Dive boat operators face charges of illegally feeding sharks in state waters

[Amazz]

Dan:

This is truly amazing considering that you and I were on a boat last year in Palm Beach County waters where sharks were illegally fed. Do you remember that? If not, I can name the operation and the person illegally feeding the sharks; maybe that will help your memory. Because, I cannot believe that someone would be posting the things you are posting considering that you took part in an illegal shark feed last year. Perhaps you can comment on that? Is it ok if you participate in the illegal shark feeding?

Also, you asked if someone could facilitate a meeting between you and the Calypso people. Come one Dan, you're a big boy, you know where the boat docks and you could come by anytime you want. In fact, I've seen you drive by before but you failed to stop. Accordingly, I will facilitate the meeting. We will be at the dock, leaving at 7 am Saturday; please come by, we would love to talk to you.

Also, I hope you have a factual basis for making those statements about shark feeding on Breaker's Reef. You have not specifically identified anyone yet. In the world that I live in, we have names for lies, they go by the names of defamation, libel, and slander. Accordingly, I truly hope you can identify these so-called divers.

Finally, please tell me where these aggressive sharks are located. In almost 1,500 dives, I have never seen a shark make an aggressive move towards a diver. I will make you a deal, if you can show me where I can get close to a shark for a great pic without a dead fish, I will give you $1,000. Let's do this dive; I want to see it. I bet you wont because you are doing nothing but spewing lies.

And, don't forget, I want to hear your answer as to why it was ok for you to do an illegal shark feeding dive last year in Palm Beach County. If you attempt to lie and do not provide a satisfactory answer, I will name the operator, the person doing the illegal shark feeding, the date of the illegal shark feed, and the pics from the event. Don't be scared Dan; I want to hear your explanation.

Good work buddy. No aggression whatsoever on shark canyon yesterday. No aggression whatsoever near Randy's lemon site a few weeks ago on my boat AND we shot fish. This individual keeps repeating himself in hopes of convincing the world that he is the know all of sharks and diving. Facilitate a meeting? I'd pay admission to see you do that. But like you said, it's well known by all where Calypso and Emerald dock. I never cared for smoke blowers or hypocrites. And yes this whole debate sounds more like operators fighting for business and their loyal customer defenders.

 

[Doug Kahle]

Dan:

We've played the game of shooting the spear gun in the sand; it does not work. The sharks will start circling, but they don't come too close. The shark is very smart; the sound of the gun brings it in, but it figures out in a matter of seconds that there is no dead fish, then it leaves. Again, we've played that game. Incidentally, apparently, its ok for a spear fisher to change shark behavior like this? Again, I will give you $1,000 if you can bring a shark close to me for a great pic without a dead fish; I can't wait to see these aggressive sharks that approach divers with no dead fish.

Do you see any Bull Shark pics from me? You know why that is? Because I cannot get one to come close to me with a crate of dead, bloody fish. I would kill to get a pic of one with a Cobia, but, I have not been able to do it for my second season of trying weekend after weekend with a lot of dead fish. And, it's not just Bull Sharks. We had a Tiger today and yesterday that we could not get close with a crate filled with dead, bloody fish. I'd estimate that only 25% of the Lemons came close; the others were too shy. But, yet, now I'm supposed to believe that sharks are aggressively approaching divers who have no fish? BULL****!!! A bunch of jealous liars! Again, show this to me -- I can't get them close with a crate of bloody fish.

Dan, we all know you are Jim's parrot. Jim is upset that he is not even the shark guy in his very own marina; and, he does not even make the top-3 in Florida. Jim did nothing to bring shark diving to Palm Beach County; and, I don't think his ego likes that. Also, I know a diver who said he did 4 Great Hammer trips on the Shearwater, a cost of over $10,000; and he saw a grand total of 1 Great Hammer from a distance. Yet, we get them out here on a weekly basis. Do you think Jim likes that one's best bet to see a Great Hammer is to avoid the Shearwater and dive for a $100 on the Emerald or Calypso?

He behaved like a child regarding the Lemon Sharks -- I lost a considerable amount of respect for him due to his ridiculous behavior.

Anytime you want to see how we do it, feel free to book a trip; but, they fill-up well in advance; so, book early.

 

[danvolker]

Dan:

We've played the game of shooting the spear gun in the sand; it does not work. The sharks will start circling, but they don't come too close. The shark is very smart; the sound of the gun brings it in, but it figures out in a matter of seconds that there is no dead fish, then it leaves. Again, we've played that game. Incidentally, apparently, its ok for a spear fisher to change shark behavior like this? Again, I will give you $1,000 if you can bring a shark close to me for a great pic without a dead fish; I can't wait to see these aggressive sharks that approach divers with no dead fish.

Do you see any Bull Shark pics from me? You know why that is? Because I cannot get one to come close to me with a crate of dead, bloody fish. I would kill to get a pic of one with a Cobia, but, I have not been able to do it for my second season of trying weekend after weekend with a lot of dead fish. And, it's not just Bull Sharks. We had a Tiger today and yesterday that we could not get close with a crate filled with dead, bloody fish. I'd estimate that only 25% of the Lemons came close; the others were too shy. But, yet, now I'm supposed to believe that sharks are aggressively approaching divers who have no fish? BULL****!!! A bunch of jealous liars! Again, show this to me -- I can't get them close with a crate of bloody fish.

