To feed or not to feed. That is the question.

"To feed or not to feed. That is the question. It has polarized divers in Florida, aroused strong opinions throughout the global diving community and turned friends into enemies.
In one corner stands Bob Dimond and friends supported by a grassroots coalition of environmental groups. In the other corner stands PADI, DEMA and a powerful coalition of dive industry heavies. The war is over shark feeding and the battle lines are being drawn across each and every Florida coastal community."

So the question is in what corner do you stand in?

I dont understand...its not the scuba diver thats getting bit by the sharks.

Also the last shark dive that I was on was out in the middle of no where, not 30 feet off shore where there is no visability!

For the people that dont live in Flordia, welcome to the state where everyone is always looking for someone to sue...because it's not "our fault"

That's a big negative in my book.

I have one and only one good reason

It get's sharks "used" to being around human beings and more specifically DIVERS... I'm sorry but this is a bad thing.

The scariest thing about diving (I think a lot will agree with me) is that "things" can come from any direction be it up down left right... INCLUDING SHARKS...

I know some people get all stoked on seeing them... I DON'T LIKE IT...

SCARES THE BEJESUS OUT OF ME... anyhow, they are best viewed from a distance (preferrably an enclosed distance like Sea World) and a curious hungry shark looking for handouts is not my idea of a GOOD TIME...

So there ya have it... anyone else (this will be one of those 10 page posts eventually)

I see pros and cons on both sides.

I like the idea of doing shark dives the way ours was conducted here in socal, by chumming and letting them come in. I am not to keen on kneeling in a circle with someone dangling bait to have them come in and take the bait and then go into a frenzy. BUT, I have never participated in one of those kind of dives so I don't really know what all is involved, just what I have read.

Now is that talking out of both sides of the mouth or what? I should have been a politican.

If the reason they want to ban shark feeding is simply on the basis of the recent shark attacks, no, sorry, wrong reason. Different sharks, different neighborhood, and in some cases stupidity on the part of the people who were attacked. On the basis that it takes the shark out of it's normal predatory environment, looking for handouts, yup.

I'm ready for the diluge.

The move to ban shark feeding started long before the recent attacks. I don't know of anyone who believes these latest attacks are the result of shark feeding. There is a belief that these feedings may lead to attacks in the future.

WWW™

Ditto Wheezy!

Sorry Socal, I would love to dive with y'all California Kelp Divers someday, but that chumming just to get a look at sharks has got to go. Bad idea.

I just gotta believe that anything that associates humans, whether that be divers in a circle, a cage or whatever, with feeding is just a recipe for disaster.

IMUHO

BLT, everyone has there opinion and I respect yours as well as others. However, I feel there is a difference #1 in what I participated in versus the "shark feeding" that is being addressed.

Secondly, and this may be stretching it a little but something that I did not mention in my initial dive report is that during our dive we captured a small blue and put a tag on him as part of a research project. There was vital information that was logged along with the tag #. If and when this shark is caught, hopefully they will notice the tag, the reward offered for information about the shark, etc. On a dive done last year (I was not on the boat) they tagged a shark that earlier this year was caught off the coast of Japan.

Jim, that is why I worded my earlier post the way I did. To me it depends on the circumstances. Chumming to draw them in so we could observe them and do the tagging afterwards I think is dif, IMHO.

I'm against it. Sure there are concerns that sharks might equate humans with food, but mainly I feel that sharks are a part of wildlife. and should be left wild. There's not enough wilderness left in the world. We don't need to turn what's left into a big petting zoo.

I'm not buying the arguement that it helps people to better understand the species. Sure, maybe it does to some degree but, I feel most of those people are there for a thrill. Kind of like a rollercoaster ride. Do we ride roller coasters to better understand rollercoasters? No. We ride them because they are exciting. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not against interaction with sharks. I would like to see one myself. I just feel like chumming or the kneeling in the circle thing is a bit much.

I would rather encounter one in a more natural way. (O.K. now I'm gonna piss some southern boys off) It's kind of like putting out corn before hunting season to condition the deer to feed under your tree stand. Again, don't get me wrong. I'm not against hunting. I grew up huntng deer, ducks, geese, quail, pheasant, just about everything you can hunt,(that lives in the Nebraska panhandle anyhows). I just feel kind of like it's cheating. Now deer were really plentiful in Nebraska, and maybe not so much in North Texas, and that is why it is done.

I just can't get used to it. It's about hunting not killing. Stalking your prey on it's terms. If your successful, great. If not, hunt again. I've had good hunting trips where I didn't get a thing. Anyhows, I guess I'm saying that seeing sharks and interacting with them is O.K., just do it in a more natural way .. not holding a bag full of bloody fish so tourists can pet them.

Zagnutt........kudos to you mate. I cannot agree more. This is part of the reason we dive. TOO SEE WILDLIFE IN THEIR OWN HABITAT. We wouldn't have a bear feeding frenzy with an audiance.

Well, I get PO'd when I read about shark feeding etc.

:fury:

I confess: I have been a participant on shark dives. To be exact, Stuart Cove's Shark Adventures. It is a dive intended for pleasure and profit--the divers' pleasure and Stuart Cove's profit. They do no research, no tagging, no scientific observation--just pure capitalism at its best or worse.

I have also seen lots and lots of sharks on vanilla dives. And, as I have expressed in another Forum, I like to do reality checks to make sure that I am not becoming complacent.

But, in truth, the feeding issue, to date, in my mind, is strictly philosophical. There is no well-grounded statistical link that I have ever seen between shark attacks on humans and shark feeding--none! Of course, that reminds me of something has been attributed to Mark Twain (I am too lazy to get our Bartlett's and verify.): "There are lies, damn lies, and statistics."

The philisophical issue is the "treading lightly" issue. How much should we intrude on the environment to satisfy our desires for pleasure? How much fossil fuel do you want to burn to compress that air, fuel that jet that takes you to exotic places in which to dive, burn on that boat taking 6 of you to the dive site, etc.? How much toxic waste do you want to create to have neoprene made for your wet suit? How about some of those other high tech materials you use in your pursuit of diving? Do you know what kind of waste is created in order to make those chips that are the heart and soul of your dive computer? It is really nasty stuff; and some of it is not properly disposed of! And on and on and on.....

Do you honestly think you only leave bubbles?

Like I said, there is probably no "right" answer here................

Joewr--who, contrary to popular opinion, does have a serious side...and is awaiting the INCOMING!