Above is a video taken by Ridgefield, Connecticut couple David and Elena Barnes of themselves and their five-year-old daughter Anaia during a vacation with Power Boat Adventures in the Bahamas. In the 9-minute clip, the family snorkels in shallow water with a number of shark breeds (shown being fed by Power Boat employees at the opening of the clip), including mild nurse sharks as well as the more excitable and predatory lemon and Caribbean reef varieties. The video has hit 350,000 views on YouTube and provoked massive amounts of criticism from maritime professionals and parents alike. Before the comments were disabled, the San Franciso Gate’s Mommy Files blog reposted a sample YouTube response from commenter luigib0511:
“I’m an experienced diver who did work for the Oceanic Association scuba diving with sharks and other dangerous fish. What this people have done is an outrage and an extreme stupidity. Swimming with sharks is not a Sea World adventure.”
And on the outraged parents’ front, Ericka Souter, editor of Café Mom parenting website TheStir, gave her two cents in the form of a sound bite when the Barnes’ appeared to defend themselves on Good Morning America: “When you’re an adult, you’re allowed to be as reckless as you want to be, but as parents it’s our job to protect our kids from reckless and dangerous behavior… We’d be having a very different conversation if the little girl had been attacked.”