You, NO. Them, uh...Ok!

[CheeseWhiz]

The stated purpose of the FL regulation is to prevent the possibility of sharks associating food with humans. I'm not sure chumming/fish cleaning would have the same effect. If, indeed, sharks possess enough mental faculties to do any associating at all, in the case of chumming they would come to associate food with the bottom of a boat. But given the assumption that the majority of fishing boats probably don't engage in chumming (a guess on my part), it would seem that any association would be weak.

I don't particularly agree with shark feeding (or fish feeding, for that matter) but I do agree with Thomas Jefferson: "That government is best which governs least."

 

[sharpenu]

Following that logic, with only four out of the literally hundreds of dive operations in Florida, the majority of dive boats don't feed. So, how could they come to associate boats with feeding. Not only that, but if sharks were a threat to humans because of feeding, why aren't they attacking the most accessible humans, the divers themselves? You can't tell me that nurse sharks are associating the divers with food and this causes bull sharks 100 miles away to attack surfers.

 

[TwoBitTxn]

As long as there are shimpers and bycatch in the water, fish and sharks will associate boats with food. Any offshore fisherman knows one of the best places to catch a wide variety of fish, sharks included, is down current from a shrimp boat that recently dumped its bycatch.

IMHO the people who think that shark feedings and shark attacks are related have gone off the deep end. I don't think you can relate the dangers of feeding sharks with the dangers of feeding bears. The sharks are in the shallow waters because that is where the bait fish are. A bull shark has tiny little eyes and can't see worth anything. If it bumps into something soft, it may take a bite to see what it is.

I'll stop there.

Tom

 

[detroit diver]

Originally posted by sharpenu
....Now if we could only ban feeding of terrorists...

I originally read that as "Now if we could only ban feeding of Tourists"!!

Got a good laugh out of that one!

 

[Walter]

Excellent points. I want the freedom to feed bears and alligators as well. These freedoms are currently denied me by an oppressive government! I don't particularly care that the bear I feed today might maul you tomorrow. You can't prove that bear attacked because it was previously fed.

Getting to the issue of the shark feedings and the shark "attacks" which were recently in the news. Are they related? Of course not. These "attacks" were not made by the same sharks which were fed, therefore there is no possible relationship between the events. Could future attacks be the result of feedings if allowed to continue? Probably, but we don't know with any certainty. We do know that most, if not all, animals who have been fed by humans loose their fear of man. They will approach much closer than they would before feeding began. They will approach even when the people have no food. Bites from animals who've been fed are common. If this bite comes from a squirrel, it's painful, but rarely life threatening. A shark, OTOH, can inflict a much more dangerous bite. Incidents of injuries during these feeds are often down played or even covered up. Actually, I have no issue with a diver on a shark feed getting bit. You place yourself in that situation, you are knowingly placing yourself at risk. I hope you avoid injury, but it is your choice and you must live (or die) with the consequences. My objection is to the possible danger your actions (feeding large predators) place on future divers who visit that site. I have no objections to chumming up sharks and feeding them IF the location is many, many miles from any possible location other divers might visit. Feeding Oceanic Whitetips in blue water could be a real rush, is not likely to significantly alter their behavior (they are already very aggressive) and would take place outside state waters. Let's encourage folks who wish to feed sharks to take up this practice.

DSSW,

WWW™

 

[sharpenu]

There are groups i Florida that have been doing feeds for 20 years? How long should we wait for this behavioral change? Do you think sharks look at surfers and are smart enough to recognize they are the same species? Even though they look, sound and smell different? And dont smell the feed fish? If we want to apply the same rules to ocean animals as land lets do this:

We can't bait animals we are hunting on land, so no using bait to catch sea animals. Including chum.

No catching sea animals within 500 feet of vehicles or dwellings.

I am sure there are others.

 

[Walter]

"There are groups i Florida that have been doing feeds for 20 years? How long should we wait for this behavioral change? "

Spence has been getting bit on a regular basis for over 20 years.

DSSW,

WWW™

 

[Scottri]

I'm not a big fan of a large fedaral government and ours seems to be motivated by money and not the greater good. I don't know how much good a shark feeding ban would do but if there is a need it needs to be at the state level and not the federal. It's not in their charter.


Scott

 

[sharpenu]

I am not talking about the participants getting bit. People who race cars wreck. Divers get bent. Parachutists fall to their death. Participants in shark feeds sometimes get bit. So what? That is a risk those people are aware of and choose to take. What are you going to do? Outlaw every activity that could hurt someone? No, the issue here is whether or not these people are harming others or the environment. My point is the behavioral changes the anti feed people keep touting haven't happened. Look at that idiot Crocodile hunter. How many times has he been bitten? Should his show be outlawed? How about a local theme park who charges people $150 to swim with dolphins for 30 minutes? How is that different? If we outlaw everything that people could get hurt doing, lets outlaw beef, it causes heart attacks. Or maybe driving. 40 people died in car accidents over the thanksgiving weekend in Florida alone. Only 47 people have been killed by sharks nationwide since 1589. Which do you think is the greater problem?

 

[TwoBitTxn]

Sharp,

I don't understand your statement the behavioral changes as stated by the anti's havn't happened.

I'll change the location a little to stingray city. That is not normal behavior for a ray. They have been pavlovian trained. If that reward stimulus was not there there would be no stingray city as we know it. The sharks and other animals show up at feeding sites because they know they may get fed. The reason I said you can't liken this to feeding bears is sharks aren't as prone to violence when a diver doesn't feed them as a bear who expects to be fed is. I support bans on feeding wildlife as I feel the detriment to the cycle is greater than the gains.

There are better ways to teach people to love the sea and its inhabitants.

Tom