Dive boat operators face charges of illegally feeding sharks in state waters

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Lol. You also have a long history of leading the world in shark bites, maybe they are related.:idk:
How? Most of the bites are from spinner sharks in the surf.

I notice more sharks where they shouldn't be every year and its always around heavy fishing spots.
Where shouldn't sharks be? In the parking lot at Walmart? Sharks are all over the place, even in our rivers. That was the case way before we got here.

Honesty helps ME cut through the bull? You mean US right?
This is the plural you that is so often used as an imperative "we".

A cruising shark is wayyy different than a jerky ass turned up fins down open mouth passing hungry muscle with teeth. This was not some perceived fear of death, if we didn't get out of that water they would have eaten us, no question.
The transformation from cruising to aggressive can be close to instantaneous. All it takes is a trigger.

Was that a yes? I would love to get ya out there boss man, May or June would get ya on a shark or maybe 2.:D Just let me know, ill be diving either way.
Sure. I love to dive and can be found just about anywhere. Should I bring my gun?
 
Where shouldn't sharks be? In the parking lot at Walmart? Sharks are all over the place, even in our rivers. That was the case way before we got here.

in my garage :)

shark.jpg
 
Thanks, that was one of the search results that came up behind a paywall for me. I just finished the first read-through; I'm going to go through it a few times and compare it with the other full-length papers I find before posting my take on it. The list of other cited feeding studies also helps.
I would love to read more on this as well....
I think the common sense behavior of Scuba spearfisherman since Frank Hammett in the 50's, that you NEVER, EVER feed the Bears ( I mean the sharks), has kept sharks largely dis-interested in divers since the 50's--and up until the last few years when feeding began causing an association in the sharks between divers and getting fed....The 5 types of shark behaviors [ from abstract: 5 different behavioural groups that we described as ‘new sharks’ (7), ‘missing sharks’ (4), ‘resident sharks’ (13), ‘unpredictable sharks’ (5) and ‘ghost sharks’ (7). ] and the discussion of this suggests that if applied to the Jupiter shark feeding scenario, Jordan's feeding could cause some changes in inter and intra species dominance and aggressiveness --particularly for the males that would be either the larger dominant males in an area...and for the sharks that are low in the pecking order, and that are becoming frustrated by not getting food when they want it--this frustration turning into the classic aggression response ---- [ Frustration-aggression hypothesis--This was proposed by a group of researchers at Yale University, led by John Dollard.
In this theory, frustration and aggression are linked in a cause and effect relationship.
Frustration is the cause of aggression and aggression is the result of frustration. The early empirical evidence for this theory involved the examination of prison populations. A variety of studies were conducted to determine age, economic status and intelligence of inmates and to relate these variables to the amount of frustration of each individual prisoner. The results showed that the higher the frustration level, the more prone the person was to act aggressively or commit crime.]

Studies by Conrad Lorenz and others on animal populations and hierarchies would appear to suggest that Sharks would have an instinctual level drive toward aggression when looked at in a large group that has been artificially formed for feeding, and where there the feeding was not equitably distributed to all sharks ( which it could not be, and even the issue of first to be fed, next, and next and so on would created this frustration level and aggression.)

In the MEPS 2010 article, the suggestion was that behaviors were changed in response to feeding--new behaviors were learned.
This was massively aggravated by the crowding of the sharks caused by the feeds, and this is exhibited in the by different group[ behaviors discussed.

In Jupiter, I would expect that the large Tiger shark, as the top shark in the hierarchy for any feed Jordan is involved in, would not become more aggressive because of the high level of instant gratification it receives from Jordan....However, the sharks well down in the pecking order will become more and more frustrated as they wait their turn, and don't want to wait....and often will receive no food at all--which will DRIVE them to a solution behavior, which would have to be an aggressive behavior.
If this feeding pattern is repeated often enough, over months and years, my suggestion is that some of these frustrated sharks will have endured this frustration -aggression reaction so often, that the very sight of a human will cause the pavlovian-like reaction of aggression in this shark --as it is attempting to SOLVE it's artificially ( shark feeds) learned feeding dilemma.






 
How? Most of the bites are from spinner sharks in the surf.

