Shark Badly Bites Swimmer in Cancun Today

[DandyDon]

Robb cayman reasonabel point. But if this (watch video):

Caribbean Iguana Riviera Maya, Mexico

is what's going on, then something needs to be done. feeding, encouraging, breeding deadly animals near populated areas is a recipe for disaster.

My contention is that if this is what's happening off the coast of playa del carmen/cancun (and it obviously is), it's not just a radom occurence. It's only logical that if you feed/chum/encourage predators like this (predators known for their aggressiveness in shallow waters) near major tourist/simming destinations, then the risks go up, the results of which we saw last week.

Respectfully
jerryseinfeld

Ok, I took a break for lack of common ground to discuss, but I'll speak to that. Yeah, many of us are opposed to chummed & fed shark dives for those reasons and more. If you want to take a lead on stopping that, cool.

Just don't ruin it by trying to go too far with unacceptable ideas...

I am certain those on this site who advocate unchecked protection of this predator, or who believe the ocean is the sharks home which we are invading, have good intentions. But they are misplaced intentions.

One of the other reasons some of us are against those dives is that it makes the sharks easier targets for unscrupulous fishermen after they associate boats with food. Shark populations worldwide are in dire jeopardy, they are sorely needed for reef health, and they need more protection - not persecution, which will never fly on this board.

 

[markmantei]

I'll second what DandyDon has said, there are alot of divers that don't agree with chummed dives, and that includes many of the dive shops in the PDC area. Those that know the area typically know which shops are doing the chumming, in fact one of the offending shops is mentioned in the story you linked to. Just because some shops do it does not mean it is condoned by the wider scuba community, or that the solution is to kill the sharks.

The best idea I have is to hope that educating the diving community that is not aware to the negatives of chummed or feeding dives and hope it affects the offending shops bottom line enough that they stop doing it, although I am painfully aware that this is utopian thinking.

jerryseinfeld, the reaction you recieved from me and other members was in response to:
1. Your solution was to "cull" the sharks
2. Your insinuation that divers were responsible because they encouraged the feeding of sharks

My intention was, as I specified in my first post, to correct your misconceptions. It seems to me in reading your later posts that you now understand that the issue is not with the sharks, but rather with some misguided individuals. I hope that you can see that for the most part, divers are an eco-minded bunch, but not necessarily any more so than mountain bikers, cross country skiers, or anyone else that loves to play in nature, and certainly not a bunch of eco-nuts running around inciting sharks to attack the swimming public. I also hope you now can see how rare shark attacks are, with fatal attacks being even more rare. Sharks are an integral part of the reef eco-system and, yes, it would be damaging to remove them, which does make them worthy of our protection, even though at times there will be unfortunate interactions between sharks and humans.

 

[boomer68]

Jerry, another diver here. Most every diver I know is against chumming or feeding. Personally, I would never dive with a shop that does this. Stupid, stupid stupid.

 

[robbcayman]

Jerry, you have my support about not chumming. I think chumming is a dangerous practice, especially so close to Playa Del Carmen beaches. I think we can both agree that culling is not the answer.

 

[DandyDon]

Very well stated, Mark.