Dan, we all know you are Jim's parrot. Jim is upset that he is not even the shark guy in his very own marina; and, he does not even make the top-3 in Florida. Jim did nothing to bring shark diving to Palm Beach County; and, I don't think his ego likes that. Also, I know a diver who said he did 4 Great Hammer trips on the Shearwater, a cost of over $10,000; and he saw a grand total of 1 Great Hammer from a distance. Yet, we get them out here on a weekly basis. Do you think Jim likes that one's best bet to see a Great Hammer is to avoid the Shearwater and dive for a $100 on the Emerald or Calypso?

He behaved like a child regarding the Lemon Sharks -- I lost a considerable amount of respect for him due to his ridiculous behavior.

Anytime you want to see how we do it, feel free to book a trip; but, they fill-up well in advance; so, book early.

Doug, I did say that I would pass on posting until after this meeting you orchestrate.....but I will just respond now, that Abenethy has NOT wanted to get involved in this issue....and he actually does not see Randy as a villain.....or as doing anything bad.

I am NOT his parrot, or, I would have taken his position and said nothing.....

I have done enough spearfishing to know "how" to bring sharks in...with sloppy spearfishing practices...all the things we learned "not to do" 2 decades ago, are apparently cool to do for getting good video....

I really wish there was some way it could be proven that Randy and Calypso are correct, and that no changes will occur to the behavior after feeding....I am not quite sure why this would be so different from so many other predators that scientists has shown become dangerous if fed by humans....If you could safely do these feeds, it would be a huge economic boon to Palm Beach.... But...right now, the majority of divers are going to be against this....and this is easy enough to demonstrate.....we could run polls in each of the PB county dive shops, for their customers.
After a month of this, you should get a fairly good sample base for this issue. So I suppose the question then--would be: "Do you, or Randy, or Calypso, care if the majority of the local divers are against this feeding."
I will go so far as to say that if the result was that the majority did not care about this....I would offer a complete apology for trying to explain a what I thought was a majority position--but that was only a minority opinion. I am not expecting this could happen, but you have my word here in print, that should this be the result, I would apologize.
If it goes the other way though...would you guys?

 

[The Chairman]

Dan,

If you ran the same poll asking these divers if they are "for" spear fishing, what do you think you would see? About the same thin, I would suspect. I get the desire to get everyone to do things your way, but that's not how America was built. You want Randy to prove a negative: that feeding sharks changes their behavior up and down the coast. Actually, it would be up to you to prove the positive: that changes do exist. If you get those figures, then trot them out to your US Senator and try to get them to act on it. Other than that, if it's not against the law, don't expect people just to do things your way because you think they should.

 

[Doug Kahle]

Dan:

Your argument has now boiled down to "the majority does not agree with it." Truly pathetic! The majority once thought the earth was flat; the majority once thought the sun revolved around the earth; the majority once thought women should not vote; the majority once approved of slavery and segregation; need I go on? Wow, again, truly pathetic. That's as bad as citing "tradition" in support of your position. Stick to the merits of the argument, once you defer and resort to "tradition" and "the majority," you've thrown in the towel; you've given up; you've lost.

I bet the majority of divers would like to outlaw spear-fishing. So, if the majority does in fact dislike spear-fishing, will you seek to ban it?

Seriously, speak your bull**** to divers too inexperienced to know better. By the way, looks like a lot of spear-fishers on spearboard defending Randy.

 

[danvolker]

Dan:

Your argument has now boiled down to "the majority does not agree with it." Truly pathetic! The majority once thought the earth was flat; the majority once thought the sun revolved around the earth; the majority once thought women should not vote; the majority once approved of slavery and segregation; need I go on? Wow, again, truly pathetic. That's as bad as citing "tradition" in support of your position. Stick to the merits of the argument, once you defer and resort to "tradition" and "the majority," you've thrown in the towel; you've given up; you've lost.

I bet the majority of divers would like to outlaw spear-fishing. So, if the majority does in fact dislike spear-fishing, will you seek to ban it?

Seriously, speak your bull**** to divers too inexperienced to know better. By the way, looks like a lot of spear-fishers on spearboard defending Randy.

And here I was thinking that I was chatting with a guy who exists with the belief that the laws represent the majority... And a guy that is well aware that the FWC
believes that the PUBLIC wants them to act on this....I am sure you saw the TV news on this--that was the general slant, right?

Fishing and spearfishing appears to be a larger and far more active lobby than recreational divers can muster. And...I used to spearfish, and I feel it is the best way to harvest fish responsibly. But as I posted before, all the serious spear fisherman I used to shoot with in the 80's and nineties, all swore by the belief that you never, ever should feed your catch to the sharks.....We could probably get Frank Hammett on the phone, and get him recorded answering this....And from the 50's to around 2002 or so, no one was spearfishing and purposely feeding sharks....My point being, it never hurt shark behavior in over 4 decades of heavy spearfishing, so I can't imagine divers seeing spearfishing as a threat to their diving. Some might not want to dive in a group of spear fisherman, but that is a different matter.

