Swimming With Sharks

Shark Tourism Is A Booming Industry, Bob Simon Reports.

(CBS)  It actually isn't quite as frightening as you might think. That could be because the great white is such a magnificent creature that you feel more wonder than fear.

"I've got to say, the closer it comes, the more awesome it becomes. It swims with unbelievable grace considering it's such a big fish!" Simon remarked.

Then, suddenly and quietly, a seal came by and got into Simon's cage.

Simon says he'll never know whether it was trying to escape the shark, or if it just liked him.

"He's looking right at me. Is this something I should worry about?" Simon asked.

"Don't touch the seal!" 60 Minutes producer Michael Gavshon warned.

When the movie "Jaws" came out 30 years ago now, it had such an impact that a lot of people stopped going to the beaches because they were so scared of sharks. Think about what has changed. Now, shark tourism has become big business. A lot of people are spending a lot of money to sit underwater in a cage and hope to get a good look at a shark.

But shark tourism has its critics. Surfers here are convinced that shark attacks are on the rise because tour operators attract sharks with bait and fish blood, known as "chum," to make sure their clients get what they paid for.

"When you go cage diving here, you don’t necessarily put yourself at risk as a tourist, but you might be putting the local inhabitants at risk," says Craig Bovim, a local inhabitant and a surfer.

Bovim leads a group of concerned citizens who believe that chum makes sharks associate people with food. He thinks that may be why a shark attacked him several years ago.

He remembers it every time he looks at his hands. "I can't describe the fear that went through me then," he says. "It's everybody’s worst nightmare and it was happening to me."

Bovim was diving for crayfish when a great white shark came up beside him, disappeared, and then returned.

"All I saw was this fin coming towards me at speed and he clamped down hard on both my forearms with a crunching sound. And then his body landed on me. I knew I'd been eaten, or bitten," Bovim remembers. "Well, I don't know if he was going, trying to swallow me."

But the shark wasn't letting go of Bovim. "I was stuck. And…I knew I was going to die," he remembers.

"So I reacted a bit and I pulled as hard as I could with my right arm and it seemed to… All that came out appeared to be the stump of my forearm because I looked down and I just saw the gushing stump, arteries exposed and bones and all sorts, and I thought I had left my hand inside his stomach. I said, I can deal with this. And now for the next one," Bovim recalls.

He eventually managed to pull that hand out, too, and the shark swam away.

Exhausted and losing blood fast, Bovim somehow managed to swim 70 yards to shore. Doctors managed to save not only his life but some use of his hands. Now he devotes himself to campaigning against the way most tour operators conduct their businesses.

Bovim says putting chum or bait in the water is domesticating a wild animal. "It's common knowledge: Don't feed wild animals. Why is this the only wild animal you are allowed to feed in Africa, is a great white shark? It's bizarre."

[samanthagreen09]

I would love to "swim" with sharks. The only problem I would have with it is the great white shark. I would never get in the water with those things even if I was in a shark cage. They are big and really powerful fish. I'm sure if they wanted to, they could break through those shark cages.

[sharkprotect]

The first line of this article: "There may be no single fear as intense....as the fear of meeting up with a shark", is pure nonsense. I have been in the water with tiger sharks, bull sharks, lemon sharks and all kinds of reef sharks. I have never been threatened by a single one of them. Another thing that does not make sense is the Chinese assertion that eating shark fin soup is part of their culture and tradition. That soup used to be served to emperors and high nobility in the old days. Why would the communists in China suddenly express a desire to maintain the traditions of the same people who they slaughtered by the thousands during their revolution? Is it because they are now also enjoying wealth and want to live like nobility? It does not make any sense to me.

[sharksmatter]

Killing sharks for shark fin soup is another example of man''s inhumanity to lifeforms other than their own. If people aren''t destroying the environment, they are destroying land and sea creatures. Sharks are vulnerable to overfishing and people should respect their lives.

[ckfire]

I was absolutely sick to my stomach watching a shark get his fins cut off and left to drown. It is barbaric! How can we help to end this horrible human practice?

[daisey22]

I totally agree with you. They are so elusive about mating, giving birth, yet they are slaughterd wholesale. Sooner or later they will run out. The natural order of things in the ocean will be changed irrrevocably. It is so sad to spectate what man's inhumanity really lies beneath

[sofladiver]

This was a wonderful story. Please provide more information about the film clip/public service announcement that was broadcast during the story (with the evil toaster floating menacingly in the ocean) -- where can we find the producer so that we can ask our local stations to carry it? Also, check out www.sharks.org for more information about shark conservation and the real story about white sharks.

[sharkpix]

The ads were a project of the Save our Seas Foundation called "Rethink the Shark." Lesley Rochat helped create the campaign.

[fayettenash]

Thank you, Our family love''s the ocean and are facinated by sharks. My oldest son Bodie who is only 3 1/2 has an obsession with sharks. Whale Sharks, Great White, Thresher Shark, and Mako Sharks. They are either killed for sport fishing or fin soup. You see horrific video''s on YouTube of these beautiful creature''s being slaughtered. Thank You again for raising the awarness and trying to help make a diffrence.
Adrienne, Dave,
Bodie, Luke and Quinn Nash

[laurab51]

Can anyone tell me where to find more information on Mr. Bovim''s organized group to deter shark feeding tourism?

thank you