a local reply to the above newspaper story... very well stated (and agrees with my opinion, btw)
its my back yard... thats the problem... and its not in your back yard,
-or the opinions, (I believe) would be much different)
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'I have been diving all over the world for well more than 30 years. Many of my dive trips have been to specific locations where I hope to observe sharks in their natural environment - the ocean. I cite by way of example, Cocos Island, the Galapagos, Palau's Blue Corner, North Carolina's sand tiger sharks, etc., all of which I have traveled to several times each. However, none of these dive trips involved introducing an artificial stimulant into the water.
Rob Stewart and the others who defend Abernathy and his shark baiting are wrong in several areas. Stewart says - "Diving with sharks is one of the best ways to get new understanding of sharks. The reality behind sharks is they're not menacing predators of people; they're not out there to get human beings."
This is true. That is what many divers do when they visit places like Cocos Island, Wolf and Darwin Islands in the Galapagos and Blue Corner in Palau. The sharks in these waters do not attack and are not aggressive toward divers. Indeed, they are very shy and wary of humans underwater. The problem is when you introduce an artificial stimulant (bait and blood) into the mix. Sharks are smart but they have no way of knowing that all Abernathy is doing is trying to attract them, not feed them. They smell blood (literally) and do what sharks have done for millenniums - they bite what they think is food.
In my judgment, Denise Herzing is correct. The sharks in the Bahama waters are being conditioned like "Pavlov?s dog" to associate humans with food. In the waters where these artificial feedings take place the sharks have not only lost their fear of humans, they see humans as the proverbial "dinner bell".
What about the diver who wants to experience and observe sharks in their natural environment but does not want to, and has not signed up for, and does not agree to, accept the risks associated with diving with sharks who have been preconditioned and programmed to associate humans with food - bait and blood? What is that diver supposed to do? Not dive and relinquish his or her opportunities to experience nature "naturally" so that people like Abernathy can make money from doing what they do?
It is all well and good for so called "shark experts" to express concern about wanting society to better understand sharks and their environment. I fully agree with this. However, that is NOT what Abernathy and others like him are doing. They drive over from South Florida on their boats (like M/V Shearwater), throw a bunch of bait, chum and blood in the water, get the sharks to come in close to the "dinner bell" smell and then let divers jump in the water to look at and film artificially induced behavior. 4-5 days later they leave and motor back to South Florida. What do they leave behind? Sharks who have been programmed to associate humans with the "dinner bell".
After Abernathy is back in Florida a Bahamian tourist diver then goes out diving in these waters on a recreational dive. He or she encounters one or more of these previously "baited" sharks. The shark does not understand this diver has not signed up for "shark dives with Abernathy". He has not signed a waiver of liability. He just wants a pleasant recreational dive. The shark(s) expect bait, like they get from Abernathy. What happens when the shark approaches one of these recreational divers thinking "where's my food"?
If these so-called "shark researchers" want to observe the behavior of sharks in their natural environment then they should spend the time and effort to do so without artificially creating a dangerous situation that "programs" the shark to associate humans with food. These sharks and their "programmed memory" remain in the waters long after Abernathy and his kind have left the waters. This behavior MUST be stopped. It is not in the interest of the sharks; it is not in the interest of legitimate scientific research. It is sensationalism and commercialism at its worst.
I still dive and will continue to enjoy interacting with the underwater world. I just hope I don?t encounter a shark that has been conditioned by Abernathy to look at me as "dinner". In most areas of the world I do not have this concern. I do have it in the areas of the Bahamas where I know Abernathy has been "shark baiting". The sadness is that Abernathy does not do it in an effort to advance marine science or our understanding of shark behavior. He does it for one reason only - because people pay him a lot of money to take them to a place where he will chum for sharks for them to photograph. It?s all about greed.
It is a practice that MUST be banned.
Posted by: A Concerned Diver
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