So - Would you?

MikeFairbanks wrote in post #14854023
Leave the darn things alone.

What's next, remote-control mouse in a field so you can tease the hawks and get a good photo?

I agree with Mike. I am very much against baiting wildlife for the sake of a photograph or video.

Unfortunately I have seen photographers put a dead mouse on a string and pull it to try and get some Great Gray Owls to pounce on them. Several years ago while I was living in Montreal we had the pleasure of several hundred of these owls descend on an island just off of Montreal. These usually stay much further north but their primary diet of Voles had pretty much disappeared there but the island of Ile Bizzard seemed to have a good supply. These birds don't even know what a human is and you could literally walk up and be within a couple of feet from it. I even saw people (not necessarily photographers) reach out and try to touch them, you could get that close to them. It was winter time but we still had photographers from all over North America descend on this area. The area pet stores quit selling mice (live or dead) unless they knew you because there were too many people baiting the birds and then they weren't even getting the treat at the end. I don't see any difference between this and what they are doing with the sharks.

I'm certainly not against taking risks to get a photograph and I wouldn't have any issues riding a platform as long as I felt it was safe. I have no illusions about the fact that baiting for the purpose of getting a picture is going to change in my lifetime. I only hope that they do this so far off shore that the animals won't follow them back to populated areas/beaches. I spend a few months each winter in Hawaii and while attacks by sharks there are few and far between there are more sightings closer to shore than I have seen in quite awhile. I know that there are new companies there that offer the shark cage experience and go only about 10 miles off shore. Many attribute the presence of these sharks to those. I don't have an issue with universities and such using bait to do their scientific research. That has a meaningful purpose.

It would take longer to get me OFF that thing that on it

While also in agreement with Mike and SSIM, I would love the opportunity to see nature in action. I once saw a mountain lion take down a deer while on a mountain bike ride. It happened no more than 20 feet from me. I'll never forget it and would like to see it again. Artificially setting up such a scene is wrong IMO.

Provided the platform wasn't seal shaped, I'd get on it and forget about the camera while drooling in awe watching an apex predator.

At the same time, I think it's wrong to be screwing around with nature too much. I guess I'm conflicted.

I didn't even think of the fact that this is baiting. I watched some of the episodes today and it was all presented as scientific study, but they were really trying to get the Australian sharks to jump like the South African sharks for better video and better television and better ratings and a better chance at making more of this same kind of show in the future. I wouldn't go and now I agree that no one really should.

I may be just too conservative (it comes with age), but I'd rather a shark eat my camera than my leg. I would have used a remote.

I don't think I understand...

There is a boat, then a platform, then the fake seal after that?

If that's the case, I'd be on the boat with a telephoto. I wouldn't be near it in the water - what if the shark missed and hit you? :P