Quirky News
Parents let girl, 5, swim with sharks
Two parents have been branded irresponsible after letting their five-year-old daughter swim with sharks.
David and Elana Barnes, from Connecticut, allowed daughter Anaia to with reef, lemon and nurse sharks during a holiday in the Bahamas.
A video of the 'adventure' sparked outrage after it was uploaded to video sharing website YouTube where it has been viewed nearly 200,000 times.
The couple say they were fully aware of the risks and were satisfied that Anaia was safe during the activity.
"At no point did I feel like this was dangerous," Mrs Barnes said during an appearing on Good Morning America.
Mr Barnes added: "There's just always risk assessments in life every day. I'm more concerned that they don't put seatbelts in school buses."
Nurse sharks and lemon sharks are not considered to be aggressive toward humans, but reef sharks are more of a threat.
Writing in the video's description, Mrs Barnes enthused that swimming with the beasts was worth putting "on your bucket list".
what do you think?
Stuart Harley
why let ana risk her life.....stupid !!!!!!!!
Kevin Jennings
What's the big deal? They were right there with her...
Ann Bond
whats the big deal we all go swimming and no one knows if there is a shark in the vacinity, remember one other thing she is learning to respect sea life, also there was several other people swimming with them. As a diver i say good for the parents, if we all took a leason from them our children would grow up learning to respect all sea life and not kill anything for the sake of killing. The way we are going there wont be anything left for our future generations to see either on land or in the sea.
Avril George
how stupid!!!
gemmawh1
Firstly, I have to say I personally wouldn't choose to put my child at any risk but, why these people have uploaded this video to youtube is beyond me. Just to be scrutinised by 200,000 people who think it wrong, why would you???? Secondly, why is everyone so up in arms about how people parent all the time???? We all parent in different ways and we all have an opinion, concentrate on your own lives more and medel less.
Lisa Evans
Because there are stupid parents out there putting their children at risk and then videoing it. Good enough reason to have an issue considering a child needs their parents guidance to protect them from harm. Its good alot of folk felt the need to express their outrage, hopefully making those parents reflect on their decision to let the little girl swim with sharks. Without it, it begs the question what the next? Humans need to understand in the natural world physically we are pretty well down at the bottom end of the food chain and not adapted to get away or protect ourselves from predation especially in the water!
Earl Haase
You post it because you are not ashamed of your parenting decisions. You post it because all the other parents out there who would do the same activity with their children can see. Who cares who doesn't like it. If it weren't for the parents that protect their kids from everything....we wouldn't have computer nerds...... If not for the parents who encourage their kids to be brave and not fear EVERYTHING there is out there, we would not have the tough SOB's we have serving our Military. Each parent raises their child as they see fit, but don't judge them, because while your kid grows up to be a fat lazy computer repair man, those people's daughter will grow up to be in the Navy, protecting your Computer Nerd's freedom.......that's all I'm saying
Earl Haase
I hate to break it to all the concerned parents out there, but the bottom line is, if you let your 5-yr old go swimming at the beach, ANYWHERE in the world....then you are letting them swim with sharks. Sharks are constantly swimming around and under people at the beach, the noise from swimming attracts them, the thing is, people never even notice or see them. Yet they still rarely attack. Don't judge these people because they want their child to embrace life & not fear nature. If you want to raise your children to live scared of everything you go right ahead, that's the reason americans are becoming such pussies. If not for parents like these, encouraging their children to be brave and take risks, we would have no children growing up willing to join our nation's Military, or to be a Coast Guard Rescue Diver, or to do the jobs that you are just too scared to do, because you grew up being babied & guarded.
Roger Caldwell
What is the matter with people the risks are low and the experience is high, its a good job there are parents like these around. Most of the comments from people that disagree with these parents are from ignorance of the real risks when diving/swimming with sharks particularly with these examples of the speciesl.
Adrian Wagstaff
11:19am on 6/7/2012
If those people knew anything whatsoever about shark attacks they would not be standing on the beach. The sharks are only not attacking the fisherman because he keeps feeding them. That doesn't mean they wouldn't attack him. This is one of the most stupid acts of humanity I have ever seen online. They are practically, feeding their girl to sharks, in order to find how how many YouTube views they can get. Does nobody remember what killed Steve Irwin? The animal expert who seemed to think it was safe to pull crocodiles by their tail, swim with sharks, etc? Sharks attack people ON beaches. If that is not an entire beach of IDIOTS then what is? There is no way whatsoever there daughter was safe swimming with sharks.
John Sztucki
12:35pm on 6/7/2012
quite right i nominate them for an a**eholes of the month award
shirley sutton
7:30pm on 6/7/2012
steve irwin wasn't killed by a shark!!!!
Adrian Wagstaff
10:35pm on 6/7/2012
No, he was killed by a manta ray or whatever it was, one type of which is clearly visible swimming with the sharks in this video. Why don't you ask his daughter, Bindi, what she thinks of this video, then? Or her mum?
gemmawh1
8:20pm on 7/7/2012
At the risk of thumbs down, the same goes for dogs Adrian.
Matthew Stoner
8:06pm on 8/7/2012
Ahh Gemma, you still havent answered my question from a few weeks back, on a dog story if I remember........why you hate dogs so much?.......
Earl Haase
7:07pm on 9/7/2012
You my friend, are an idiot. There are ALWAYS sharks in the water at the beach, people just don't see them. So what do you suggest? Never going swimming at the beach? If you knew anything about sharks you would know that attacks are extremely rare compared to the number of opportunities sharks have to attack. Why don't ya watch Shark Week on the discovery channel some time and enlighten your self.