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You got from it what I intended. I am in the no feed court. Although at least one of the people in the vid is a friend. Maybe two..Interesting video. Kill fish you don't intend to eat. Acclimate predators to hand feeding. Interject oneself into a setting and change the behavioral dynamic. Zero concern for nature. 100% entertainment for humans.
It's not surprising considering the consumer driven society we live in. Those fish, those sharks: only products to be manipulated to create a purchasable experience.
SplitLip:
I enjoyed the video and imagine I'd have enjoyed the dive(s), though seeing the tiger sharks would've been spooky for me. For those of you who don't watch it, we see bull, lemon and tiger sharks and a goliath grouper, and there's considerable hand feeding of lemon sharks, particularly pulling the fish through the water while the shark follows, then letting go and pulling the hand away while the shark moves in and grabs the food. But at times the shark gets pretty close to the hand.
I wonder at the odds we'll eventually see an accident with this. Granted, there are driving accidents and most of us still drive, so a single accident wouldn't 'prove' much of anything, but consider:
1.) On a video shot overseas linked on the forum in the past, a guy has a plastic water bottle between his hands, rubbing back & forth to lure sharks. One maybe 4 or 5 feet long comes in quickly behind him and on his left, and reaches around him in very close quarters, trying to snatch the prey item. Could've easily grabbed a hand.
2.) Scuba masks plus the zoom effect of being underwater cut down our peripheral vision, and we are in a 3D world (we can be approached from above & below, not just the side, unlike most land situations).
1 + 2 = a second shark dashes in from your blind spot(s) and you don't see it coming.
3.) There's always the chance a shark will abruptly pour on the speed and dash in.
4.) I see divers wearing gloves, so their hands are black and contrast with the fish. Someone imitating this activity might not normally wear gloves, or think it might be important. But 'white' Caucasian hands look a lot like small fish. Is not wearing gloves an added risk issue?
5.) Does no one worry about a nearby barracuda making a dash in and grabbing at the food? I've seen a guy hand-feed barracuda on t.v.; they're so fast you could lose a hand before you see the fish. Even if you're good with 'reading' sharks, is that going to save you from a surprise barracuda?
Richard.
In my opinion if a large shark was serious about wanting to eat you there wouldn't be a whole lot you could to stop it. The sheer number of people diving with large sharks combined with the scarcity of major attacks on divers leads me to believe that the majority of the time sharks don't see us as a prey item.
On the other hand arguably these types encounters do in fact help generate a huge amount of public awareness and emphasis towards conservation
So it is a bit of a two edged sword.