I don't think anyone would argue that shark behavior is completely unaffected by feeding. They do, after all, congregate around the food when they normally wouldn't be there. They also congregate around dead whales... so I for one would be hard pressed to label the modification "detrimental." If there's any negative impact on the sharks themselves it's minimal - they get back to their regular routine pretty quickly after a feed, from what I've seen.
Increased risk? Well, this mishap sort of nails that one down, doesn't it? Yes, there's increased risk when compared to just diving in the same area without chumming for sharks.
The delimma comes with the cost/benefit analysis. Given that sharks in general are under pressure worldwide from overfishing and that getting realistic enforceable limits are difficult if not impossible, the only real way to protect them is to greatly reduce the demand for shark deaths, a demand driven mostly by sharkfin soup (and to a lesser degree, shark meat) popularity and a general misconception in much of the world's (human) mind that "the only good shark is a dead shark."
Reducing these "death pressure" demands is a matter of education - on the fallacies and myths, flavors and nutrition in the soup and on the animals themselves. With reference to shark dives, the question then becomes whether the increased risk of congregating sharks and divers together on purpose is warranted by the spreading of "the word" about the animals to the public at large.
I tend to think it is... but I doubt the family of this incident's victim would agree.
From a purely political perspective, given that I don't believe feeding has any significant or lasting adverse affect on the sharks themselves, I think that when it comes to shark dives, governments ought to let folks take any risks they want to take (it's a difficult concept these days, I know... we call it "freedom"), and that no one should be able to sue anyone over injuries that flow from choosing to participate in the risky activity. I especially don't want this particular camel's nose under the tent because if anyone ever really looks at diver/shark run-ins they'll discover that shark dives ain't risky at all, but spearfishing is, and they'll want some pointy-headed bureaucrat to keep me from my favorite method of putting tasty meat on the table.
Rick
Increased risk? Well, this mishap sort of nails that one down, doesn't it? Yes, there's increased risk when compared to just diving in the same area without chumming for sharks.
The delimma comes with the cost/benefit analysis. Given that sharks in general are under pressure worldwide from overfishing and that getting realistic enforceable limits are difficult if not impossible, the only real way to protect them is to greatly reduce the demand for shark deaths, a demand driven mostly by sharkfin soup (and to a lesser degree, shark meat) popularity and a general misconception in much of the world's (human) mind that "the only good shark is a dead shark."
Reducing these "death pressure" demands is a matter of education - on the fallacies and myths, flavors and nutrition in the soup and on the animals themselves. With reference to shark dives, the question then becomes whether the increased risk of congregating sharks and divers together on purpose is warranted by the spreading of "the word" about the animals to the public at large.
I tend to think it is... but I doubt the family of this incident's victim would agree.
From a purely political perspective, given that I don't believe feeding has any significant or lasting adverse affect on the sharks themselves, I think that when it comes to shark dives, governments ought to let folks take any risks they want to take (it's a difficult concept these days, I know... we call it "freedom"), and that no one should be able to sue anyone over injuries that flow from choosing to participate in the risky activity. I especially don't want this particular camel's nose under the tent because if anyone ever really looks at diver/shark run-ins they'll discover that shark dives ain't risky at all, but spearfishing is, and they'll want some pointy-headed bureaucrat to keep me from my favorite method of putting tasty meat on the table.
Rick
