Proposed interactive shark diving in the Caymans

[drrich2]

I don't believe anyone is concerned stingrays are apt to accost divers & snorkelers at distant sites due to associating them with food, and possibly attack.

With sharks, this is a theoretical concern. How much of a practical reality it is, well, I don't think we're sure. Unless someone shows this practice harms the sharks, there's no other strong rationale to ban it. If you don't like going on dives where sharks are drawn in with chum or scent, don't do those dives. You've got plenty of alternatives. Why bar the people who want to do them? Unless, of course, the sharks are accosting & scaring people, getting killed, attacking people, etc...

The at times heated debate over shark feeding diving in federal waters 3+ miles off coastal Florida is one potential comparator, but Vincent54 told us:

The difficulty with having the shark feed is that Cayman reefs are close to shore. Usually less than 1/4 mile out. Short of blue water shark dives out in the abyss, there really isn't any place to go.

I imagine a lot of the Grand Cayman customer base is tourist divers, including cruise shippers. That's not going to give a consistently advanced dive customer. Worse, some are accustomed to sanitized adventure experiences, where the safety factor is strong. I think of cruise ship excursions (which I've been on a number of). While you can get hurt on them (e.g.: parasailing, zip lining, rainforest hiking, climbing atop Mayan ruins, etc...), I imagine if they injured many people they'd get shut down, or at least cruisers diverted away. My point is, you'd have a lot of fairly low-skilled occasional vacation divers with the unconscious assumption that if it's being offered, it must be pretty safe.

I suspect the mindset of someone heading out on a day trip with Emerald Dive Charter out of Jupiter, or on a live-aboard to Tiger Beach (tiger sharks) or Cat Island (oceanic white tips) has a different mindset. The reef sharks I saw on a shark feed dive out of Belize weren't nearly as intimidating as bull, tiger or oceanic white tip would be.

Is the shark diving routine done by Stuart Cove out of Nassau our best comparator? I've not dove the Bahamas; is the site(s?) they do this far removed from more general scuba diving sites? Are the reef sharks around Nassau behaving problematically toward other divers?

Richard.

 

[keyshunter]

drrich,
On one of our annual trips to the Bahamas, we decided to do a few dives at the public mooring balls off New Providence. As it happens, we tied up on one of the balls where Stuart Coves does their shark dives. When we submerged, we were immediately surrounded by about a dozen Reef sharks. They followed us for the entire dive, often nudging us, and would not be chased away for more than a few seconds. They seemingly could not understand that we had no food for them. Having spearfished for many years, I was accustomed to sharks in close proximity, and knew that " Reefies" are among the more docile sharks (I pay much more attention to Bulls and Hammerheads), but they were still annoying. I remember actually pushing one out of the way so I could take a picture of a very large grouper. FWIW, I have heard any number of the "pro" shark dive rationalizations, but am still VERY opposed to these dives.

 

[drrich2]

Keyshunter:

Thanks for posting that. It describes the sort of thing some fear about shark feeding; that sharks accustomed to being fed will encounter 'regular' divers (particularly newbies & tourist divers who don't know much about them), accost the divers, and then you've got a newbie diver knowing nothing about sharks who jumps in & thinks he or she is being attacked, or some such. If the person panics and starts thrashing, it could make a buddy or the rest of the group think he's been bitten. And so on...

But that's at the site the dives are done that this happened with you guys. You did say it's a public mooring ball.

Perhaps isolating this activity to a not-free-for-all mooring ball at a site other op.s avoid would address the issue?

Richard.

 

[String]

If a tourist gets nibbled on, it's a lot more than a big hickey.

Decades worth of data from the Bahamas and other places that seem to show that in general it isn't an issue.

Im not saying which side of the fence im on with these things but ultimately the shark feeding and SRC are the same to me -both unnaturally modify the behaviours of the animals making them associate humans as food and suppress their natural instincts to an extent. From a conservation point of view both are identical.

 

[Rhone Man]

It is funny how fast fish behaviour can modify. I have been in Grand Cayman for about 6 weeks now, and I couldn't figure out why I always had a pack of snapper following me on each dive like a pack of puppies.

