Feeding sharks

[diver 85]

Are you serious? Is that food in your hand? I have to ask, where was that taken?

If you talking to me........Beqa Lagoon, Fiji......2 TSs & a million other sharks were there....but the others let the TSs have center stage once they showed up......

---------- Post added April 4th, 2014 at 07:53 AM ----------

Totally opposed to the practice - I prefer my sharks a la naturale thanks.

I saw nothin' fake about these 2 guys----looked pretty natural to us....

 

[g1138]

Correct to a point. However, all sharks don't favor floating food/food on the surface. In fact I would say that's a rarity if you had to group all of them into one generalization. Some sharks specialize in prey that locates near or at the surface, but generally grouping all sharks into this general category is like grouping a Boston Terrier and a Great Dane in the same agility competition. It makes no sense.

Different species will have different general attitudes, different feed patters etc, with some outliers here and there (if you're lucky enough to see many). Those that feed on the bottom naturally, can be trained to feed on the top, even flip upside down to feed. Some aquariums feed their rays this way.
It's more so prominent if you've spent a long time studying different individuals of the same species at an aquarium. But even then there can be debate on how natural the sharks are acting.

Fish in general, including sharks, are smart enough to recognize feeding cues. So you are correct that shark feeding does tie in a relationship in which sharks associate divers with food.
You can see this at many aquariums if you catch a feeding show. It's the same with cats and dogs. If you shake a kibble bag before feed time, your pet will always come running to the kitchen expecting food. Even if it's not dinner time.
Bang on a tank wall every time before surface feeding sharks, all those sharks will come to the surface when ever they hear that banging.
Blow bubbles from a scuba unit when feeding sharks, those same sharks will eventually associate that noise with free food.

Here's a direct example at the aquarium I work at:
We used to have our divers feed underwater with yellow food buckets. One day a diver went in without a food bucket. But he was wearing a neon yellow wetsuit. The fish swarmed and pecked him constantly. They associated yellow-on-diver = food

We later swapped to feeding from yellow drop buckets. Buckets with trapdoors, hung on a line and yanked to release food.
After a few years of that, we incorporated a yellow pony bottle to our gear setup. No reaction from the fish whatsoever. They no longer associated yellow-on-diver = food. They do however associate dropped-sinking-item = food. Which we found out when one of our divers dropped a non-yellow go-pro set up. A lot of fish swarmed in to investigate.

Specifically with our sharks. They see the feed tongs when they're surface fed. They know they get food from those tongs. Sometimes the tongs are dropped/yanked into the tank and a diver has to retrieve them. When the diver's in the water holding the tongs, the sharks are the least bit interested. Probably also because diver + large pole = medication/shot time.

 

[Wingy]

I see nothing natural about conditioning sharks to show up at a certain time and place to be fed.

 

[diver 85]

I see nothing natural about conditioning sharks to show up at a certain time and place to be fed.

They hadn't been there in 3 weeks---surprised the heck outta the DMs, in fact in the predive talk the DMs said 'there will be no TSs today'.............What you think happened to them for 3 weeks??......

 

[drrich2]

While I believe most people would, all other things being equal, prefer an 'all natural' encounter, all other things are not equal!!!

You see those tiger shark shots that Diver 85 posted? Well, don't hold your breath (diving or otherwise) waiting for shots like that when 'one just happens to wander by.' If you want reliable, close encounters giving you a good look at the sharks, especially 'in action,' on a given trip rather than diving hundreds of times and eventually getting lucky, then you might be a candidate for a shark feed dive.

Now, if someone really believes watching a skittish 4 feet reef shark swim by about 20 or 30 feet off and swim away fairly quickly 'naturally' is a somehow superior experience to having a fed 14 foot tiger shark come in close, okay, to each their own.

I haven't been on a shark feed dive as yet. I hope to be one one someday. I enjoy seeing sharks 'all natural,' what few times that's happened. But I'd like a better look at some of the big boys.

Richard.

P.S.: Non-fed dives are not all-natural, by the way. Weird looking bubble blowing aliens in their environment often freaks out marine life, and sharks often react with guardedness, at times even fear, to divers. So even dives where chum/bait aren't used are not 'natural.' The sharks can sense and react to you, and probably do, so what you're seeing is still altered by human meddling.

 

[TMHeimer]

drrich2, You make some good points. It's an unending discussion anyway. Who's to say that since our "natural" habitat is on land that it's "unnatural" for us to be in the water. Some say we evolved from the water. We've made a mess of a lot of things in the world, but if we have the brains to develop scuba perhaps part of our habitat is in the water.

 

[Goodtime Adventures]

As TMHeimer points out this thread could be endless, but for what its worth I agree with the majority here. Feeding or chumming the water to attract sharks so divers get better footage or photo's is nothing more than classical conditioning - Pavlov's dogs in the modern era, basically. Not cool IMO.

 

[chillyinCanada]

drrich, I'm sorry you feel that way. For me seeing shark acting naturally is so thrilling it can keep me going for many years. The reason that is so thrilling is because I dont do shark feed dives. If I did, then having a natural shark encounter would be pretty much no big thing because as you pointed out, they rarely approach close enough to get good look. I've been fortunate to have had a number of natural shark encounters, a couple of them a bit chilling. I hope to have more. Just can't bring myself to go to a feed.

 

[Scared Silly]

FWIW the correct term for animals reacting to a particular stimulus is called habituation.

i.e. yellow bucket == food, i.e. boat shows up == food, etc.

 

[drrich2]

For me seeing shark acting naturally is so thrilling it can keep me going for many years.

One thing that sometimes seems to get lost in these debates is that for the shark feed diver, it's not either/or; he/she can do both. Go on a single feeding dive, or a few of them, and yet also have the same opportunities for so-called 'natural' encounters.

The shark feed diver doesn't have to miss out on anything.

Richard.