Shark diving proposed in Saipan
An ocean scientist and conservationist says a shark diving industry in Saipan could see the Northern Marianas reap millions of dollars in economic benefits.
Transcript
Photo: Don Silcock / Cultura Creative
An ocean scientist and conservationist says a shark diving industry in Saipan could see the Northern Marianas reap millions of dollars in economic benefits.
Rick MacPherson, who is the founder of an online tool, Sustainable Shark Diving, says he has seen the benefits of shark eco-tourism in countries like Palau and Fiji.
He says shark diving, when done safely and sustainably, is becoming more popular and lucrative - and is encouraging nations with numerous shark species to get on board.
RICK MACPHERSON: Numbers have been crunched around the world to look at the contribution that shark-diving has to the economy and the numbers are not trivial. We look at Palau, Palau is an 18 million dollar a year industry for shark diving, and these are U.S. dollars. Fiji, where I am right now, shark-dive tourism is a 42.2. million dollar a year industry and dive operators around the world that are interested in sharks and interested in getting involved in this are beginning to look at how to launch a business around exclusively shark-diving and I think that's good news for both the shark-dive industry as well as for sharks. Because sharks globally are threatened.
MARY BAINES: How could we see this industry set up in Saipan and what would be the steps to do that?
RM: It's recognising that sharks have value beyond just the fins and the meat and that becomes in many situations a conversation with local people. This is not something that can just be hoisted on a destination. It's something that local people should be aware of and in support of in order for a business to be successful. So I think the steps for a new destination considering this, like Saipan, is the recognition of the role that healthy sharks play to the environment, to food security, the coral reef health, that there is a sustainable industry that's possible through shark-dive tourism in Saipan and it's doing the scoping and doing the ground-trooping of what sharks are there? are divers able to see sharks reliably without aggregating them through say, a feeding shark-dive? Those are all considerations that any shark-dive business needs to be able to look at. And I think some of those conversations have already started and I think it'll be interesting to see how this evolves.
MB: You spoke about the economic benefits for other islands, what would you expect the economic benefits for Saipan to be?
RM: Shark diving that is operated by a dive operator, they're making revenue from the client, from the diver, but then there are all of the trickle down and related economic benefits to the services that are helping to support that diver coming to Saipan. There are a lot of economic benefits that can be realised.
