- Messages
- 5,884
- Reaction score
- 2,998
- Location
- Lake Worth, Florida, United States
- # of dives
- I'm a Fish!
It is not human feeding interaction with marine life that we are discussing....it is Hand Feeding of Sharks...concerning ourselves with effecting the behavior of groupers or most other fish is of no concern whatever, given there will be tons of these netted or caught per day by commercial fishing operations...what divers do is insignificant...Hand feeding sharks is stupid - while some scientist could be paid to do a paper supposedly showing no risk, this would be of as much value as the scientists that used to be Owned by the Tobacco industry, who for years put out studies showing no link between cigarettes and lung cancer...We need to apply common sense here....Ok, let's assume that the one sentence we are taking out in this debate, "There has been no evidence that the hand feeding of sharks promotes such attacks" (In swimmers) is false. Clearly this is the phrase that has brought all this attention. I did not make that up, it is stated in the bibliography I mentioned earlier. Let's assume that is wrong. So here we go. Human feeding interaction with ocean creatures is wrong because it associates and teaches these creatures to become comfortable around humans and can lead to accidental bites and aggressivness among all sea creatures. We have to assume that all sea folk may and can be compared to all the studies of land animals as well. Bears, Lions, Deer...etc. We are still all on the same page right? Follow me here. Is it possible that our very presence underwater or even out in the wild interferes with wildlife behavior regardless of having food in hand. Perhaps big oil didasters or overfishing promotes devastation and aggresivness to the habitat? Is it possible that our disregard for our resources has brought on a change in behavior to all walks of life on this planet because we have upset the balance that has been in place since the dawn of time up until 100 years ago? So I'll ask you, and you are all divers, and I will assume that you are aware of the fragile balance of the eco system; All things being equal are you ready to give up diving in general if a study came out saying you were harming and disrupting the coral reef just by being down there? Let's not just point fingers at shark feeding, are you really willing to stop diving? You know all the "Scuba Guppies" out there who have no boyancy controll, and many others are kicking and killing corral with there fins...etc...Our film was meant to try and help, perhaps the ends cannot justify the means, but I feel good about it all. If only one person sees this film and becomes someone who helps save a shark, or any species, then
LOVE.
This film is not a problem...the problem is hand shark feeding operations proliferating and at some point, causing a shark to bite a diver swimming nearby....then it will be criminal negligence of the hand feeding operation....and whether the charge sticks will be less important than the common sense issue, and the moral issue.
You have the film already...I hope someone sees it and cares more about sharks as a result.....but dont push for more hand feeding.
Going toward the future, there will be better video opportunities for you to use to help people connect with sharks....without teaching them that divers mean food.