If you want to start dropping "bombs" like your final comment, you and I know each other, and this would be far more "useful" for you to do in person...

 

[djtimmy77]

Dan, maybe if Doug had freediving fins he could get decent shark pics without baiting them.....

 

[Doug Kahle]

Dan:

The "laws represent the majority." I'm not sure what that means, but I think I do. And, you're wrong again. Our entire legal system is based on the ability of a single judge to tell the majority that they are full of crap. In turn, as the decision of that single judge winds it way up through the appellate courts, a few judges on an appellate court or the Supreme Court ultimately can and have many times told the majority what is right, even if the majority overwhelmingly disagrees with the decision. For example, in recent years, the courts have told the majority that gay people are to be treated equally with respect to the ability to marry. I think the majority of U.S. citizens now agrees with this; but, it did not start out that way. The courts made it that way; the majority followed. Check the history books; the courts often tell the majority that they are full of **** on very important issues. Dan, stay away from the law; like shark feeding, you have no idea what you are talking about.

There is not a single report of a diver getting bit due to shark feeding in the area. If I'm wrong, identify it. And, in PB County, not a single diver feeding sharks has been bit and not a single diver ever bit since the last spear-fisher got bit. Thus, it appears you have not one shred of evidence to support your position; nothing more than speculation based on ignorance of shark behavior and lack of experience around sharks.

Accordingly, based on your recitation of the history of spear-fishing, you must agree that shark feeding has shown no danger to divers.

In fact, at this point, I'm not even sure what the basis of your argument is other than "I don't like it because I'm not part of it and dive operators that I don't like are getting all the attention and money; and, the dive operator that I like can't attract any sharks in Palm Beach County." I think that basically sums up your argument.

Dan, remember last year when you told me that Randy Jordan should not be the face of shark diving in Palm Beach County, rather, everything should go through Jim Abernethy? You remember that, right? Obviously, you have not gotten your way and you're not happy about it. I think that is the real reason you're upset and spewing a bunch of bull****. You are no part of this and you don't like it.

 

[danvolker]

Dan:

The "laws represent the majority." I'm not sure what that means, but I think I do. And, you're wrong again. Our entire legal system is based on the ability of a single judge to tell the majority that they are full of crap. In turn, as the decision of that single judge winds it way up through the appellate courts, a few judges on an appellate court or the Supreme Court ultimately can and have many times told the majority what is right, even if the majority overwhelmingly disagrees with the decision. For example, in recent years, the courts have told the majority that gay people are to be treated equally with respect to the ability to marry. I think the majority of U.S. citizens now agrees with this; but, it did not start out that way. The courts made it that way; the majority followed. Check the history books; the courts often tell the majority that they are full of **** on very important issues. Dan, stay away from the law; like shark feeding, you have no idea what you are talking about.

There is not a single report of a diver getting bit due to shark feeding in the area. If I'm wrong, identify it. And, in PB County, not a single diver feeding sharks has been bit and not a single diver ever bit since the last spear-fisher got bit. Thus, it appears you have not one shred of evidence to support your position; nothing more than speculation based on ignorance of shark behavior and lack of experience around sharks.

Accordingly, based on your recitation of the history of spear-fishing, you must agree that shark feeding has shown no danger to divers.

In fact, at this point, I'm not even sure what the basis of your argument is other than "I don't like it because I'm not part of it and dive operators that I don't like are getting all the attention and money; and, the dive operator that I like can't attract any sharks in Palm Beach County." I think that basically sums up your argument.

Dan, remember last year when you told me that Randy Jordan should not be the face of shark diving in Palm Beach County, rather, everything should go through Jim Abernethy? You remember that, right? Obviously, you have not gotten your way and you're not happy about it. I think that is the real reason you're upset and spewing a bunch of bull****. You are no part of this and you don't like it.

Doug...you are going off in the directions you want to...not the ones that I posted about. Is this a legal strategy?

I said nothing about any diver being bitten in the past....and how your logic relates the history of spearfishing from the 50's to 2000 to some kind of relationship to feeding, I have no idea.

How many posts have you seen me make about Abernethy and shark diving....maybe a dozen out of 4000 posts ? Hardly a campaign for me. My suggestion to you about Jordan, was about having someone pushing shark dives that was not going to make Palm beach the "Cowboy" capitol...and you know that.

I do see that you want to make this personal, in the way you are aggressively posting.....and I am fine with that--at least in person. If you ask me, all this posturing on the Internet is pretty ridiculous.
What about that meeting you suggested....either with Calypso, or, with just you and me.
Either one........
In-person we lose all the nonsense posturing for the Internet Entertainment effect.
I have to think the SB membership is getting tired of this by now.

 

[Wookie]

In the parking lot after school, or in the town square at high noon.

Maybe in the boys room, right now, dammit!!