Until I saw one snatch a lionfish off a spear. They get used to all the lionfish spearing and they think divers mean free meals.

---------- Post added October 13th, 2015 at 12:22 PM ----------

Im not saying which side of the fence im on with these things but ultimately the shark feeding and SRC are the same to me -both unnaturally modify the behaviours of the animals making them associate humans as food and suppress their natural instincts to an extent. From a conservation point of view both are identical.

Those and dozens of other things. If we don't want to influence animal behaviour, we should stay out of the water. Just sayin'.

 

[AggieDiver]

They had a similar experience with the sharks off of Little Cayman. It only took a few weeks of being fed lionfish off of spears from DMs before the sharks there started following divers around and getting aggressive about getting the lionfish from the DM. When they started wrestling with the DM's spear before they could even get the fish off of it, it was decided that they would no longer spear while on dives with paying customers. Now they go out periodically in the afternoons on a staff only dive and kill lionfish. It seems to keep the sharks from developing a sense for the pattern. The grouper will still go set up and point at lionfish though to make sure you know where they are.

 

[keyshunter]

We had something similar happen at one of the blue holes at Cay Sal. Shut down the engines--sharks are waiting. That area is pretty far from any inhabited island, and there are no mooring balls there. These sharks were not as pushy as those at New Providence, but they did stay close to us. We found out later that that was where Nekton was doing shark feeds.

 

[jonhall]

but ultimately the shark feeding and SRC are the same to me -both unnaturally modify the behaviours of the animals making them associate humans as food and suppress their natural instincts to an extent. From a conservation point of view both are identical.

[video]https://youtu.be/n4AnJLQmDrc[/video]

The green moray eel in this clip (assuming I got it posted correctly) followed us for more free handouts after it had a taste of the lion fish left, by the DM, on its doorstep.

 

[Dave_lucas]

Why do people view feeding wildlife on land differently than underwater? Growing up in Colorado it has been engrained in me that we should not feed wildlife not just for our safety but for the safety of the animal and the impact it has on their natural environment.

Supplemental feeding of game species is a bad idea (03-28-2014)

Colorado Parks & Wildlife - Junk Food

Woman arrested for feeding bears in Colorado Springs

Colorado Parks & Wildlife - Don't Domesticate

Maybe I have just been brainwashed all these years but my gut says that the less impact I have the better.

 

[drrich2]

Why do people view feeding wildlife on land differently than underwater?

In some ways, we don't. I think people tend to jump to thinking about feeding bears & alligators, desensitizing large predators to a human presence in a way believed to raise risks to people & the animals in question.

But not every terrestrial animal situation is viewed that way. Ever see a bird feeder? Hummingbird feeder? Squirrel feeder? What the road kill buffet we serve up all over our rural highways?

A great deal of wildlife feeding happens on land, so much so that some of it probably doesn't even occur to people as such, they've gotten so used to it.

Even there, impact needs to considered. I quit putting out bird seed regularly when the birds out back got to looking too fat, and I watched our dog grab & kill one I thought shouldn't have been such easy prey.

Oddly enough, in the 2nd link in post #29, consider this excerpt:

[h=2]What About Birds?[/h]Colorado Parks and Wildlife supports and encourages using backyard bird feeders to supplement natural food for song birds. Be sure that the food you provide song birds is fresh and clean. Also make sure you clean the feeder periodically. Common bird foods include sunflower seed and millet. Some birds also are attracted by fresh fruit. In addition to your feeder, be sure to offer a source of water for your backyard birds, year-round if possible. Remember, if you start a bird feeding program, some bird experts suggest you continue all winter and through spring. That way those birds that become dependent on the feeder will still have a source of food.
A word of caution, however. If you live in bear country, be aware that certain bird foods, particularly hummingbird nectar, are very attractive to bruins. Put your bird foods and hummingbird feeders away if you don’t want to inadvertently create potentially dangerous conflicts with our state’s largest predator close to your home. For more information, contact your nearest Colorado Parks and Wildlife office.

Why is feeding song birds peachy but giving a small reef shark a lion fish despicable? Maybe there's reason, but it's not as simple as 'because it's a wild animal.' So is the song bird...

Richard.