Actually I was not attacking you with anything on this post, I was discussing this with you as your being something of a "resource" on this topic.
And this is the area of discussion that really needs big attention right now. Nearly a decade ago when a tiny sliver of the spearfishing community began vigorously demanding legislation to END shark feeding by dive operators, this was driven by their contention that sharks would associate humans with food, given the interaction and frequency of it.
Now, a far worse form of interaction is occurring, with very high frequency on some dive sites ( fortunately not sites most tourists are ever going to see--but these are sites that advanced locals should be able to dive, and these spots are now becoming too dangerous to dive without some form of shark protection--a concept that should NEVER have been required in South Florida).
Instead of a diver showing up as "incidental" on a feeding event, as when big groupers and other fish show up on a shark feeding over a whale carcass, etc., we now have divers creating the dinner bell of the feeding event, constantly/many days per week, and the divers can be seen by the sharks to be directly related to the feeding event. Scientists used to say thAT SHARKS had no intelligence, and could not learn, but that has changed today--we now know that as very successful apex predators, these sharks lean alot from each encounter, and are very aware of body language of the divers--and all other fish around them. They read this the way we read a smile or fear, on a person's face.
The shooting of the Cobia off of the backs of the bullsharks is one of the stupidest practices that has ever been allowed in Florida.
- It places divers in the direct association of a major feeding event, and does so with such extreme frequency that the learning by sharks can not fail to occur.
- It shows sharks that humans are also a threatening force to deal with, much like a competitor in the fight for getting a good feeding in at the feeding event. When you see the posturing and territorial body positionings of the sharks, this is in direct contrast to how they USED TO BE, where they were not paying much attention to divers in the past, even with feeds like Abernethy had been doing weekly--where humans always were percieved as incidental, and not party to the actual feeding
- As bullsharks are now looking "pissed" when they see divers on sites like the Andy or Playground at 118 feet, it is clear that spearfisherman practices of creating the feeding event and shooting all around the bulls, has them seeing us as enemies or rivals that need to be attacked
The worst part of this, is that this change in behavior by sharks, could move to other dive sites where it could result in a death of a tourist or non-spearfishing local---or, a death could occur because a non-spearfishing diver unknowingly visits one of these cobia shooting areas, and gets attacked as a rival.
The people doing this are morons, and they should not be allowed to endanger others with this practice. We spearfished for many decades without ever doing anything bad to shark behavior like this--and there is no need for it.
