True, but it reminds us to be mindful there are some risks inherent in these dives. The same is true wreck diving, cave diving, deep diving, pretty much going underwater diving... Scuba Board recently lost a fairly new member to a dive on the Spiegel Grove. Kinda hit home; I've dove that wreck 3 times a few years back. Watching this thread, I'm mindful that I did 7 dives with the Emerald just a few weeks back. My impression is much the same; hate to hear somebody got hurt bad (or killed), but I make a calculated risk assessment when I choose what kind of dives to do.
My point is, I don't think this will cause a large scale drop-off in interest in doing these dives. Now, as far as opponents using it as a weapon against shark feed diving? Oh, yeah. Just as somebody dying at Eagles Nest provides ammo. to people who want that site shut down.
I suspect there is a substantial risk differential between being a professional shark feeder handing out food, vs. being an observer/customer at a distance.
Richard.