Are the record deaths from spinner sharks too?

Where shouldn't sharks be? In the parking lot at Walmart? Sharks are all over the place, even in our rivers. That was the case way before we got here.

I'm sure you are familiar with migrations? Animals moving from place to place, normally with the seasons motivated by food or sex? Waterfowl in your walmart parking lot is totally normal unless its Feb and your in Michigan, then they are out of place just like a bull shark near st pete in feb. The bulls leave when it gets cold, unless they have a damn good reason to stay.

This is the plural you that is so often used as an imperative "we".

Good, makes discussions easier when you clarify. :D

The transformation from cruising to aggressive can be close to instantaneous. All it takes is a trigger.

Agreed, people introducing food will manipulate that trigger, is this good? Should we be changing them?

Sure. I love to dive and can be found just about anywhere. Should I bring my gun?

Definitely bring your gun, hogfish ceviche is pretty much the best meal on earth.
 
It looks fake. Is it there to freak out the neighbors?

yes, it's fake. But here is the long version of the story as to why it was in my garage (it isn't anymore).

Years ago someone decided to put the shark into a nearby lake basically to give new divers something to see. To do this, they put a lawn tractor innertube in the fiberglass shark, attached two steel cables and secured it to concrete blocks. Once in the lake the inner tube was inflated enough to float the shark so it appeared to hover about 5' off the bottom. Over the years the innertube lost air, and the shark ended up on the bottom. Last year we went to try and "fix" the shark but ultimately blew the inner tube...oops! So, we removed the shark and took it back to my place where we installed pool noodles for flotation, then over to another house where it was repainted, and then was put back in the lake.

Obviously this is not relevant to almost the entire thread, the exception being the one line I quoted from Pete :)


...and yes, it did freak out some neighbors :)
 
yes, it's fake. But here is the long version of the story as to why it was in my garage (it isn't anymore).

Years ago someone decided to put the shark into a nearby lake basically to give new divers something to see. To do this, they put a lawn tractor innertube in the fiberglass shark, attached two steel cables and secured it to concrete blocks. Once in the lake the inner tube was inflated enough to float the shark so it appeared to hover about 5' off the bottom. Over the years the innertube lost air, and the shark ended up on the bottom. Last year we went to try and "fix" the shark but ultimately blew the inner tube...oops! So, we removed the shark and took it back to my place where we installed pool noodles for flotation, then over to another house where it was repainted, and then was put back in the lake.

Obviously this is not relevant to almost the entire thread, the exception being the one line I quoted from Pete :)


...and yes, it did freak out some neighbors :)

I thought it was just hanging around
 

I was going to say, I hope the beer isn't trapped back in that fridge ...

I'm still reading up on the finds I've made; while I'm capable of demolishing a novel in two hours that doesn't necessarily translate to scientific literature. One thing I did find (I downloaded the .pdf somehow last night, but either I can't find the direct link or a paywall has gone up) was a comment on that study and a response from the authors. The comment did raise some questions about the methods; I'm rereading the paper, comments, and replies to see how those are addressed.

In the meantime, a few other finds:
PLOS ONE: Seasonal and Long-Term Changes in Relative Abundance of Bull Sharks from a Tourist Shark Feeding Site in Fiji
http://www.sfu.ca/biology/faculty/d...2007_Ecotourism effects on white sharks 1.pdf
http://www.austingallagher.com/files/Hammerschlag et al 2012.pdf
PLOS ONE: Opportunistic Visitors: Long-Term Behavioural Response of Bull Sharks to Food Provisioning in Fiji
PLOS ONE: Supplemental Feeding for Ecotourism Reverses Diel Activity and Alters Movement Patterns and Spatial Distribution of the Southern Stingray, Dasyatis americana
http://www.spc.int/DigitalLibrary/Doc/FAME/InfoBull/FishNews/133/FishNews133_40_Clua.pdf
PLOS ONE: Long-Term Changes in Species Composition and Relative Abundances of Sharks at a Provisioning Site

And, for perspective - PHD Comics: Science News Cycle
 
https://xf2.scubaboard.com/community/forums/cave-diving.45/

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