CaptRam
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Has anyone said how it happened?
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I have to disagree. There are "natural death events" occuring all the time in the ocean, these bringing in large numbers of sharks for feeding....whale deaths, or any large marine creature deaths, will be a natural dinner bell. Response to this was evolved many hundreds of millions of years ago.
Sharks do learn also, so if there was an area where seals or whales were dying frequently, sharks would take up residence there, and be looking for ( or listening for) the dinner bell. I am very much against the hand feeding which some Bahamas operators engqage in, as this does actually teach a BAD association with humans....but just a die off, or death event ( which a crate of fish parts on the bottom will simulate) will have changed nothing in the behaviors already mentioned, which have gone on for hundreds of millions of years. In all this time, there have AWLAYS been other opportunistic feeders showing up at natural feeding events...the groupers and all the other fish you see in the shark videos joining in on the event--sharks are used to these potential competitors to the meal showing, and they maintain a standard pecking order and proximity to the food type of a comfort zone....divers showing up are just one more species of marine life showing up for the buffet...not a big deal for the sharks.
The real EVIL is the commercail seafood industry, and the aspects of the "Cultures" which cherish shark fin soup or other shark products. Against the enormous power of financial gain, and an enormous market to sell to, the commerical fishing interests have NOTHING BUT CONTEMPT for tree hugging, shark loving people who disapprove of the killing. These people and corporations would HATE people like you, and would enjoy pissing on you. The moral issues you cherish, are jokes to them, and with the money they make from the huge market of shark part consumers, your "leave the sharks to themselves" philosophy will only allow the shark killers to kill them with even more impunity--with no one watching, or aware of the extent of dwindling numbers.
Without the national media attention people like Abernethy get on behalf of sharks, without the constant attention and awareness he generates, sharks would have no protection now or in the future. Far more likely than your scenario, operations like Abernethy's will cause the bahamas ministry of tourism to ban all shark fishing, because the island nation would realize for more income itself ( and for its people) from shark tourism, than from killing sharks for pennies a piece ( as is still occurring now). Tourism is a powerful enough lobbing group to do something. It is the only hope....You will not change the cultures of the people who want to eat sharks--that would take generations, and we don't even have an emotional strategy with global media plan , with any real chance of effectiveness.
The real issues here for the world at large are supply and demand.....Follow the money.....Your best hope is to have nations like the Bahamas decide they can make more money with tourists seeing sharks alive, than in having commercial fishing operations raping their oceans, and only paying a pittance for each shark they kill....
Exactly how would this nonsense stop Japan from harvesting sharks for shark fin soup off of the bahamas, if the Bahamas decided to allow it--for the money?I did not know that, I thought the NMFS was directed to set catch limits at sustainable levels and to prevent overfishing. I had no idea the shark world revolved around Jim Abernethy.
So all shark protection would be discontinued if this guy stops feeding sharks in the Bahamas and "educating" people????
The fact that the state of Florida made his chosen business activity illegal in Florida but continues to reduce commercial landings and adopt more restrict regulations would seem to refute your primary assertion that shark feeding is necessary for the preservation of sharks.
I did not know that, I thought the NMFS was directed to set catch limits at sustainable levels and to prevent overfishing. I had no idea the shark world revolved around Jim Abernethy.
So all shark protection would be discontinued if this guy stops feeding sharks in the Bahamas and "educating" people????
The fact that the state of Florida made his chosen business activity illegal in Florida but continues to reduce commercial landings and adopt more restrict regulations would seem to refute your primary assertion that shark feeding is necessary for the preservation of sharks.
I've participated as a safety diver in commercial shark feeding/diving
I think it is dangerous and stupid.
It endangers the sharks by making them overly aggresive and inquisitive toward divers.
Besides that, if people want to be educated about sharks and observe them, why not do it naturally? Volker's attempt to equate a boat coming to the EXACT SAME location and dumping bait on a periodic basis to a natural event such as a whale death is pretty weak. The whole process causes unnatural behavoir in the sharks.
Furthermore, an experienced and skilled shark feeder knows how to manipulate the sharks. Possibly the customers who are getting educated don't understand this that the behavoir is most definitely unnatural. The feeder has to carefully control the activity level, the food distribution rate, not reward overly aggressive behavoir etc. The sharks are actually "trained" by this activity.
Not much more educational than a lion tamer in a cage at a circus.
As for destructive or wasteful commercial fishing practices, that is another topic and it is my contention that it is pretty much unrelated to shark feeding.
3, Jim's safety records over the years have been staggeringly excellent. Other dive ops who work with sharks have a 100% dive guest perfect safety record - and don't forget that most of these ops staff work in chain-mail or in cages, perhaps Jim will decide what is best for his operation.
4, Sharks need human intervention by divers and shark protection groups to bring about the total ban on killing them for fins and landing them for ego trips. Humans are destroying the sharks not the other animals who survive on this planet. If that means diving underwater with them, then that is what it needs to wipe away people's misconceptions about shark behaviour, open their eyes and realize what the ocean would turn into with a human-forced shark extinction on the cards
Eddy,
on #3 you drinking the cool aid at the local tiki hut? Jimmy has fed several customers to the sharks in my short short, diving career! just do a search on this site!
On #4 Sharks need human interventions Oh Boy!
The real EVIL is the commercail seafood industry, and the aspects of the "Cultures" which cherish shark fin soup or other shark products.