Please stop feeding the sharks at half moon caye

[drbill]

Interesting. I haven't been to Half Moon Caye in almost 10 years, but I dove there frequently when I worked on an eco-cruise ship running from Belize City to Utila and back. I don't even remember seeing a shark back then (although I should probably check my video footage to be sure).

 

[LiquidDivingAdventure]

I hope this isn't considered too far off the thread...related to behavior in general, not specific to feeding sharks. Some years back (20+) I was living and diving in Kailua-Kona on the Big Island, Hawaii. Atlantis Submarines was just starting their operation in the Kailua bay. The operators didn't think there were adequate fish to attract tourists so they had a couple of divers spreading chum around. Some of the first critters to arrive on the scene were moray eels who in a short time had their behavior modified enough to where they became a bit cranky and a lot aggressive when not fed. After a couple of the Atlantis divers were bit they decided feeding the wildlife wasn't such a good idea after all. Of course the locals who were not amused by the sub operation started singing the song you all have probably heard.... (sung to the tune of "when the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie...") Stick-a your hand in a crack, iff-a your hand don't come back, that's a Moray...

 

[chillyinCanada]

Interesting. I haven't been to Half Moon Caye in almost 10 years, but I dove there frequently when I worked on an eco-cruise ship running from Belize City to Utila and back. I don't even remember seeing a shark back then (although I should probably check my video footage to be sure).

Until a couple of years ago, I hadn't seen any sharks there either. Nowadays there are four of them, I see regularly.

 

[fred3798]

Just came back from a week at TIR. We heard about Mike's shark adventure. It seems to have scared Daniel and the Managers a bit. We have gone twice. Last year we dove with Marcel and Brad. This year we dove with Daniel and John. They are both top notch teams. Daniel has a nice slow, laid back pace and loves to point out the little stuff. We had a great night dive with a very active octopus; lots of weird tiger tail cucumbers, and a big scorpionfish.

we saw fewer sharks at Half Moon Caye than last time. There were also noticeably less fish everywhere. The staff say that uncontrolled commercial over-fishing is to blame. Lion fish must be part of the problem. They are everywhere.

I agree with Mike about the food. I am not a sophisticated seafood lover. I am a meatatarian for sure. I found a few meals to be not to my taste due to the seafood content. I ate lots of salad and veggies. The burgers certainly had breadcrumbs or some other filler. The new managers seem like very nice people. They also seem to have an agenda that is not clearly articulated. I wonder if the hospitality industry is for them in the long run. But I have no complaints. I went for beautiful reefs, close to the resort, and beautiful accommodations. Food was never promised to be gourmet although I was happier on my first trip than with the nouvelle cuisine.

I also note note that they do one tank dives two or three times a day. My experience elsewhere is that 2 two tank dives is the norm for the price.

i thinks the reefs are as nice as I have seen in the Caribbean. They are lush, colourful and full of corals. Sponges were apparently devastated by a hurricane 5 years ago. There are still lots. There are a large variety of fish but not huge numbers. There are lots of fish that follow the dive master expecting to eat lionfish. We could almost name a few of the big mutton snappers and the queen trigger. We also had 2 or 3 green morays following us at some sites. We noticed that the other fish gave the morays much respect. As cool as it is to see a big one, being followed by 2 or 3 hungry ones was a bit unnerving at times.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Fred and Mike, what about the barracudas? While they've never seemed particularly aggressive it's obvious that they are expecting something for their time. That said, one should still stay vigilant. One dive, a barracuda went for a newer female diver's head. I saw it going for her, though i tried was too far back to get there on time. Fortunately, the DM noted my change in behavior and saw the problem. He got there and gave it a punch that sent it off course. Later, the DM said he'd never seen that before and we were all quite curious what made her different. We never were able to figure it out. No jewelry or extra color. Odd.

One of the morays at Aquarium, slipped through my legs from behind and swam up by my chest before moving back into the wall. Gave me a helluva start.

Gee, sure wish i still there.

