Hand Feeding Sharks & Shark Awareness Video

[soundfield]

Check out this film I made using a Sony CX150, Equinox Housing and edited with Power Director9. I think you'll all really enjoy it!

"Men in Grey Suits" Hand Feeding Sharks in St. Maarten with Ocean Explorers. - YouTube

 

[Ghetto Diver]

Nice..

I am still in the "don't feed the bears" camp.

 

[soundfield]

I understand, many divers are and that's why we made the film; we wanted to voice both sides issue.

 

[supergaijin]

Unfortunately the internet is intermittent where I am so I didn't see the last couple of minutes. Was there an argument given that conditioning these sharks doesn't change the way they seek food? For example have there been tests (by the operation involved) on diving the same spot at the same time of day etc. but not bringing food? If not, what other side of 'the issue' was voiced? Nice video though...

I ask this as there has been empirical evidence to suggest that some animals, eg. stingrays, morays, grouper, triggerfish, get quite aggressive when no food is given at traditional feeding spots.

 

[Merlin_AZ]

They handled them like they were puppies.
Pretty incredible.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

The narrative of the film begins with something like this..."Feeding sharks has not resulted in any attacks".

No evidence of that?

How many shark feeders have been bitten and injured? I personally know two of them. One shark feeding operator had one of his customers DIE from the attack during the feed.. maybe 24 months ago in the Bahamas...

I couldn't watch it all... Teaching sharks it is OK to bite the hands of divers is a good thing? Just because the "professionals" are wearing steel mesh suits that protects them from these small sharks does very little to convince me that feeding these predators by hand is a good idea. It is banned in Florida and I support that ban.

 

[soundfield]

Regardless of your position of this controversial dive, here's the narrative: "The reason a trip like this is controversial isthat many authorities argue that hand feeding such a species promotes humantolerance in shark behavior, and may cause these creatures to becomecomfortable around humans that could lead to increased attacks onswimmers. There however has been noevidence that is "consistent" that shark feeding promotes such attacks. Banned inmost parts of the Caribbean, others argue that these activities promote “sharkawareness”, which helps defame the myth that the common shark is a cold bloodedkiller among humans, as well as boost local economical growth to Scuba Divingoperators". DumpsterDiver; you are intitled to your opionon, and I welcome it; but let's be honest about what was said in the film.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

So you say that there is no evidence to prove that shark feeding causes an increase in attacks on swimmers. How would someone go about proving that cause and effect relationship?

You do acknowledge that shark feeding has resulted in attacks on divers, right?

 

[supergaijin]

It would be interesting to do an experiment with swimmers at the same site where they feed the sharks. Any volunteers?

Swimmers or divers, it has been shown that some animals get a bit agro when they're denied food that they expect. Animals get conditioned to accept food but when no food is forthcoming it can get out of hand. When feeding fish was popular in the 90's it started to go out of favour when other divers were getting harassed for food and some were bitten as a result. Even the humble Napolean Wrasse was getting frisky in certain locations- OK if you were expecting it, but not so good if you weren't. A site in the Maldives was popular for feeding rays but that stopped when a girl got the top of her scalp removed by a ray.

Peter Benchly's book Shark Trouble has a section where he dived with his wife and kid. He had just done a shark-feeding session with a filmcrew, then went back down to take his son for a look. They had to beat a hasty retreat when the sharks came looking for the expected food and their cupboards were bare.

Do the same sharks swim some tens of miles away to another location and expect the same treatment? Probably not- like the man say, there is no consistent proof. However divers (and I would imagine swimmers) at the same location where the conditioning takes place are potentially in a real bad situation if the sharks approach them, and they react in the wrong way.

 

[Scuba_Noob]

I've seen numerous cases where a moray eel that has been fed before has later gotten too comfortable and aggressive with divers. In my dive experience, I've had wolf eels wrap around me (not aggressively), expecting to be fed because of previous diver behavior. I think that sharks may show the same type of habituation eventually, and I'm not sure that's a good thing, regardless of how aggressive a shark will become.

I completely support proving that sharks are not the man-eating killers portrayed by movies. But I don't think you need to feed or bait sharks to do that.