Shark feeding

[Zippsy]

How about we stick to the facts - which is, NO OBSERVER during a feed has been attacked. That's fact.

I am not sure if you have limited this statement to a specific time period or location but I do know an "observer" who got rather badly bitten in Florida. He worked for the company feeding the sharks but as a DM who was just kneeling down in the sand like everyone else. After hundreds of stitches and several operations, he still does not have close to normal use of one arm. I'll try to contact him and ask him to post his story. (fyi, I read of his experience in our high school alumni magazine)

 

[seabat]

Cant figure out how to do the poll, but I vote no. I have never done a shark dive but I had experience with sea turtles out in Hawaii which lead to my vote.

Feeding does (IMO) alter marine life behaviour. When I first started diving in Hawaii it was popular for the turtles to be fed by the charter boats. It was great seeing turtles up close as someone gave them a squid. After diving there for a while, turtles became somewhat of a "common" sight. What was not common was having to "fight off" the occasional turtle that was trying to nip my white gloves thinking it was squid. I never got bit but my whole attitude towards turtles changed. Instead of a magnificent example of underwater life, they were a nuisance and a potential injury. The educational experience of a turtle encounter was lessened with the worry for my didgits.

My second experience was with a moray eel at Hanuama Bay. I was snorkeling with some visitors and while swimming along saw a 3 foot moray swimming toward me. That was unusal as all the moray I ever saw were either in a hole on the reef or swimming away. This one keep swimming toward me an I finally had to put out a fin and nudge it away. I am only guessing, but as Hanuama Bay sold "fish food" at that time, the moray swam toward me looking for food.

These experiences lead me to vote no.

 

[archman]

Good one seabat! I didn't even think about turtles and morays... they're not a major part of most "feeding ops" so I forgot about them. But I hear of turtles biting folks all the time, those suckers get trained real fast! And so do the morays! Our resident lab purplemouth got so excited today during regular feeding that my newest student refused to go near it. And it's only a two-footer!

 

[amobeus]

Making money from Nature with out understanding the impact on the animals involved seems to be mans way. I'm still pist off at the Chinese fishing fleets who kill thousands of sharks every year because of some mystical profitable beleaf that shark fin soup will keep you young and youthfull, plus trolling for any thing that swims and laying out drag nets that tear up the ocean floor removing all signs of life. Any one have a spare torpedo or two.

Amobeus

 

[DORSETBOY]

I'm still pist off at the Chinese fishing fleets who kill thousands of sharks every year because of some mystical profitable beleaf that shark fin soup will keep you young and youthfull, plus trolling for any thing that swims and laying out drag nets that tear up the ocean floor removing all signs of life. Any one have a spare torpedo or two.

Amobeus

I know how you feel, the situation seems to be getting worse as well with the trendy idiots in western society jumping on the bandwagon of backward traditions and encouraging greater demand for products derived from endangered animals.

Isn't this more reason to encourage more people to get up and close with endangered animals like sharks?

 

[cdiver2]

I know how you feel, the situation seems to be getting worse as well with the trendy idiots in western society jumping on the bandwagon of backward traditions and encouraging greater demand for products derived from endangered animals.

Isn't this more reason to encourage more people to get up and close with endangered animals like sharks?

NO. Why is it that we think we have to give nature a hand?. All we have to do is leave it alone. Yes curtail the fishing methods, fish size and amounts of fish taken, then let nature do the rest.

If we do feeds and someone gets bitten on a feed or near a feed sight then all hell breaks loose and we go on another kiling spree.

 

[DORSETBOY]

NO. Why is it that we think we have to give nature a hand?.

Im not talking from the point of view of giving nature an hand, but rather of improving publice perception of sharks generally and reducing ignorance. My argument would be that although I can the inherent risk of shark feeding with people present inwater, if done properly the benefits would outway the negatives.

 

[cdiver2]

Im not talking from the point of view of giving nature an hand, but rather of improving publice perception of sharks generally and reducing ignorance. My argument would be that although I can the inherent risk of shark feeding with people present inwater, if done properly the benefits would outway the negatives.

Can we not just leave them alone? All we have to understand is that they belong in the ocean we do not. Also the only people you are converting (divers) are already converted !, or they would not be there.

Shark feeds serve only two purposes. Let divers who dont have the time, patience or opportunity wait untill a encounter happens naturally. And dive ops that want to make a buck.

As stated, if someone at a feed site or worse still, someone near a feed site and not conected to it gets attacked then there will be two loosers. The persone attacked and sharks.
For every action there is a reaction and the reaction is not always the one we want or anticipate.

 

[DORSETBOY]

I can see what you mean but I think we're gonna disagree on this one, i'm prob taking an idealistic point of view on shark feeds that are organised well and not purely to make a quick buck with scant regard for the sharks.

 

[mempilot]

Hey all youse Bahama feeders, stop feedn' dem der shawks, so some of em 'll come back over to dis coast. We've missed em since we stopped givn' em dem der handouts a wilst back.