Feeding Sharks

[DiveGolfSki]

I'm sure many on this site have read of the latest shark attack incident described in this article:

http://www.cdnn.info/news/safety/s050605b.html

Shark attacks are inevitable but after reading the article, I was drawn to the section:


According to the DEMA dive industry marketing group and PADI, a US-based company that sells diver certification cards, sports apparel and interactive shark feeding thrill dives, shark feeding is a multi-million dollar industry that "rebrands" sharks as cute, playful and friendly just like dolphin and orca aquarium shows.

Should shark feeding be allowed? If the practice of feeding bears is frowned upon, why not sharks?

[divetahoe]

I'm sure many on this site have read of the latest shark attack incident described in this article:

http://www.cdnn.info/news/safety/s050605b.html

Shark attacks are inevitable but after reading the article, I was drawn to the section:



Should shark feeding be allowed? If the practice of feeding bears is frowned upon, why not sharks?

I'm not a fan of feeding, but I think it shouldn't be banned outright. In theory I believe it should be allowed, just not anywhere near where other non-caged activities take place. Given the range that sharks travel, though, I don't know if attempting to segregate watersport activities is practical.

The quote that PADI is an agency that "sells diver certification cards, sports apparel and interactive shark feeding thrill dives..." is interesting at best. Being a PADI instructor, somewhere along the way I must have forgotten that all I do is sell a card. I guess I can skip the skills now..

[novicediver]

Shark feeding has NO place in the diving industry. We don't go to Alaska and feed the bears, why do we think it should be ok to go to the ocean and feed the sharks. padi is completely irresponsible for endorsing this practice and I encourage people to contact padi to denounce it.

[2 Bar]

I have been on a shark feeding dive in Nassau and loved it. But your bear feeding comparison makes sense. It's not natural for sharks to get food that way, so somewhere down the line the ecosystem is being tweaked.

Just curious. If you which would you liked changed first: shark feeding or hunting sharks for fin soup or making swimmers feel safe? I'm not being sarcastic. This is a true thought.

[novicediver]

Both practices should be abolished. Hunting sharks for their fins wastes the animal and pushes many species ever closer to extinction. Shark feeding programs will do little to make humans safer, in fact it will do the opposite. Sharks in the area equate human presence with food and if they don't have the food, they could become aggressive. Awareness of marine ecosystems is essential, but it can be accomplished without feeding programs.

[Lost_At_Sea]

Not everyone has a chance to see a shark in the wild on a regular dive. If someone wants to pay others to see sharks then let that person pay to see a shark feeding. It doesn't harm anyone, unless the shark feeder cuts himself in the process. As long as someone wants to see sharks in the wild, then there will always be shark feedings.

[HB Diver]

No finning, No feeding!

Both upset the balance and have consequences on even the lowest (slowest?) in the food chain.

[H2Andy]

Should shark feeding be allowed? If the practice of feeding bears is frowned upon, why not sharks?

don't forget that CDNN hates PADI and shark feeding, so they are not exactly
an unbiased source

that said, i don't think it's a good idea to interact with wild animals by feeding them

what's that sign at every cage at the zoo and at national parks? "Don't Feed the
Animals."

there's a reason for that

[ScubaMarine]

Should shark feeding be allowed? If the practice of feeding bears is frowned upon, why not sharks?


I dove with a boat in Key Largo this weekend and another boat was feeding the nurse sharks. I agree watching is very cool. It is rare to get so many sharks into one place while diving. Observing their feed was awesome! But!!!!! I also agree that by feeding sharks they become reliant on divers for food and one day they will be hungry and the diver won't have any food. We all know how this one goes.

As for bears, when I was younger we once went to a garbage dump in Northern, MN were they fed bears. People were able to get out of their cars and throw food, any kind of food. Since then the act is not only frowned upon but unlawful. All the bears had to be relocated because they no longer had any fear of man, instead they knew that people had food. The sad part comes when a bear or other wild animal attacks looking for food and they end up killing the animal.

[Mike Veitch]

Shark feeding = fun!

personally i love a good shark feed...http://bigblueimages.com/photogallery/Topside/mv00063.jpg

[novicediver]

Sorry but I am not impressed. Viewing sharks via feeding is pretty much a "canned" experience. The sharks will become accustomed to being hand fed and when a diver doesn't have food the consequences will be interesting to say the least.

