Shark Conservationist Strips Naked to Campaign Against Shark Culling

South African award winning ocean conservationist, Lesley Rochat, has stripped naked to campaign against shark culling. In response to the use of baited drumlines in Western Australia and South Africa, a controversial program to protect bathers from sharks, Rochat has decided to dangle naked on a giant hook in the Indian Ocean off South Africa’s Kwa-Zulu Natal coastline while surrounded by sharks.

Rochat maintains that “people from all over the world come to see our sharks and the loss of large sharks such as the tiger shark is having sever negative impacts on the shark eco-tourism business in Kwa-Zulu Natal…Through the campaign we’re raising public awareness and lobbying against the use of drumlines and shark nets in South Africa, and in Australia.”

Sharks though are not viewed by the public in a favorable light and are often ‘demonized’ as monsters in the media. Most people are more inclined to be drawn by pop culture media that glorifies human (especially female) beauty rather than deep environmental issues. This is why Rochat believes in “using the very mediums and channels that dominate society, and via powerful imagery to promote a connection between humans and animals”. Rochat, a former underwear and swimwear model who once declined an offer to pose on the cover of Playboy magazine because nudity just for men’s pleasure “was meaningless to me”, believes that by taking her clothes off in this case is very different. “It’s about fighting to save lives, the lives of sharks and other innocent marine life. I’ve joined women throughout history that have gone naked to make compelling statements for various causes.”

Walter Bernardis, owner of African Watersports operating shark diving excursions to the famous dive site of Aliwal Shoal just south of Durban and was the creative director of the campaign explains: “It’s very difficult to portray a shark as an animal that needs saving given what they look like and the negative perception people have of them. So by putting something beautiful in the hook we aim to attract attention to the fact that sharks are also beautiful animals that deserve our protection.”

The drumlines, a float with a phalanx of baited hooks, are placed opposite popular bathing beaches in an effort to protect the bathers from shark attack even though less than 10 people globally are killed annually by sharks. Over 600 sharks and hundreds of other marine life, including dolphins and whales are caught by drumlines every year in Kwa-Zulu Natal alone, while up to 100 million sharks worldwide are slaughtered annually. “Who is the real monster?” asks Rochat commenting on the above statistics.

The campaign’s photo-shoot was quite a challenge for Rochat, not because of the sharks swimming around her but by trying to position herself on a hook without mask or fins while holding her breath long enough for the photographer to get the money shot for the campaign poster. “The 30 or so sharks that surrounded me were of no concern,” admitted Rochat, “in fact we needed them to be close to me and in the shots so I welcomed them.”

The behind the scenes photo shoot [watch video here] with Rochat spending an hour in the ocean with the sharks has highlighted the fact that sharks are not the dangerous man-eaters that most portray them to be, and that drumlines and other ‘shark-repellant’ devices are irrelevant when it comes to human safety. The South African government spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on a shark culling scheme because of a fear of an animal that kills less humans each year than most everyday household appliances like hairdryers and toasters, especially when the money ought to go to the preservation and conservation of sharks instead.

Rochat concludes: “Our sharks play a vital role in maintaining the delicate balance of the marine ecosystems, and our oceans denuded of them will have severe repercussions on all of humanity. In simple terms, when our sharks die our oceans die, and when our oceans die, we die. We therefore need our sharks alive, every single one of them.”