DaleC
Contributor
I agree with the above post (except for eating the flounder 
)
As someone who spends time trying to understand fish behavior and habitat I occasionally interact with animal species to see how they respond or what they are doing. The truth is, animals interact with animals all the time and unless actually attacked, no real harm is done.
The above statements have two caveats however:
The first is that this doesn't include intense interactions that can cause stress.
The second is that this does not include repeated exposures.
What I am reading is the result of many divers congregating in a small (generally tropical resort) area to observe, over and over, the same few species. The resident grouper/eel/octo/turtle. Any of these, interacting once in a low stress way with divers, would likely suffer no real harm. On the other hand, that same animal, disturbed repeatedly by daily visits from divers, may develop stress. And of course, those same animals will develop stress if even a single interaction is unduly intense (like Bob's octo wrestling incident).
It's a matter of degree and animals have no such barrier from satiating their curiosity about us. Observe the juvenile buffalo sculpin moving into the scene at 4:10 (upper left screen) of this video. Why move towards such a large, unknown animal like this? Also note two animal responses due to diver interaction - both would have reacted similarly if a Ling Cod had settled near them.:
[video=youtube;qNYXub8QhqI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNYXub8QhqI&list=UU5zvhnU0XYpf_cadpYJYkhQ& index=1[/video]
)As someone who spends time trying to understand fish behavior and habitat I occasionally interact with animal species to see how they respond or what they are doing. The truth is, animals interact with animals all the time and unless actually attacked, no real harm is done.
The above statements have two caveats however:
The first is that this doesn't include intense interactions that can cause stress.
The second is that this does not include repeated exposures.
What I am reading is the result of many divers congregating in a small (generally tropical resort) area to observe, over and over, the same few species. The resident grouper/eel/octo/turtle. Any of these, interacting once in a low stress way with divers, would likely suffer no real harm. On the other hand, that same animal, disturbed repeatedly by daily visits from divers, may develop stress. And of course, those same animals will develop stress if even a single interaction is unduly intense (like Bob's octo wrestling incident).
It's a matter of degree and animals have no such barrier from satiating their curiosity about us. Observe the juvenile buffalo sculpin moving into the scene at 4:10 (upper left screen) of this video. Why move towards such a large, unknown animal like this? Also note two animal responses due to diver interaction - both would have reacted similarly if a Ling Cod had settled near them.:
[video=youtube;qNYXub8QhqI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNYXub8QhqI&list=UU5zvhnU0XYpf_cadpYJYkhQ& index=1[/video]
