Playa del Carmen Dive Ops and Shark Chumming

[RU4SKUBA]

Personally I'm not a fan of chumming for shark dives and I was wondering if anyone has collected a list of dive ops that chum? I was there last November when 14-16 bull sharks were pulled off the Playa reef by fishermen who bribed the local dive shops for the location. They were of course after their fins and probably made a few bucks on the deal but cost the reef some precious jewels, IMO.

I was reading Trip Advisor feedback on Phantom Divers and it appears they do, indeed, chum for their shark dives. Anybody else know of ops that also chum, so I can take them off my list of responsible dive operators?

 

[markmantei]

I have heard that as well, although I can't speak personally to it as I have never used them for that reason. Abyss Dive Center across the street certainly does NOT chum.

 

[phantom divers]

For those that are against chumming:
chumming does not necessarily mean irresponsible, it depends how its done...
what i think is wrong, is supporting Hippocratic dive centers who declare themselves against chumming, they take their clients to the same dive site where the chumming takes place, dropping divers on top or close by to the feeding activities, so this way
they can assure divers to see sharks, how sad.....
so if you are against chumming, don't dive in playa del carmen because the sharks are attracted by some dive ops in benefit to the ones that do not chum.
besides chumming we are also pushing to regulate this dive so its done in a responsible and safe way.
also we have been asking for protecting the sharks, here is a little pay back to all our efforts:

Mexico Will Ban Shark Fishing as Global Sanctuary Movement Grows - NYTimes.com






i will not waste time engaging in nonsense arguments. if yo wish you can learn more:
Dive in Mexico - Dive Playa del Carmen and Cozumel: Search results for sharks
enjoy

 

[RU4SKUBA]

Maybe the best protection you can give the sharks is to simply leave them the **** alone?

You have NO idea how your monetary-driven ambitions have affected them... and don't think yourself innocent just because you didn't pull them out yourselves. If they were killed because you guaranteed --for a profit-- their return to a known location then you share AT LEAST half the responsibility and blame.

And don't trivialize the slaughter of the shark by describing it as a "nonsense argument" as you so eloquently put it. If you can't see your footprint on the world then you're simply not looking hard enough or simply don't care.

 

[JCGE]

If you think Chum should not be used then you should just not dive with sharks. Just because the operation you dive with doesn't chum doesn't mean the sharks just come around because they like you. They are there because someone (other dive operation) is chuming. So please, don't be a hypocrite, if you are diving with sharks, you are supporting chuming.

 

[Mike]

If you think Chum should not be used then you should just not dive with sharks. Just because the operation you dive with doesn't chum doesn't mean the sharks just come around because they like you. They are there because someone (other dive operation) is chuming. So please, don't be a hypocrite, if you are diving with sharks, you are supporting chuming.

That's BS. You shops that are chumming and want to take credit for bull sharks being there, what did you do, start chumming in an area that had no sharks and pulled them in from 2000 miles away with your chumming? The sharks were always there, chumming only increases the odds for quantity and increases the odds for viewing them on more of a guaranteed basis.

Chumming is about business greed and nothing else. Instead of having a dive operation who's marketing is "You might see a bull shark, you might not..." it allows you to ultimately in the extreme to say "money back guarantee if you don't see a bullshark on the dive". Nothing but greed. It allows you to market past the less in number more eco-friendly diver who understands nature is nature and you may or may not see what you are seeking, and pull in the more guaranteed, higher number cruise ship mentality customers who wants you to take them on a dive and if you have to, bring a bull shark along with you just so they can snap a souvenir picture and buy the T-shirt when they get back that says "I dove with sharks!".

Stop the BS. Take ownership of the greed that promotes you to chum.

 

[drrich2]

We know chumming is done in pursuit of profit, but then again, most businesses are run for profit, which generally involves pleasing the customer. People pay a lot of money for rare (sometimes one-time) trips, and there's a lot to be said for making that expenditure in time, money & other resources pay off.

That said, obviously shark finning is widely considered evil and to be discouraged. As Mike pointed out, chumming didn't pull in sharks from a vast range, but from a more local area. If fishermen wanted to poach sharks, couldn't they have caught them by chumming for awhile themselves, without relying on dive op. chumming? I'd think fishermen would by the nature of their trade generate lots of fish guts, fish heads, etc... Wouldn't it be practical to just dump a load in the same area for a few weeks, then come in & catch the sharks? When I've read about shark dives elsewhere, it seemed not a great deal of meat had to be used. Do the fishermen need the dive op.s to pull this off?

Richard.

 

[Mike]

Richard - my guess would be this - there have always been bull sharks off the beaches of Playa Del Carmen, however have there always been as many in one location or was this a modification to their behavior by the douche bag dive ops chumming them for the last few years and causing them to #1 patrol a smaller and smaller area because of the chumming modification, and #2 start associating either divers or dive boats or boats in general with free food?

I'd guess the fisherman found out about how there is a large, easy target of bull sharks in a certain area thanks to the dive ops chumming them and the fisherman went after an easy paycheck.

I guess if these dive ops want to blame divers for them chumming sharks, that logic follows that it's easy to blame the dive ops for the death of the sharks due to them attracting them to the area to exploit.

 

[drrich2]

...and causing them to #1 patrol a smaller and smaller area because of the chumming modification, and #2 start associating either divers or dive boats or boats in general with free food?

That concerns me. One of the quips I like to make to people is that if they want to scuba dive with sharks, they can either dive the Bahamas (with a shark feeding dive if they want to 'make sure,') or spend a big chunk on great white diving at Guadalupe, or...take up spear fishing. It's my understanding from the forum that if you spear fish frequently, sooner or later you're apt to see a shark of some sort (I wonder how high the likelihood is). If so, I imagine this, too, could lead to sharks associating people with food, although I'd think the impact would be much smaller than chumming.

Similarly to the recent discussion of whether feeding lion fish to morays in Bonaire might be risking eels accosting divers, I wonder whether these bull sharks will likewise pose a risk down the road.

Richard.

 

[Mike]

I think all your questions are the right question to be asking, I only wish more people were asking them.