Change.org Petition, Stop Shark Baiting

[The Chairman]

I have no idea if he's current with any agency and I really don't care. To me he's a fraud. FADI was his answer to being ousted by PADI. Notice the similar sound? I bet he slurs his words when he says it so you think he's a PADI instructor. If I were to guess why he's no longer a PADI instructor, I would go with ethics violations. He's so deceitful, he's done deceived himself.

 

[Murfdizzle21]

[video=youtube;9iFl7BxbnXQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iFl7BxbnXQ[/video]

 

[Capt Scotty]

This guy who clams to be FADI sends me emails all the time bashing some dive shop or another all the time. I have asked him in not so polite words to take me off his email list. As far as I am concerned there should be a petition to shut him up. And thats all I can say on that subject and still be with in the Terms and condition agreement on this forum....lol

 

[The Chairman]

Thanks Murfdizzle. It's good to see actual science making a debut on this discussion.

 

[iluvtheocean]

This guy who clams to be FADI sends me emails all the time bashing some dive shop or another all the time. I have asked him in not so polite words to take me off his email list. As far as I am concerned there should be a petition to shut him up. And thats all I can say on that subject and still be with in the Terms and condition agreement on this forum....lol

report the emails as spam

 

[kelemvor]

Second thought. Laws should never be predicated on junk science, assumptions, myths or emotions. That's precisely what the petition is asking us to do. He uses the same illogic to "debunk" evolution. No, I'm not making this up. He truly believes that Jesus rode on a dinosaur before they went extinct. Ask him. Since we have no idea about how feedings affect sharks, we should avoid passing laws in that regard. At this point, it should be left to individual choice unless we have an actual scientific study to the contrary.

That will be the day. I would bet there's far more laws currently based on those things than on science. Gun control laws come to mind, where scientific studies are often showing the opposite of what proposed laws claim. Also, if someone wants to start a petition to change a law, they should be allowed to do it. Just because you haven't funded a study on some subject does not mean you're excluded from participating at some level with your government (in the US).

However, changing it to require scientific studies for making a law would go a long way to further remove the average citizen from participating in government. Scientific studies generally are not cheap. Having the government pay for such a thing is not desirable in my mind, either.

 

[The Chairman]

However, changing it to require scientific studies for making a law would go a long way to further remove the average citizen from participating in government. Scientific studies generally are not cheap. Having the government pay for such a thing is not desirable in my mind, either.

Why not? If you want to sponsor any environmental legislation, you should be required to fund the study. I think this would stop a lot of the overly emotional environmental laws from being enacted. It would also be a good way to fund more scientists at the same time: a win/win.

 

[wspalding]

Thanks Murfdizzle. It's good to see actual science making a debut on this discussion.

It is an interesting piece, but it does not answer the question about whether diver safety is compromised as a result of ecotourism. What these researchers found out is that sharks tagged as part of an ecotourism activity did not become permanently attached to the feeding site, so in that sense, shark behavior was not modified. I work in an industry in which our products are assumed dangerous to use until shown otherwise, and safety during use of those products is monitored for as long as the product remains on the market. I will caveat my next question as I have throughout this discussion, that I am not saying that shark feeding definitely puts divers at risk; since a negative encounter with a shark could be fatal, shouldn't the onus be on the charters that shark feed to show that these activities do not endanger ANY diver (including those NOT on shark dives) and not vice versa as you have argued in these threads? I agree that science should rule the day, but when we are talking about safety, we should always err on the side of caution when the answer is unknown. My last 2 cents on this topic.

 

[The Chairman]

In the many, many years and various locales that have done shark feeds, I can only recall one fatality and a handful of bites. Given that any encounter with sharks can be problematic, I think the safety record speaks for itself. Let's be realistic that diving is intrinsically dangerous. You endanger yourself every time you descend, so there is no way to make diving completely risk free. Why then should we expect risk free when we introduce apex predators? Most of the videos of divers being harassed are of spear fishermen. Should we stop all spear fishing because they seem to have the preponderance of negative shark encounters? Like diving, it's a risk accepted by those who participate in the sport.

 

[kelemvor]

Why not? If you want to sponsor any environmental legislation, you should be required to fund the study. I think this would stop a lot of the overly emotional environmental laws from being enacted. It would also be a good way to fund more scientists at the same time: a win/win.

Like I said, I think that would further exclude the non-rich from participating in government.

In the end, I'm not sure I agree that all laws should be based on science anyway. If the majority of the citizens want to have a particular law, then that should be it. Do we need a study to scientifically validate racial equality laws for example? I think the majority of Americans would just say it is the right thing to do.

Back to the topic of shark feeding. I have to admit that this discussion at least has me considering that my initial reaction might have been a bit of a knee jerk. I'm not planning on going on a shark feed dive anytime soon, but I guess I'm closer to the fence than I was previously.