The International Cherry Blossom Festival is an annual festival located in Macon, GA with the claimed goal 'to enhance the quality of life and community fellowship of residents through the encouragement of development, recreational and social activities.'
There were plans for this years festival to include a 'Haai Shark Encounter', a traveling shark show that forces nurse sharks into tiny tanks and allows large crowds of people to poke and prod them.
The Haai Shark Encounter claims this to be an educational experience, however, this is far from the natural habitat for the nurse sharks that are consistently kept under extreme stress while traveling and during the shows. This results in unnatural behavior and therefore completely noneducational.
In their natural habitat, nurse sharks remain hidden during the day under submerged ledges and stay in large groups for protection with very little hierarchy.
Nurse sharks pose a very low threat to humans with no documented fatal attacks in history. They are rather slow swimmers which makes them easy to catch.
After word spread regarding the Festival's planned shark 'encounter', they started to receive public push-back.
Thanks to those who took the time to stand against this inhumane and unnecessary exploitation, the International Cherry Blossom Festival announced their decision to cancel the Haai Shark Encounter.
Click here to send a Thank You Note to Thomas Wicker, President and CEO of the International Cherry Blossom Festival for taking the public's perspective into account and making this humane decision.
