Hello all!!! What a great board! I'd like to say thanks to all for the spirited discussion. I have far too many hobbies and belong to close to a dozen forums. (I feel I have to say this every time I join a new forum because they assume a new poster is a newbie)
I'm going to go against the crowd here, and respectfuly disagree. I went to the Bahamas last year and went on about 5 dives. The first one, was on the Paradise Island side of the Bahamas. Beautiful reefs only 30 feet down. Didn't see a shark all day. Why? Sharks are not fed there, why would a shark go to a reef with lots of people...but none of them feed the sharks. A few days later we went on a shark dive with the most popular outfit down there. GREAT experience. I can't say enough good things about it. It would be naive to think that divers would "wander" into this area without knowing it was a shark feeding area. Every DM down there knows the other ones. I did here of a DM getting bit on the head during a shark feed, he was the feeder, and everyone down there now wears "helmets". All diving is somewhat dangerous, and I find it very hard to believe that the shark feeding 10 miles out in an exact location every day would affect sharks everywhere. Are they conditioned? Sure, but they are not conditioned in a way to head over to Atlantis and start looking for food from Sally wading in the ocean.
This is an amazing, amazing experience. I think that spear fishing for flounder in Bull Shark territory is more dangerous than what we did. The Caribean sharks know exactly what the deal is, and after my initial fear of getting in the water I never felt in danger.
I can certainly understand the moral and enviornmental dilemas that people are talking about and would be kidding myself if I didn't see the point. I suppose there is a little voice in all of us saying..."Is this right". However, the majority of the arguments against it seem to be danger. I signed up for the feed, and I accept the risks that come with that. As for the enviornmental impact, are a dozen shark feedings around the world going on every day really affecting the world poplulation of sharks? I doubt it, but I don't claim to be an expert.
Thanks again for a great forum!
My 2 cents...
Bill