5 Year Old Girl Swimming With Sharks

I must agree. I encourage my kids to try new things, but part of my job as a parent is also to draw the line & prevent them from doing foolish things. Since such a young kid doesn't understand the danger in what she did - her parents must be there for her & tell her it isn't safe. Some parents just treat their children as a way to accomplish things they wanted to do by themselves. I hope this wasn't the case this time.

I cannot believe that the parent allowed their daughter to swim in a shark infested area. Well, it is true that shark are really harmless if you don't mind them. Sharks are not really as terrifying as they are perceived by most. Sharks only bite people when they smell the scent of blood. Unless your bleeding, a shark won't really mind you. I have watched in National Geographic that there are many fishermen that kill sharks just to get their fins. it was a very sad documentary and thousands of sharks die just because of this phenomenon. So, in my opinion, we should stop killing sharks and stop looking at shark at a negative perspective. They CAN be dangerous but are NOT always dangerous.

I tend to agree with you. I feel the parents should not have taken that kind of risk. Even if the sharks were docile, what if they were to act out of character and bite her or even swallow her whole? I feel the parents are a bit irresponsible here. It's not really accepted practice to swim with sharks. It is, however, considered quite normal to swim with dolphins.. but even then you have to be very careful and only do it where the dolphins are known to be friendly. Steve Irwin lost his life by doing what he loved doing. He was careful, yet he had a terrible accident with the ray. I really miss him. I felt he took too many chances as it was, just to make good tv. He always made everything he did look easy and natural.. but he had to be very careful in what he did.

I have a tendency to think the parents took an unnecessary risk. At least with Steve Irwin, he had a passion, for interacting with wild life and he was an adult risking his OWN life. For parents to risk the life of their child I would tend to think... How dare they?