[Mike Veitch]

Sorry but I am not impressed. Viewing sharks via feeding is pretty much a "canned" experience. The sharks will become accustomed to being hand fed and when a diver doesn't have food the consequences will be interesting to say the least.

I have taken part in hundreds of shark feeds, one day we do a shark feed in a certain location and voila 20-30 sharks show up. The next day we dive the same site with no food and we are lucky to see 5 or 6. They don't come close to the diver and show no sign of aggression, in fact they don't come within 30 feet.

Same site, same sharks, same food for the last 7 years, still no signs of aggression whatsoever when we dive with or without food.

The site where that photo was taken was in French Polynesia, an area where shark feeding takes place all over. I worked there for 2 years, same thing. If we show up with food the sharks get interested, see above photo, no food they pretty much ignore you and won't get 20 feet from you.

I am not saying that feeding doesn't affect their behaviour, it does, but not nearly to the extent that the media will have you believe.

[ScubaMarine]

I have taken part in hundreds of shark feeds, one day we do a shark feed in a certain location and voila 20-30 sharks show up. The next day we dive the same site with no food and we are lucky to see 5 or 6. They don't come close to the diver and show no sign of aggression, in fact they don't come within 30 feet.

Same site, same sharks, same food for the last 7 years, still no signs of aggression whatsoever when we dive with or without food.

The site where that photo was taken was in French Polynesia, an area where shark feeding takes place all over. I worked there for 2 years, same thing. If we show up with food the sharks get interested, see above photo, no food they pretty much ignore you and won't get 20 feet from you.

I am not saying that feeding doesn't affect their behaviour, it does, but not nearly to the extent that the media will have you believe.


Yeah, I guess you must be right. After all if you have been doing 7 years and the sharks never get aggressive then i guess they never will. They must be docile animals, almost domestic even. Cute as a kitten and soft as a puppy. Sure its fun, most people love to see sharks, I do. However, they happen to be wild and unpredictable. Im sure youve seen these stories with large wild cats attacking their trainer or caregiver.

Just because it hasn't happend doesn't mean it won't.

Also, whats wrong with only seeing 5-6 sharks?

[Mike Veitch]

Lets just say we all agree to disagree. This is one of those discussions that will just go around and around and nothing will ever be worked out. Sort of like that whole DIR thing.... :)

I enjoy sharkfeeding and will continue to do so, if i get bit well thats my problem and a chance i am willing to take. I certainly won't blame the shark if/when it happens.

If you are opposed to shark feeding the answer is very easy, don't partake in shark feeding dives or visit areas where they occur.

[sharkbaitDAN]

I will add my 2 cents as a former shark feeder in Freeport, and someone who has done limited research the subject academically. The sharks that we fed did not show up every day as Mike notes, though there were usually at least one or two around in the afternoon. The sharks fed normally at night and in the morning, with most sharks getting one fish during the feeding. We never advertised the sharks as cute or cuddly, that's why I wore armor, and extensively warned people about sudden movements with their hands.

I do not think that equating shark feeds to feeding bears is accurate. A hiker looks like any other person walking outside, and a bear will learn to associate people with food. A scuba diver does not generally resemble a human to a shark. All of the metal will give a shark a different electrical sense of a diver than a swimmer, and this is doubly true for chain mail divers. In addition, the bubbles create noise and several things contribute to divers not looking like normal swimmers. My evidence fro alll of this is merely my experience, albeit limited. I never witnessed or heard about a shark even noticing normal divers off of freeport, and they usually swam away when divers entered the water. Sharks would approach a diver clad in chain mail, but would swim away if food was not present. When food was present, the sharks only paid attention to the feeder, and ignored everything else in the water.

The only shark attack of a swimmer off of Freeport that I know of, was by a BUll shark near shore. While several hundred yards from the site where the sharks were fed, I never heard of a Bull shark attending a feed conducted by any of the shops. And yes, we did trade stories, including when where a tiger showed up one morning during a staff only practice. Nothing happened.

