economic opportunities it provides without compromising conservation goals. In the case of these iconic predators, it means continuing to refine and enforce regulations while also ensuring their natural behaviors remain intact.
As wildlife tourism continues to grow, the team argues that similar approaches can be applied to other species and contexts. By closely monitoring how animals respond to human interactions and adjusting practices accordingly, it is possible to strike a balance that benefits both wildlife and the people who seek to experience it.
