TV personality and conservationist Luke Tipple teamed up with Daymond John to pitch the sharks from ABC’s Shark Tank on an effort to fund the Bahamas Shark Sanctuary. Together they won $50,000. Photo: Instagram/Daymond John
It’s no secret: few people tend to associate the word conservation with making money. Too often, profitability is seen as a major drawback to conservation. And those who hope to change the world for good face an uphill battle at the intersection of capitalism and conservation.
Last night, Shark Tank Meets Shark Week (a special pairing the investors from ABC’s hit show with real-life sharks) sought to change that. Dedicated to advertising and funding shark conservation and research efforts across the globe, this crossover featured celebrity entrepreneurs swimming out of their comfort zone and into an actual shark tank. As they saw firsthand where their money might travel, every business shark admitted that their experience were priceless.
After pitching his fellow shark’s on their behalf, Daymond John won $50,000 for the Bahamas Shark Sanctuary, created in 2011. It was a single word that John used to make his fellow sharks bite: tourism.
John’s pitch to fund the Bahamas Shark Sanctuary does much more than associate profit with saving sharks. It lays a blueprint for a multi-million dollar eco-tourism industry.
In order to understand the finer points of John’s pitch, I chatted with the marine-biologist-turned-TV-personality Luke Tipple. Tipple represents the Bahamas National Trust and coached Daymond John to take home $50,000 for the Bahamas Shark Sanctuary. As Tipple later revealed, the original $50,000 has since grown to $250,000 (the show is obviously tape delayed).
Tipple will continue his role in shark conservation by exchanging his wetsuit for a business suit, as he’ll now take on the (literally) dry job of consulting–helping to manage the enormous donation given to the Bahamas National Trust.
Most capitalists fear the regulation of industry clashes with the ambitions of environmentalism. In this case, the industry being disrupted is shark finning; which is estimated to have a global net worth upwards of $500 million. Tipple contends that while the shark finning industry may be large, “shark experience tours” are themselves eco-tourism goldmines.
“The truth is living sharks are more valuable than dead sharks,” Tipple told me.
His ambition is to end a wasteful practice that environmentalists argue is cruel. Living sharks, Tipple argues, are much more beneficial to ecosystems and make long-term fiscal sense.
The marketing has already launched for shark diving tours: Shark Week even featured Bachelor host, Chris Harrison, in an advertisement for a Bahamian shark diving tour as the “ideal first date.”
The marine biologist admits that the “shark experience” tourist attraction in the Bahamas is in no way a world’s first. Still, too many global shark tours don’t follow proper risk-mitigation practices. A case in point would be the controversial, Florida-based Jim Abernathy Scuba Operations (JASA) that has experienced two fatalities in the past decade during shark dives. The shark feeding tour at JASA continues to operate unaffected simply because there is no consequence for the shark-encounter outfitters who do not follow proper protocols.
“We’re planning to use a sustainable, proven financial model that’s already working…and we’ve really had the Oprah Effect,” said Tipple, chuckling.
His hope is to hold other dive operators accountable to a set of standards to regulate human-shark interactions that occur through shark diving tours. These standards would include practices such as incorporating chain mail and eliminating “chumming” to preserve the safety of both species in the water. This code would be enforced through a permitting system, and the failure to comply would result in a revoked permit and the inability to continue operating as a business.
“By enforcing this code of conduct, we would be making the consequence financial for businesses risking safety for a profit.”
The ability to confiscate the permit can further regulate the already booming eco-tourism industry of shark diving. Tours would be monitored in an unprecedented way that safely allows adventurous spirits to enjoy the thrill of swimming with the ocean’s apex predator.
By providing a financially sound model that furthers conservation efforts, Luke Tipple is no longer fighting an uphill battle. Rather he is marrying two completely different schools of thought to implement a sustainable practice. And he’s proving that these animals are worth much more alive.