 

[fred3798]

We saw several lone barracudas. One was at a cleaning station and had turned a mottled black colour -apparently a sign to cleaners that he or she is safe to clean. We had a barracuda follow us for a dive seemingly waiting for lionfish like the others. But it never moved in and it let the queen trigger and the mutton snapper have them. No issues for us.

There were way, way fewer big fish this time. We saw a few Nassau groupers and I think one or two black groupers of a decent size. But last time there was a lot of both and some were huge.

 

[drrich2]

We also had 2 or 3 green morays following us at some sites. We noticed that the other fish gave the morays much respect. As cool as it is to see a big one, being followed by 2 or 3 hungry ones was a bit unnerving at times.

I would imagine so! Especially since morays reputedly have poor eye sight. At least I'm usually fairly confident barracuda can see that I'm not something to eat. With a moray I'm not so sure. Back in May in Bonaire I was swimming along the reef (at Tolo/Ol'Blue I think) and suddenly a big free swimming green and I were facing each other from maybe 4 or 5 feet apart, and there was that mutual moment of 'Uh, hello...and what are you gonna do?' Then it swam off away from me.

I like to see big green morays, but the idea of 2 or 3 following me, that would take some getting used to.

Richard.

 

[Mike]

Welcome back Fred! Your review of the food gives me some solace that I'm not just the odd ball in regard to it.

In my opinion, the whole reefs 'fished off' is nonsense and what's a typical response by people who either don't really dive regularly or are looking for another excuse. Nobody over fishes the juveniles on a reef which are missing, but the lion fish certainly eat the crap out of them. The entire Caribbean is unfortunately looking sparser and sparser due to lion fish, with the exception of Florida around the keys which is still very fishy for some reason.

If you look at the average in regard to the size of the lion fish being killed on dives at the dive sites of TIR, you know that they are medium to large, which means in order to get that big they are living unmolested lives at the dive sites for quite awhile before they are killed, if you dive in busier areas like Cozumel you notice that the average lionfish size killed at the dive sites is tiny to small. The remoteness and non-busyness of the diving sites around TIR which was always a positive is now unfortunately in my guess actually to their detriment in that dive masters who care enough to cull the lionfish on their dives there unfortunately only see many of the dive sites once a week on average at best, so the lionfish are eating away unmolested and the reefs are showing the results of their lack of traffic. Just my opinion but I've been studying this epidemic since it started and taking mental notes for years in various locations in the Caribbean and I think my take on this is pretty accurate and logical.

The amount of baracuddas we saw was relatively a tiny number compared to other places. They typically give me the creeps anyways, but one was particularly creepy, it too was at a cleaning station but it just seemed odd and exuded a dangerous air to it that made you stay clear, that was the only one that I recall being memorable.

In regard to the fish following, there were some triggers and mutton snappers that definitely are figuring it out, but to Daniel's credit he was always very respectful in regard to he never actually killed a lion fish and presented it to any predictors directly, every time I watched him, he was careful to kill or wound a lionfish and then carefully stick it into a crevasse or notch in the reef and leave it to be 'found' by a predator, with many times resulted in us moving along disappointed in no show as the lionfish wasn't even discovered by anything while we milled around in the area.

 

[Doubler]

The Aggressor fed the sharks on my last trip and I was none to pleased. During lunch one of the crew would fish off the back of the boat, then cut the fish up and place it in a feed bucket tied to the wall. We would then start the dive with the old " Sometimes there are reef sharks here" and never once was it mentioned they were feeding. Located the bucket during the dive and did the math. I love diving with sharks. Not "pet" sharks. Somebody is going to get hurt.

 

[Mike]

The Aggressor fed the sharks on my last trip and I was none to pleased. During lunch one of the crew would fish off the back of the boat, then cut the fish up and place it in a feed bucket tied to the wall. We would then start the dive with the old " Sometimes there are reef sharks here" and never once was it mentioned they were feeding. Located the bucket during the dive and did the math. I love diving with sharks. Not "pet" sharks. Somebody is going to get hurt.

Thank you for your first hand report. There has been plenty of denial that any feeding is going on there, there has also been plenty of verification, including yours. I didn't really care about the deniers and their rationalizations as I can recognize marine life that have had their behavior changed due to feeding.