[saildiver]

I will add my 2 cents as a former shark feeder in Freeport, and someone who has done limited research the subject academically. The sharks that we fed did not show up every day as Mike notes, though there were usually at least one or two around in the afternoon. The sharks fed normally at night and in the morning, with most sharks getting one fish during the feeding. We never advertised the sharks as cute or cuddly, that's why I wore armor, and extensively warned people about sudden movements with their hands.

I do not think that equating shark feeds to feeding bears is accurate. A hiker looks like any other person walking outside, and a bear will learn to associate people with food. A scuba diver does not generally resemble a human to a shark. All of the metal will give a shark a different electrical sense of a diver than a swimmer, and this is doubly true for chain mail divers. In addition, the bubbles create noise and several things contribute to divers not looking like normal swimmers. My evidence fro alll of this is merely my experience, albeit limited. I never witnessed or heard about a shark even noticing normal divers off of freeport, and they usually swam away when divers entered the water. Sharks would approach a diver clad in chain mail, but would swim away if food was not present. When food was present, the sharks only paid attention to the feeder, and ignored everything else in the water.

The only shark attack of a swimmer off of Freeport that I know of, was by a BUll shark near shore. While several hundred yards from the site where the sharks were fed, I never heard of a Bull shark attending a feed conducted by any of the shops. And yes, we did trade stories, including when where a tiger showed up one morning during a staff only practice. Nothing happened.
Hey Mike and SharkBaitDan-I have spent a lot of time studying sharks in the last 35 years...I even did silly things in my youth like pulling White-tips out of thier caves while they were asleep (I used to think they were so docile-until one almost bit me-then I saw them on a night dive going crazy-aggressive on the reefs and I started to respect them like I should have from the beginning)-I've swam with Tigers,Great Hammerheads,Sivertips,Bulls,Bronze Whalers,Oceanic White -Tips,Blues,and schools of angry territorial Grey reefs-all the "biters". I've had to push away a few sharks in a few close encounters and it was no fun. Most of those times I was spearfishing -which is,according to the records kept on shark attacks by the Global Shark File,the 2nd leading riskiest activity associated with shark attacks(surfing =#1). So in these instances of shark attack on spearfishers-we have bloody fish in the water-with divers (with or with out scuba)who don't look human because of thier wetsuits,masks,fins,etc-but they are still being attacked at a rate even higher than swimmers,or waders. Personally, I don't know what the sharks do after they leave your shark feeds(and I know that you don't either)-we don't know where they go,how far,or how over stimulated they are or not by the feeding frenzy they have just been involved in or how is that changing their behavior over time towards humans or other marine creatures in the marine environment-ie,does it create more aggressive sharks to go thru regular violent frenzies like this -we don't know.But I personally feel that the bear analogy is a fair one...we did not see the links for a long time between bear attacks in parks and their attraction to the cooking smells, food remnants,and smells left behind on table tops or from food brought into tents. It has become a huge problem over the years as the bears have learned to rely on getting food from cars in some parks by ripping open doors and windows. As the food sources for bears has become depleted-our food ,or we our selves are more tempting as a meal when they are very hungry and can take advantage of us. Bear attacks are rare and shark attacks are rare events-we don't understand yet why some sharks will suddenly attack or not-until we know a lot more...I do think we can take people on dives where they can see and appreciate sharks with out sharkfeeding-just as people can see bears without bear feeding programs. And it gets even more sticky when the people who are defending it the most on this thread are/have making money from sharkfeeding. If the public percieves the diving community making the waters more unsafe for them,they will kill even more sharks,(just like they do to the bears), and you will have fewer sharks to see/feed...there's got to be a better way to let people see sharks and enhance their appreciation(I've probably seen over 20,000 sharks and I've only been on one shark dive-which I didn't think was nearly as exciting as coming on them "naturally"). In other words-"if in doubt,do no harm"....Peace...Saildiver.

[getwet2]

I really don't think a Bear or a Shark looks at a human and thinks "THAT'S A HUMAN"

I think they look at us and see us either as a threat because we are in their space or as a potential meal, in which case they will either try us out to see how we taste or decide we're too big and go after something a little smaller.

As for feeding Sharks, i don't agree with it. They are eventually going to become couch potatoes by over eating just because it's there. They won't clean up the oceans as they usually do because they will be full and not have the appetite to eat. So all the sick,old and weak fish that they normally eat will be free to continue on. Just my 2 cents!